The Carpenter's Son

The Carpenter's Son is the kind of film that is divisive from the outset. Its very premise-revisiting the childhood of Jesus Christ through a dark and terrifying lens-is enough to arouse curiosity in some and resistance in others. Directed and written by Lotfy Nathan, the feature film is based on the Gospel of Thomas, an apocryphal text from the second century that presents little-known episodes from the early years of Christ's life. The result is a drama with hints of horror, shrouded in faith, fear, and guilt, which attempts to balance the sacred and the profane, but does not always strike the right tone.

Ultimately, The Carpenter's Son is an ambitious but uneven film. It is courageous for revisiting a figure as emblematic as Jesus from a horror perspective, something few filmmakers would dare to do. At the same time, it is a feature film that seems to retreat whenever it is about to go further. The duality between faith and fear is present, but it is never explored with all the force it could have.

There is much of value here: Noah Jupe's inspired performance, the engaging visuals, and Lotfy Nathan's effort to treat a sensitive subject with respect and inventiveness. But there is also an imbalance that prevents the film from reaching its full potential. The Carpenter's Son is a valid attempt to unite the sacred with the dark, an interesting experiment that, although it doesn't hold up until the end, leaves the impression that Nathan is a name to be followed in future projects.

Ultimately, the film is about fear, faith, and paternal love. It speaks to the weight of a destiny no one asked for and the silence that accompanies the divine. Shadows in the Desert is neither the religious film nor the horror film one might expect; it is something in between, a strange and imperfect hybrid, but one that deserves to be seen for its boldness in attempting something new with such an ancient story.

Without ever having heard about this 2025 horror movie titled "The Carpenter's Son", I still opted to watch it as I had the opportunity to do so. Now, I have to admit that I wasn't exactly harboring the biggest of expectations as it was a Nicholas Cage movie, and one with a Christian-themed storyline as well. But since it was a movie that I hadn't already seen, of course I opted to give it a fair chance.

The narrative in the movie was brutally slow paced and dull. And that made sitting through 94 minutes of this movie quite a struggle. I can't claim to say that writer and director Lotfy Nathan put together a particularly entertaining or enjoyable script or storyline here. The movie's pacing actually bordered on being torture.

Of the entire cast ensemble, I was only familiar with Nicolas Cage and the actress with the ridiculous name FKA Twigs. Despite the fact that the script wasn't particularly thrilling or enjoyable, the acting performances in the movie were fair.

Definitely not a movie that I would recommend horror fans to literally waste 94 minutes on watching. Nor is it a movie that will ever find a second playtime on my screen.

My rating of writer and director Lotfy Nathan's 2025 movie "The Carpenter's Son" lands on a rather generous three out of ten stars.

This movie supposedly draws upon some of the gnostic and apocryphal gospels (many of which were fraudulent texts written in the second millennium AD) as inspiration. Knowing some of those texts, I had a hard time placing which books it specifically drew its inspiration from because it didn't really adhere to any of their themes or anecdotes, as far as I'm aware. It was rather boring and felt like it lacked a clear direction. Maybe I'm stupid (I'd like to think I'm not), but the film felt disjointed and confused on which story it wanted to tell. It was not a clever, alternative narrative on the nature of good and evil and/or the hidden history of Christianity, as had been presented to me. Some decent acting performances are the only reason I didn't give it a 1.

Nicolas Cage plays the father to a Christ-like boy (Noah Jupe). Nicolas Cage has built up a certain non-serious reputation recently. He is definitely being serious here. This is a serious religious movie about a young Jesus although I don't think that the main characters get named. I know that the Bible doesn't have any stories about the pre-adult and post-baby Jesus. It doesn't mean that one can write whatever one wants. There are still parameters. I'm also sure that some of the most devoted would see any depiction as blasphemy. While this film may be serious, it does not excuse some of the issues of story telling. Maybe this would be better as a film about Joseph.

Basing a Jesus movie on an apocryphal gospel story is a refreshing approach. But when the film ended I felt the entirety was too compressed, too little ground covered.

Is this a horror movie? Not really -- the Mel Gibson film was far more horrific and fantastical. (Who knows where his sequel will go.) The plot veers enough to upset evangelicals but doesn't develop sufficiently for strong drama.

Near impossible to make a Jesus movie with across the board appeal. Believers are a niche audience and only want doctrine. Secular viewers want something new and compelling. Oil and water.

Maybe some adventurous producer will tackle the Jesus in India story. More to work with than the infancy tales.