A Horror Gospel Like No Other
Magnolia Pictures has dropped the official trailer and poster for Lotfy Nathan’s The Carpenter’s Son, and it’s a fever dream unlike anything else this fall. Nicolas Cage, Noah Jupe, and FKA Twigs headline this unholy vision of the Jesus story—restaged as a horror parable drawn from the apocryphal Infancy Gospel of Thomas. Release is locked for November 14, 2025, and if the trailer is any indication, this isn’t Sunday school cinema.
What we see is strange, raw, terrifying: Joseph (Cage), Mary (Twigs), and their son Jesus (Jupe) moving through Roman-era Egypt as demonic forces twist faith into nightmare. A child who claims to be his friend whispers doubts, visions curdle into violence, and every wide-eyed glance feels like a crack in the world. It’s not just biblical retelling—it’s spiritual warfare, shot with the dread of a desert hallucination.


Lotfy Nathan’s Boldest Swing Yet
If you’ve followed Nathan’s career from 12 O’Clock Boys to Harka, you know he doesn’t color inside the lines. Here, he’s using his Coptic Christian background to interrogate scripture through the lens of horror. There’s no safe reverence—this is faith as fire, belief as bruise.
The poster alone—faces drenched in sweat and blood-red skies—screams mythological fever. The trailer doubles down, staging Jesus not as a sainted icon but as a boy battling something almost Lovecraftian. You can practically feel the sand stinging your eyes, the heat suffocating every frame.
The Cast at War with Heaven and Hell
- Nicolas Cage as Joseph, the Carpenter: bearded, weary, every line in his face a sermon of suffering.
- FKA Twigs as Mary: protective, haunted, luminous even when swallowed by dread.
- Noah Jupe as Jesus: fragile and feral, torn between purity and temptation.
- Isla Johnston as the mysterious child, whose name is finally revealed—Satan.
- Souheila Yacoub also joins the ensemble, deepening the film’s atmosphere of paranoia.
There’s something almost punk in seeing Cage—a living meme and genuine actor’s actor—cast as Joseph, staggering under the weight of parenthood and prophecy.
Trailer Takeaway
Visually, this thing burns. Every frame looks like it was shot at magic hour, but instead of romance you get apocalypse. The imagery—crosses on the hill, bodies in shadow, desert landscapes washed in blood red—belongs more to folk horror than biblical epic.
And yes, it’s unsettling watching Jesus as a teenager drifting toward darkness. But that’s precisely Nathan’s point: strip away the church iconography and you’re left with a boy, a family, and a community in spiritual freefall.
👉 Watch the official trailer here.
Why This Matters
Religious horror isn’t new (The Exorcist remains the benchmark), but The Carpenter’s Son digs deeper into something rawer—our unease with faith stories told too neatly. Here, they’re jagged, violent, human.
It’s also a rare original swing from a distributor like Magnolia Pictures, who clearly believe Nathan’s vision will provoke audiences. And they’re not wrong: if early reactions to the trailer are anything to go by, this one will divide. It might even scandalize. But indifference? Not a chance.
5 Things You Should Know About The Carpenter’s Son
It’s inspired by apocrypha. The film draws on the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, a text long excluded from the New Testament.
Cage plays Joseph. This marks one of Cage’s most unorthodox roles in years—part prophet, part father, part doomed believer.
Mary is played by FKA Twigs. Her ethereal presence adds a surreal edge to the family dynamic.
It’s a horror film, not a reverent retelling. Think exorcism energy meets biblical myth, not Sunday devotion.
Release date is confirmed. Magnolia Pictures brings it to U.S. theaters on November 14, 2025.
Final Thoughts
Loved it. Hated it. Loved it again. That’s my reaction to this trailer—half awe, half unease. Maybe that’s the point. Lotfy Nathan wants to rattle the bones of belief, to make the familiar story unrecognizable. And Nicolas Cage, God bless him, looks like he was born to walk this dusty nightmare.
So—will you step into this desert of doubt? Or is this one parable you’d rather skip?
