It’s Nic Cage vs. gang of deranged beach rats in the psychologically tormenting ‘The Surfer’

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Surf’s up!

Synopsis

The Surfer (Nicolas Cage) is a recently divorced man who is increasingly growing distant from his son (Finn Little). Desperate to reclaim the feelings of his youth, The Surfer returns to his homeland of Australia to buy some property on the beach he used to surf. The moment he arrives, he’s met with hostility from the cult-like local surfers, all led by Scally (Julian McMahon). The Surfer refuses to leave, kicking off a nightmarish chain reaction of harassment and abuse that slowly pushes him to his breaking point.

My thoughts

I’m not sure if any actor has ever been compared to a coin before, but if I were to pick one, it would be Nic Cage. He’s the ultimate “coin actor”, flipping around from movie to movie, with the audience never knowing if he’ll land on heads (an amazing performance) or tails (one of the worst performances you’ve ever seen). One constant remains, though: Nic Cage is always Nic Cage.

I’m firmly in the camp that Nic Cage is a phenomenal actor with unique personality quirks that get in the way of him ever coming off as “natural”. He’s not the type of actor who can just play anybody, with his best movies usually built around his odd acting style, really making the most of his talents. For example, if you have a zany and weird movie and need an actor who fits that bill, Nic Cage is pretty much the first person anybody will think of.

Caught in the current

The Surfer is a trippy, psychological thriller that’s all about the vibes and, man, whatever vibes director Lorcan Finnegan and screenwriter Thomas Martin were putting down, I was totally picking up. From the opening scene to (just about) the very end, I was completely captivated by this. The first shot of the beautiful rolling waves with composer François Tétaz‘s ethereal score perfectly establishes the movie’s dreamlike nature.

Some may describe The Surfer as more of a thriller than a horror film, but it’s 100% psychological horror to me. It may start off like a dream, but it gradually descends into a nightmare for Nic Cage. This movie was crawling under my skin something fierce as the deranged surfers escalated their psychological abuse toward him. There are literally only two settings here: the beach and the parking lot right next to it, which seem like vast, open spaces, but they really couldn’t be more isolating.

When I think of atmosphere in a horror film, I think of something that genuinely makes me uncomfortable, to the point of feeling sick to my stomach. The Surfer definitely made me feel both uncomfortable and disturbed to that degree, but it has an atmosphere unlike any other horror film I’ve seen. Taking place around Christmas in Australia, the film feels appropriately hot, muggy, and sweaty.

It even got the point of slightly affecting me psychologically myself, as whenever Nic Cage finally gets to drink some water, I found myself reaching for mine in the cupholder to get a gulp. That’s how immersive this was. Lonergan and the crew wanted you to really feel the heat beating down, with cinematographer Radek Ladczuk capturing numerous close-ups of the sun taking up the entire frame. Some of the digital heatwave effects looked a tad hokey, however.

It’s not just close-ups of the sun but extreme close-ups of various insects, arachnids, and wildlife that inhabit Australian beaches that really set the mood. The actors all get the extreme close-up treatment, too, with a shallow focus so we can fully lock in on their animated performances. The nighttime scenes had their own specific look, with a gloomy green light bathing the empty parking lot.

Pushing yourself to the edge

The best dreams (or I guess the worst nightmares?) always have us questioning: what does it all mean? Whenever we’re dreaming of something traumatic, there’s normally some context behind it. So, while The Surfer may be a psychological nightmare, there is actual meaning behind it all. It’s not hard to grasp either, being pretty on the nose, but the ideas it delves into are well worth examining.

Martin actually crams in quite a bit of thematic material in the story, much of it is exploring various forms of oppressive social constructs and behaviors people willingly put up with. Scally and his clan of violent surfers are total lunatics who violently accost anybody who shows up on their beach, having enough power where they have control over the locals and even law enforcement.

At the same time, they keep their real feelings and trauma buried deep inside, which is pretty much why any of these men fall under Scally’s spell in the first place. They have trauma, resent that and themselves, then try to reclaim their glory days, allowing themselves to endure all sorts of abuse and further trauma to have a sense of belonging. This all extends to Nic Cage’s character, who takes his son to the beach to surf, but really only cares about surfing to give his life some sort of meaning.

If The Surfer had ended about ten minutes earlier, it pretty much would have been a perfect experience for me. After where I think the film should have ended, it just kind of drags on, so the main point of the movie can be belabored over and over. Everything is all thematically wrapped up in a nice little bow, but I would have preferred a darker, more open-ended resolution. I’ll still give credit to Martin for telling a thematic, character-driven horror story, and everything is so good before this point that it still sticks the landing, just with a slight wobble.

The cult of Cage

This is a Nic Cage performance that landed on heads, for sure. It’s easily some of his best work and a shining example of why he’s become such a one-of-a-kind actor. You get some occasional moments of his glorious scenery chewing, but this is a legitimately emotionally affecting performance for the most part. There’s one moment in particular when he has a total mental breakdown, where I felt genuine empathy and pity for the man.

It’s also an incredibly physical performance, with Lonergan and Martin really putting him through the ringer. His mind may be getting tortured, but he’s suffering plenty of physical abuse as well. Like his titular character, Nic Cage himself is willing to put up with more and more pain in his performance, all in the name of chasing his passion. Over the movie, we witness a complete deconstruction and transformation of a man, mirroring Nic Cage’s career over the past 15 years.

Before this, the only thing I can recall seeing Julian McMahon in was those goofy Fantastic Four movies from the 2000s, where he played Doctor Doom. He was pretty awful in those, especially since he was portraying one of the most iconic comic book villains of all time, but The Surfer shows that wasn’t his fault at all. McMahon is amazing here as Scally, finding that perfect mixture of charisma and charm, but with a sinister darkness lurking beneath it all.

In fact, everybody in this movie dials up their performances just the right amount to match the surreal nature. The dialogue is strange, with the way the actors say it being even stranger, all with creepy, borderline uncanny valley level facial expressions. They’re bizarre and off-putting as much as they are funny. It’s like an M. Night Shyamalan movie, but everybody acting like alien weirdos actually serves a narrative purpose. By the way, Shyamalan happens to be my “coin director”, so who knows what kind of magic could happen if he and Nic Cage worked together!

Final verdict

The Surfer was totally tubular, dude! It may not be your typical fun day at the beach, but if you’re looking for some grade-A, sun-drenched Ozploitation terror, look no further. It’s the perfect vehicle for Nic Cage to tap into his deeper acting sensibilities, while also being his usual crazy self. It’s just that the movie surrounding him is somehow even crazier. You’ll want to ride these waves, but just watch out for all the bad blood in the water. It attracts sharks.

My rating: 9/10

The Surfer is currently playing in theaters nationwide.

See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it.

Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.

Copyright 2025 KTVK/KPHO. All rights reserved.