Introduction
The Carpenter’s Son is, simply put, a bad movie. I don’t think it has a single redeeming quality—and as a Christian, I found it genuinely offensive. Loosely based on The Infancy Gospel of Thomas, a brief non-canonical text about Jesus’s childhood, the film stretches a few pages of ancient writing into a full-length feature with nothing meaningful to say.
The original text itself is short, vague, and never recognized as scripture; it was excluded from the biblical canon that was ratified in 382 A.D. at the Council of Rome. That should have been a hint that this story might not carry a full film on its back.
Synopsis
Directed by Lofty Nathan and produced by Nicolas Cage, who also stars, the film follows an unnamed carpenter (Cage), his son (Noah Jupe, referred to as “the boy”), and the boy’s mother (FKA Twigs, “the mother”) as they hide from Roman soldiers. The carpenter is exhausted, desperate, and spiritually broken—struggling to protect his family while questioning his faith.
Analysis
Cage, normally a master of manic energy, plays him as perpetually enraged. Normally, that would be fun to watch. Here, it feels out of place. This role needed quiet conviction, not the trademark “Cage Rage.” Noah Jupe, who’s clearly older than the child he’s meant to portray, spends most of his screen time wide-eyed and trembling. Satan (pronounced bizarrely as “SA-tan”) is supposedly testing him, but we never understand what that means or why it matters. The performance feels adrift, without emotional direction.
Meanwhile, FKA Twigs’s mother character is barely present: timid, detached, and underwritten to the point of vanishing. Whether that’s on the actor or the script, it’s hard to tell, but there’s simply nothing there for her to play.
Nathan and Cage seem convinced they’re crafting a horror retelling of young Jesus’s life. A kind of “biblical possession” movie. That idea on its own might sound provocative, but the execution is crude. I’m not automatically against biblical reinterpretations (The Last Temptation of Christ and The Passion of the Christ prove they can be powerful when done with vision). However, this one doesn’t approach the material with reverence or even curiosity. It treats sacred figures like disposable horror archetypes.
The result feels closer to the recent wave of “public domain horror” films—Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, The Mean One, The Mouse Trap—except those characters are pop-culture icons, not objects of worship. Turning Jesus, Mary, and Joseph into the setup for a supernatural thriller isn’t edgy; it’s tasteless.
Further Discussion
Now, I can appreciate tasteless movies when they’re entertaining. I love a good B-movie train wreck when it leans into the chaos. But The Carpenter’s Son is neither fun nor self-aware; it’s just dull. The tone is confused, the pacing sluggish, and the symbolism muddled. The filmmakers might believe they’re creating something profound about faith and temptation, but it lands as shallow shock value dressed in religious imagery.
There is one redeeming feature: the Greek locations are gorgeous. The rocky landscapes and golden light give the film a striking, earthy realism that the story itself utterly lacks. But even those visuals can’t save it from the bad writing, inconsistent acting, and laughably poor effects (there’s a CGI snake that deserves its own punchline). The cinematography often drifts into music-video territory, with slow-motion shots and overwrought lighting that suggest style for style’s sake.
Conclusion
Releasing The Carpenter’s Son right before Christmas feels like an ironic joke. It’s poorly conceived, poorly executed, and deeply misguided in tone. Watch it only if you’re curious about cinematic disasters or if you enjoy watching Nicolas Cage glower for ninety minutes. Otherwise, this one’s best left on the cutting-room floor.
