Espresso singer Sabrina Carpenter will star in and produce a new musical movie version of Alice in Wonderland.

Details of the Universal Pictures project are thin on the ground, but Wicked producer Marc Platt is on board, after previously steering the smash-hit Wizard of Oz prequel from Broadway to theaters to huge success.

Succession director Lorene Scafaria, who also wrote and helmed Hustlers, Jennifer Lopez's attempt at a big screen crime movie, is attached as well.

Arc Raiders publisher Nexon has defended the game's use of generative AI, suggesting players should "assume that every game company is now using AI."

Arc Raiders, like developer Embark's 2023 shooter, The Finals, declares it uses AI in development, stating on its Steam store page: "During the development process, we may use procedural- and AI-based tools to assist with content creation. In all such cases, the final product reflects the creativity and expression of our own development team."

Embark expanded on this with PCGamesN recently, saying Arc Raiders "in no way uses generative AI whatsoever" and stressed that it instead used "something called machine learning, or reinforcement learning, and that's to do with the locomotion for our larger drones with multiple legs, but there's no generative content whatsoever."

However, in the same interview, design director Virgil Watkins added that with regards to its controversial text-to-speech system, it "hire[d] and contract[ed] voice actors for it — it's part of their contract that we use [AI] for this purpose, and that allows us to do things like our ping system, where it's capable of saying every single item name, every single location name, and compass directions. That's how we can get that without needing to have someone come in every time we create a new item for the game."

Now, in a fresh interview with Game*Spark (as translated by Automaton), Junghun Lee, CEO of Arc Raiders' publisher Nexon, not only championed AI for improving "efficiency in both game production and live service operations," but also stated: "I think it's important to assume that every game company is now using AI."

“First of all, I think it’s important to assume that every game company is now using AI," Lee said. "But if everyone is working with the same or similar technologies, the real question becomes: how do you survive? I believe it’s important to choose a strategy that increases your competitiveness."

It certainly feels as though Lee's comments ring true. EA CEO Andrew Wilson has said AI is "the very core of our business," and Square Enix recently implemented mass layoffs and reorganized, saying it needed to be "aggressive in applying AI." Dead Space creator Glen Schofield also recently detailed his plans to “fix” the industry in part via the use of generative AI in game development, and former God of War dev Meghan Morgan Juinio said: "... if we don’t embrace [AI], I think we’re selling ourselves short.”

Conversely, Nintendo has bucked the trend, with Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto previously stressing that the company would rather go in a “different direction” than the rest of the video game industry when it comes to AI.

That said, its use of AI clearly hasn't held Arc Raiders back. It's now sold over 4 million copies worldwide less than two weeks since its release date, cementing its commercial success. Nexon also revealed that the extraction shooter had reached a huge concurrent count of 700,000 players across all platforms.

"ARC Raiders raises the bar for extraction shooters pretty much across the board, with an incredibly gripping progression grind, tense fights against NPCs and other players that make for memorable matches, and loot that feels completely worth all the work and stress it takes to obtain it," we wrote in IGN's Arc Raiders review, which returned an 'Amazing' 9/10.

"The fact that it manages to also run well and look amazing all the while is just downright impressive, even if a few bugs here and there lead to the rare rage quit. For years I’d been wondering when someone would take the awesome promise of this genre to the next level, and ARC Raiders is without question what I’ve been waiting for."

If this has tempted you into jumping into Arc Raiders, check out our guide to the best settings, find out what skills we recommend unlocking first, and see how to earn loot by delivering field depot crates.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

Marvel composer and director Michael Giacchino has confirmed a sequel to black-and-white Disney+ special Werewolf By Night is coming soon.

Speaking to Deadline, Giacchino said the follow-up was his next project — suggesting that production would begin imminently.

The veteran composer — who has previously worked on half a dozen other Marvel projects, as well as a raft of movies, TV series and video games — made his MCU directing debut with Werewolf by Night, which dropped onto Disney+ as a Halloween-themed TV special back in 2022.

To date, its characters — including the eponymous werewolf Jack Russell, monster hunter Elsa Bloodstone, and swamp creature Man-Thing — have yet to pop up in other Marvel projects, though Werewolf by Night was re-released with an optional color version a year later.

"If you haven't seen it, watch it," Giacchino said of the original. "It's on Disney+ if you still have that," he added, referencing the recent spate of subscriber cancellations during the brief suspension of chat show host Jimmy Kimmel.

The first Werewolf by Night leaves its characters mostly available to appear in future adventures, though Marvel has not said anything officially about where they will return. Indeed, this new confirmation by Giacchino is the first solid news that a sequel will be made — and there's no word yet on who it will star or when it will arrive.

Could production move fast enough that it's ready for Halloween 2026? As a one-off show with fewer visual effects than the usual Marvel project, it seems possible. And Marvel itself has taken a more cautious approach to announcing TV projects in recent years — only recently revealing more of the upcoming Wonder-Man (due to air in January, though filmed back in early 2023).

As part of the same interview, Giacchino said he re-composed the score for this year's The Fantastic Four: First Steps after seeing a later cut of the movie in action, and realising it had changed from what he originally envisioned.

"Musically, when I'm writing, I like to start at the beginning and go through the end," Giacchino said. "I had built this out based on one version of the movie. When I watched that music against the new version of the movie, I was like, 'Oh my God, this is not working for me.'"

Next up for the MCU after Wonder-Man is an action-packed 2026, including Spider-Man: Brand New Day on July 31 and Avengers: Doomsday on December 18. On Disney+, the second season of Daredevil: Born Again begins on March 4, followed by a Punisher TV special, while VisionQuest will arrive at the end of the year.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

FX announced today that the FX, Hulu and Disney+ series Alien: Earth has been renewed for a second season as part of an overall new deal that FX and Disney Entertainment Television have sealed with showrunner Noah Hawley.

Alien: Earth, Season 2 begins filming in London in 2026.

“It has been our great privilege to work with Noah for more than a decade on some of FX’s best and biggest shows, and we are thrilled to extend our partnership well into the future,” said FX Chairman John Landgraf in a statement.

“Noah never stops surprising us with truly original stories— and his unique ability to bring them to vibrant life as a director and producer as well as writer makes him extraordinary. We can’t wait to get to work on the next season of Alien: Earth, as well as some equally exciting future projects in advanced development."

“I’m thrilled that this expanded deal opens the door to new opportunities across all of Disney Entertainment Television,” said Hawley. “FX has always supported bold, character-driven storytelling. From the very beginning with Fargo, they’ve encouraged me to take creative risks and follow the story wherever it leads. I’m grateful to continue exploring the world of Alien: Earth alongside our partners, cast, and crew as we begin the next chapter.”

Back in September, Hawley said, “Obviously, none of us — Disney or myself — want a single day longer than necessary to get a second season on the air, in success. Everyone wants to get this decision right. But we also want to be ready to go. I certainly know where I’m going. The moment they fire the starting gun, I’m out of the block."

IGN’s Clint Gage was a big fan of Alien: Earth, Season 1; be sure to read all of his Alien: Earth reviews here.

For more coverage of Alien: Earth Season 1, find out what actress Sydney Chandler had to say about creating the Xenomorph language and be sure to check out Alien: Earth Season 1 Ending Explained – How It Can All Fit Into the Bigger Alien Movie Universe feature.

FX’s Alien: Earth is created for television and executive produced by Noah Hawley. Ridley Scott, David W. Zucker, Clayton Krueger, Emilia Serrano, Bob DeLaurentis, Peter Calloway, Monica Macer, John Campisi and Simon Emanuel also serve as executive producers. Alien: Earth is produced by FX Productions.

Ahead of Black Friday, Walmart just dropped on a powerful current generation gaming laptop. The Asus ROG Strix G16 RTX 5070 Ti gaming laptop has dropped to $1,849.99 with free shipping after a $500 off instant discount. This is the lowest price I've seen for this exact config by $150. In addition to the excellent graphics card, this laptop features the AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX processor, which is one of the most powerful AMD mobile CPU available right now.

Asus ROG Strix G16 RTX 5070 Ti Gaming Laptop for $1,849.99

Dogma first came out back in 1999, but if you've ever tried to find it on streaming platforms, you've likely uncovered a rather complicated history. The Kevin Smith film was purchased by Harvey and Bob Weinstein a year after its initial release, and until recently, the movie has not been allowed to come to streaming or VOD. In fact, there hasn't been any sort of release for the films since the first Blu-ray came out all the way back in 2008.

Thankfully all of that changed when Iconic Events purchased the theatrical rights for the film back in 2024 and Kevin Smith licensed the home video rights to Lionsgate. Since then Dogma has been having itself a "Resurrection" tour with theater re-releases, and most recently, a 4K Blu-ray home release.

Preorder Dogma in 4K - Out December 9

The mark of a truly stellar multiplayer game is when you and your friends are having as much fun in your 50th hour as you were in your first, and that’s a test ARC Raiders passes with flying colors. This is without question the most hooked I’ve found myself on an extraction shooter (and I’ve played a lot of them), with clean and tense gunplay, an incredibly satisfying progression system, and a loot game that has me sweating over what to put in my backpack and what to leave behind. Even with a few bugs to gunk up the gears, just about every journey topside to scavenge from the wastes and battle devious robotic overlords has been a complete blast, especially when accompanied by friends. After years of promising but uneven attempts, ARC Raiders feels like the first to fully realize this genre’s potential, and has set a new standard for it in the process.

ARC Raiders follows the usual extraction shooter formula of dropping you into a hostile zone to take down NPC enemies and scramble for loot, all while looking over your shoulder for rival crews who would love nothing more than to crack you open like a meat pinata and take everything you’ve collected, and then getting back out before they can. It doesn’t do much to iterate or expand on those fundamentals, but it does absolutely nail them, and that’s harder to do than it might sound – for example, big budget attempts like Battlefield 2042’s Hazard Zone mostly fell flat and the alpha for Bungie’s Marathon landed with such a thud it was delayed indefinitely. Even some of my favorites, like Hunt: Showdown and Escape From Tarkov, have always felt like rough drafts of what these daring high-risk, high-reward multiplayer games could be, so it’s long overdue for us to get a highly competent and very polished version like ARC Raiders.

One of the main ways it succeeds is in its stressful gunplay, where weapons only have a few rounds in each magazine, take a good deal of time to reload, and the robot NPCs you’ll face are either much faster than you or can rain down missiles to take you out in a single blast. This means I’m usually feeling like a rodent sneaking around to scavenge food and supplies from the world before slinking back to base – but when a fight does break out, it’s charged with delightful anxiety thanks to the knowledge that you’re about to either lose everything you’ve fought for or grab some awesome gear off the corpses of those you’ve bested. That’s true against both AI-controlled opponents and human players, though it’s smartest to avoid all of them unless you know you’ve brought the gear and skills required to throw down. That’s because firing a shot has a good chance of drawing all robot enemies and loot-hungry raiders to your position, taking advantage of your vulnerability to do as much damage as possible.

That said, I’ve been genuinely shocked by how nice much of the community has been, as I’ve often run into helpful strangers who are more interested in working together than fighting me. Especially when playing solo, where other solo players are prioritized in your matches, I’ve found it downright commonplace to encounter friendly folks who don’t just shoot me on sight like they do in every other extraction shooter out there, which has been a really nice change of pace from the normally sweaty matches. Granted, I’ve also run into plenty of people who say they’re friendly, only to shoot me in the back of the head as soon as I turn around (and then top it off with a racial slur), but hey, it’s still better than that being the norm. It remains to be seen how long the positive tilt of this community will last, as I’ve watched too many other games get overrun by cheaters and toxicity in short order, but at least in these past two weeks it’s been kinda inspiring to see the better angels of the ARC Raiders community win the day.

And if I do find myself interested in some good ol’ PvP, the non-solo queues tend to be a lot more aggressive, which gives a chance for these high stakes bouts to shine. Dodge-rolling to avoid incoming gunfire and ducking behind cover to heal up before returning fire on an enemy squad is some of the most fun I’ve had in an extraction shooter, especially when you’ve got an arsenal of interesting gadgets, grenades, and leveled up guns you’ve bled for over the course of numerous matches. For example, I did a number on my opponents with my Torrente light machine gun before losing it tragically after falling off a ladder (courtesy of a weird bug), and coming locked and loaded with a handful of Wolfpack grenades that send homing missiles everywhere to take down drones before they can become a threat made me feel like an unstoppable god on the battlefield. It might not have the mechanical crispness of something like Remnant 2 or Gears of War, but it’s leagues above what we’ve seen in a live-service extraction game, and scratches the same kind of itch but in a multiplayer game type where that’s extremely hard to pull off.

Of course, if you’re battling online foes, there are moments where you’ll come up short and lose it all to a rival player. That stings, but at least also allows your beloved weapon to live on in the hands of a worthy successor – plus it just wouldn’t be as fun without that level of risk. The beauty of ARC Raiders, and what makes it far more approachable than most other extraction shooters, is how effortless its easy-come, easy-go loot feels. One way it accomplishes this is by providing pretty substantial free loadouts to use when you’re down on your luck, which are just powerful enough to get you back on your feet after a successful run or two. Plus, it gives you lots of ways to regain better equipment, like crafting and upgrading your own using spare parts you’ve collected, or by just buying some hardware from a vendor using cold hard cash. Even when you’re getting shipped home to your base in pieces, it’s hard to feel like you’ve been set back for very long, since a single good run can reverse your fortunes, and that’s definitely worth the occasional gut punch when you get taken for all you’re worth by some basement-dwelling troll who screeches into their mic after getting the jump on you.

There are still some instances where losing your hard-fought loot just sucks, though, like how you’ll occasionally get matched against an organized crew of three while playing solo. There were also times where I fell victim to unfortunate bugs that resulted in me losing some of my most cherished items. Once my character became stuck in the environment until enemies picked me off, and even after being revived by teammates I was unable to dislodge myself. That time where I fell off a ladder was because I phased through the environment while climbing it, falling to my death and causing me to lose my most prized possession up to that point. These occurrences were extremely rare, and I can count on one hand the amount of times I found myself pissed off at the injustice of it all across the 50 hours I’ve played – but when the stakes are as high as they are, even a tiny amount of this kind of stuff can be downright infuriating. Thankfully, specific bugs aside, one really impressive part of ARC Raiders is just how well it runs overall. In addition to being the prettiest extraction shooter to-date, it also maintained a rock-solid 60 FPS when I played on Xbox Series X, and pushed well beyond that on my high-end PC.

The main reason its hyper-competitive dynamic manages to never sting for long is its incredibly well-designed progression system, which brilliantly makes every match an opportunity for forward momentum, even when you’ve just lost all your best loot. ARC Raiders accomplishes this by giving you a whole bunch of treadmills to run on at the same time, whether it’s the quest system that unlocks bits of story and introduces you to various mechanics by giving you a checklist of stunts to pull off, character XP you gain just by playing matches that grants skill points to dump into skill trees, crafting stations that can be upgraded with the right materials brought back from expeditions, weekly trials that grant all sorts of powerful rewards upon completion, and the Expedition Project that lets you prestige and reset your character in exchange for vanity rewards. There’s so many different ways to make satisfying progress that even being robbed of my favorite weapon wasn’t the end of the world, which goes a long way toward making ARC Raiders more approachable than its peers, in which the rich tend to get richer and the poor almost always get poorer.

That said, not all the pieces of the progression puzzle are created equal. While completing quests and taking part in weekly trials does an awesome job of giving you specific tasks during matches with worthy rewards to match, the skill tree is less exciting, as it's weirdly littered with a bunch of filler perks that do little to power you up. Many of them offer unexciting bonuses like making your stamina return slightly faster while crouching – a node I fully leveled up and could still barely tell the difference it made. Meanwhile, others are pretty significant game changers, like one perk that let me craft consumable items while out in the field. The pacing between these two tiers of skills isn’t very well tuned unfortunately, and it felt like I was waiting to buy an ability I was actually excited about every 10 levels or so, which takes quite a bit of grinding to get through.

The story told through those quests doesn’t impress either, not that it’s really what you are here for in the first place. The worldbuilding actually has a lot of promise, as I’m still genuinely curious about the post-apocalyptic surface world that’s been ravaged by environmental disasters and the mysterious origin and motives of the robots that now control it. But there’s almost nothing to flesh it out beyond a few dialogue snippets while chatting with vendors and some small drips of lore about the mechanical minions you’re fighting. I hope they'll dig into that stuff more in the future, because it’s a neat foundation in theory, but it's pretty clear developer Embark Studios didn't care much about the story at all – that’s perhaps best exemplified by the fact that many of the voices are done by AI, which is extremely apparent in their flat and unremarkable deliveries and makes listening to vendors talk about whatever mission they're sending you on basically a waste of time.

One place that worldbuilding does get to shine through a little bit is across the four maps that are currently available, all of which are very cool and have distinct vibes to them – from the ruined husk of a waterlogged dam to a city buried in red sand. It’s a good thing that they’re so great to look at, too, because you’ll spend a whole lot of time trekking back and forth through them in search of loot. With only a handful of areas to explore, it wasn’t terribly long before I felt like I’d seen the vast majority of the zones, but there’s also tons of hidden nooks and crannies and secret areas that can only be accessed with the proper know-how or a rare keycard drop, which did a great job at keeping me interested in retracing my steps through each area.

Another thing that makes exploring each zone really rewarding is learning how to best the various NPC opponents you find along the way. What start out as tiny drones that can be fairly easily brought down quickly turn into swarms of dangerous hovering robots and their more intimidating siblings that can only be destroyed with the aid of some serious firepower. Some of the interactions between these robotic foes are pretty impressive, like how hovering little surveillance cameras called Snitches will mark you for execution for all their friends, who then fly in to attack you or, worse yet, rain in ballistic missiles from a distance that turn the area around you into a blast zone. The way the enemy is able to work together to overwhelm you with superior numbers and instantaneous coordination makes getting caught out in the open an incredibly scary situation that I lost many a loot haul to. There’s also a nice mix of your basic roly poly enemies that shoot fire or explode (but die when they’re so much as sneezed at) and massive, scary robots like the marauding Queen enemy that can only be dealt with by a fully-loaded group of raiders.

That said, these automatons aren’t the most critical of thinkers and often lose track of you the second you duck behind a tree or turn a corner. They also seem to have trouble navigating some of the environments, and you can sometimes see them look like they’re confused, wandering off or getting stuck on the corner of a building before giving up the chase. Another nitpick I have with fighting the NPC enemies is just how long it takes before you stand a chance against any of them aside from the weakest drones. I probably played for over 20 hours before I felt properly geared to take down one of the spiderlike Leapers or deadly Rocketeers, instead spending much of that time hiding like a rat in the shadows and largely avoiding drawing any attention. I would have liked for a faster climb towards being able to confront some of these baddies, because for a stretch there it felt like I’d never be able to, and tip-toeing around for tens of hours can get old after a while.

Sony has announced a Japanese-language only PlayStation 5 Digital Edition just for Japan.

Revealed during its State of Play Japan broadcast, the cheaper 825GB PS5 Digital Edition costs 55,000 yen (approx. $350) and comes out on November 21, 2025.

Elden Ring: Nightreign is getting its first meaty, proper, named DLC next month, including new bosses, new shifting earth, and new playable Nightfarers. The DLC is called The Forsaken Hollows, and it's out on December 4, 2025.

This comes from a trailer shown during today's State of Play, which showed off a lot of clips from what's to come, albeit without a lot of context. There's a clip showing what seems to be a new Shifting Earth known as The Great Hollow, which opens up a huge hole in the middle of Limveld with temples, towers, and crystals sticking out. We see two new Nightfarers: the first is the Undertaker, which uses strength and faith as her primary stats, and the Scholar, which seems to be an arcane-focused magic-user.

There are also two new bosses that should be familiar to FromSoft veterans. Most notable is a glimpse of Artorias, subject of the original Dark Souls DLC Artorias of the Abyss.

A voiceover that sounds a lot like Duchess also refers to "the aftermath of the Long Night," perhaps implying that this DLC takes place after the "end" of Nightreign when the Nightfarers have defeated all the Nightlords. There's also something at the beginning about the "Dreglord". As usual, Souls fans will probably have to wait for the post-release lore videos to make sense of this one. It's unclear how much story content this is really going to add, or if it's just the bosses, the characters, and the shifting earth.

Elden Ring: Nightreign is Bandai Namco's multiplayer riff on Elden Ring, where 1-3 players can fight their way through three nights of exploration, loot hunting, and bosses as they try to take down powerful Night Lords. The game launched back in May, and we gave it a 7/10, saying "When Elden Ring Nightreign is played exactly as it was designed to be played, it’s one of the finest examples of a three-player co-op game around – but that's harder to do than it should be, and playing solo is poorly balanced."

Since its release, FromSoftware has made a number of balance tweaks, added a duos mode, and updated with an ultra-hard difficulty mode called Deep of Night for those who for some reason didn't think the game was hard enough as-is. However, the last few months have been quiet, and fans have grown agitated at the lack of news or updates, with FromSoftware leaving them to just fight the same bosses over and over. FromSoftware moved to reassure everyone just yesterday in a financial report, and today's DLC announcement should help matters as well. It looks like the DLC will cost $15.00 if you don't already own either the Collectors or Deluxe edition of the game.

You can catch up on everything announced at today's State of Play right here.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

Sony has announced a 27-inch PlayStation-branded gaming monitor for launch in the U.S. and Japan.

Revealed during tonight's State of Play Japan broadcast, footage of the screen in action boasted that it would offer "vivid visuals at QHD with high refresh rates and VRR support." Pricing is yet to be confirmed.

"Today, we're also announcing a gaming monitor which will launch in Japan and the US," Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Hideaki Nishino said, "featuring vivid visuals and a built-in charging hook for your DualSense wireless controller."

While the screen itself supports 240 Hz and can also be hooked up to a PC, accompanying text confirmed it "supports a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz when conntected to a PS5 console," though caveated that "design and specifications are subject to change."

In a post on PlayStation Blog, Shuzo Kikuchi, VP of Product Management at Sony Interactive Entertainment, said the new PlayStation monitor was "built for desktop gaming with a PS5." Kikuchi also outlined the features of the monitor.

PlayStation 27” Gaming Monitor features:

• A Quad High Definition (QHD) IPS display up to 2560 x 1440 resolution, so players can game at a comfortable viewing distance from their desk.
• High Dynamic Range support with Auto HDR Tone Mapping that automatically adjusts HDR settings during setup on PS5 and PS5 Pro consoles, ensuring rich and vivid picture quality.
• VRR support and refresh rates of up to 120 Hz for smooth and seamless gameplay on PS5 and PS5 Pro consoles, and 240 Hz on compatible PC and Mac devices.
• A built-in Charging Hook for a DualSense or DualSense Edge wireless controller (sold separately) that makes it easy for players to get right into gaming.

Kikuchi said the new PlayStation gaming monitor supports VESA mounting and also has a full suite of audio and connectivity options, including USB ports for your PlayStation Link adapter:

• Two HDMI IN port (ver 2.1) and one DisplayPort IN port (ver 1.4) for compatibility with PS5, PC, Mac, or other devices
  • HDMI IN port (ver 2.1) supports up to 2560×1440, 240Hz, FRL, VRR; DisplayPort IN port (ver 1.4) supports up to 2560×1440, 240Hz, DSC
• Two USB Type-A and one USB Type-C port that can be used with PlayStation Link Adapters or other devices
• Built-in stereo speaker and 3.5mm audio output
• Compatibility with select VESA mounting systems for a more flexible display setup

PlayStation’s 27” Gaming Monitor with DualSense Charging Hook will launch in 2026 in the U.S. and in Japan, Sony said, with more information on a release date coming soon. There's no word yet on price.

As part of the same broadcast, Sony also confirmed it would launch a Japan-only version of the PS5 Digital Edition with a more competitive price point. The move follows Nintendo's launch of a Japan-only region-locked Switch 2 model, also at a cheaper price.

Of course, this new monitor is only the latest in a long line of PlayStation-branded hardware accessories that Sony has launched over the years. Indeed, the company announced a set of wireless gaming speakers for your PS5 and PC back in September, that can also connect to a PlayStation Portal or your smartphone.

For the rest of the news announced during tonight's livestream, head over to our recap of everything announced during Sony's State of Play Japan November 2025.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

The Carpenter’s Son will be released in theaters on November 14.

The Carpenter’s Son is a religious drama knocking on the door of effective psychological horror. Written and directed by Lotfy Nathan, the period piece is loosely based on the non-canonical Infancy Gospel of Thomas (written, as the opening crawl denotes, to retroactively fill in the gaps of Jesus’s life years after his death) and seeks to re-center the oft-ignored Joseph (the legal father of Jesus Christ) in religious myth. The result is a fascinating film of committed performances and violent imagery that hits in occasionally challenging ways, if you can ignore its conservative ideas surrounding modern gender norms.

The characters remain unnamed for the most part. Nicolas Cage plays the eponymous Carpenter, a man plagued by religious visions that take the form of harsh spotlights streaming into darkened spaces, while trip-hop artist FKA Twigs plays his emotionally distant wife, the burdened Mother, and Noah Jupe plays the Boy, a fifteen-year-old whose true nature and significance have been thus far hidden from him. These are, even to the most untrained eye, obvious stand-ins for Joseph, Mary, and a teenage Christ. However, the film doesn’t avoid naming them just to play coy; rather, it understands the power of names and monikers, and reserves these explicit mentions until specific moments of dramatic significance.

In the meantime, the Carpenter takes his family between small villages in the sprawling Roman Empire, ensuring that the Boy remains hidden while the Carpenter and the Mother can successfully teach him the ways of the Torah (courtesy of local Rabbis who take the teenager under their wings). Beyond that, the Carpenter’s plan remains a mystery even to himself, but he prays desperately and passionately, his hands outstretched and fingers crinkled, as though he were trying to pull divine answers from the ether. Cage delivers a deeply heartfelt performance, as a father completely lost when it comes to raising his son, modulating his signature outbursts for a story of tremendous significance. Both he and the Boy are plagued with visions of the future, and the emotional effect this has on them is one of the movie’s central elements amidst its soundscape of harsh whispers and the frequent serpent imagery that injects eeriness into every other scene.

As the family, believing themselves to be persecuted, stops by their umpteenth village, the Carpenter takes a job sculpting pagan temple idols. Before long, a mysterious, androgynous child dubbed “the Stranger” (Isla Johnston) begins tempting the Boy in unusual ways. That this character appears shortly after the Carpenter teaches him about Satan is a crystal-clear tell, but the Stranger exhibits more shades of gray than one might expect. In fact, although she starts out impish, she eventually urges the Boy to use his abilities to heal people, exposing himself to the world in the process.

The drama therein allows Jupe to play a fascinating version of the young Christ: He’s angsty and sharp-tongued, albeit slightly less so than in the actual Infancy Gospel. When challenged to introspect about his true nature, the character begins to slowly unravel the more he understands his purpose – a doctrine he learns not through divine intervention, but by observing suffering up close. The Carpenter’s Son is filled with images of sickness and state torture, ideas that would eventually become key to biblical stories, but presented here at their most disturbing. If Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ was about feeling Jesus’ physical suffering, then The Carpenter’s Son is geared more towards understanding the tremendous emotional burden placed upon him.

If the film has a major weak point, it’s Twigs’ glassy-eyed Mother, who can’t help but feel like a distracting fixture of the backdrop. Although the actress bursts to life when her character is finally granted an impassioned monologue or two, she tends to sap the energy out of a scene. Thankfully, she isn’t nearly as major a part of the story as Joseph, the Boy, or even the Stranger, the latter of whom becomes a surprising emotional centerpiece thanks to Johnston’s troubled performance as a character not only labelled “evil,” but one who questions the very religious binaries that would lead to her being canonized in this way.

Unfortunately, the various forms the Stranger takes – her two human avatars in particular – seem ill-thought out at best, given how they both center on the character’s androgyny. Intentionally or otherwise, ambiguous clothing and hair, and even breast-binding, become symbols of horror and evil, speaking to the conservative trans panic that has taken hold among American evangelicalism this past decade. In a film about subverting religious norms to come to a greater understanding of scripture and allegory, this distinctly backward framing is hard to ignore.

That said, The Carpenter’s Son remains an effective piece of genre cinema, one whose primary aesthetic is less a midnight movie and more a straightforward historical drama despite its ethereal happenings. Any time that Jupe becomes the frame’s focus, cinematographer Simon Beaufils’ camera takes on an intimate, almost introspective quality buoyed by a naturalistic palette and soft focus. However, there are plenty of jolting delights to be found in the film’s occasional body horror, Cage’s emotional shimmies toward unhinged furor, and even some expressionistic flourishes that turn the environment blood-red and oppressive when the story nears its climax. It may not be likely to change one’s entire outlook on faith, but when it comes to introducing tactile new dimensions that might lead to a closer analysis of the stories one holds dear, it’s a damn fine bit of filmmaking.