If you are going to make a movie that will appeal to the cult fans and is as mad as a box of frogs, then there is only one man you can turn to: Nicolas Cage. The Surfer falls into both those elements, a tale of the destruction of a man filmed in a way that standard film goers may struggle with, while having the lead character dragged through hell and back, going from insane and beyond, then Cage has to be involved in some way or another. Is it a good film? I guess, but then again, it’s hard to say.

A man returns to his childhood home to take his teenage son surfing. He becomes humiliated by the locals who refuse him access to the waters. The man, who has dreamed of buying his old family house, returns to the beach to wait for the call that will change his life, but is facing the locals, who want to destroy him.

Lorcan Finnegan’s film is set mainly in a car park at the beach on the eve of Christmas. The Australian director has decided to use the area as you would the outback, and turned the whole movie into a study of one man’s survival of the elements and the natives. The man starts out as all-powerful, with wealth, but is in a constant battle with bankers and a real estate agent who has his family home on the verge of being sold to someone else. It parallels his struggle with the locals, a group of men who stop anyone who isn’t a local from surfing in their waters.

The film follows the slow demise of the man we first meet at the beginning as these locals rip away everything he holds dear, from his surfboards to his personal belongings and even his car. He cannot get fresh water because the fountain is covered in dog mess, and we see him slowly becoming more dehydrated to the point of madness.

What Finnegan does exceptionally well is make the whole thing incredibly visceral. We get camera angles of the characters so close that they make you feel highly uncomfortable. The soundscape and score, from François Tétaz, is ear-piercingly good, capturing the tone and mood of each scene. The cinematography is unnerving and visually stunning, with the colours standing out. By the final act, we get the feeling we’ve fallen back to the 60s in a hallucinogenic manner, making it sometimes hard to look at. One moment is definitely not for those who suffer from motion sickness.

At the tale’s heart is this man who only wants two things in his life: to return to his old home and surf, but is having a hard time getting both. This is also one of Finnegan’s skills. He builds up the tension, which brings on anxiety. How far will this man go, and how far will the locals push him?

However, it’s far from perfect, and two standout moments question the whole process. Firstly, the man had no reason to stay in the car park. If he hadn’t driven away, none of this would have happened. Secondly, and this is the real clincher: the man says he was brought up on this idyllic beach until he left for California when his father died when he was 15, yet he doesn’t have an inch of an Australian accent, but 100% American.

With this slight imbalance of the good and the bad, we have Nicolas Cage, a man who can take any script and turn it into a masterpiece or a total disaster. Thankfully, this isn’t full-on Cage madness, but it gets close. There are moments, you think you are watching the dire remake of The Wicker Man, down to a point when, in a desperate act, he kills a rat and tries to force feed it to a local, screaming “You eat the rat!”, but thankfully it’s not bees! No matter how far he takes the character, you cannot take your eyes off him, wondering what he will do next. This is a more controlled Cage with flashes of craziness.

The Surfer will probably be enjoyed by those who like their cinema more of a challenge than just entertainment. Not saying that this isn’t entertaining, but it does push the boundaries. It will be a cult favourite for years to come, and that is, I guess, where it will find its audience.

3 out of 5

Director: Lorcan Finnegan

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Finn Little, Julian McMahon, Rahel Romahn, Alexander Bertrand, Greg McNeill, Michael Abercromby, Miranda Tapsell

Written by: Thomas Martin

Running Time: 100 mins

Cert: 15

Release date: 9th May 2025