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The Carpenter's Son
Movie

The Carpenter's Son

2025 • Horror

Woke Score
6
out of 10

Plot

Family hiding in Roman Egypt. Son known as 'the Boy' doubts guardian 'the Carpenter', rebelling with mysterious powers. As he uses abilities, they face natural and divine horrors.

Overall Series Review

The Carpenter's Son is a supernatural horror drama that re-imagines the unrecorded adolescence of Jesus Christ, here called 'the Boy,' through the lens of the apocryphal Infancy Gospel of Thomas. The film portrays the Holy Family—'the Carpenter' (Joseph) and 'the Mother' (Mary)—as a conflicted and emotionally strained unit hiding in Roman Egypt. The narrative is centered on the teenage Boy's rebellion against his devout guardian, as he develops ominous powers and is tempted by a malevolent supernatural force. The core conflict explores the Boy’s struggle to reconcile his human nature with his divine identity, which is depicted as a source of terror and violence, and the burden this places on his human parents. The story directly challenges the orthodox depiction of the Christian savior as a figure of perfect innocence during his youth, framing his coming of age as a dark, psychological horror.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics5/10

The film utilizes ahistorical casting by placing white and mixed-race actors in the roles of Middle Eastern historical figures Joseph and Mary. Nicolas Cage (white) and FKA twigs (mixed-race) play the Judean couple, which constitutes historical 'race-swapping,' but the plot does not include any explicit lectures on modern intersectional theory, privilege, or systemic oppression.

Oikophobia8/10

The film deconstructs the foundational Holy Family unit, the central institution of Western civilization, by portraying the devoted patriarch, the Carpenter, as a 'joyless' and religiously repressive figure. The Boy's development is a reaction against his inherited culture and faith, and the narrative replaces the traditional revered heritage with a dark, psychological story of a flawed, morally compromised youth and his failing family.

Feminism7/10

The Mother is characterized as 'emotionally distant' and 'burdened,' defining the central maternal role by its hardship and emotional removal. The Father figure, the Carpenter, is depicted as an intense, devout authority figure who is ultimately ineffective and failing to guide his son, weakening the masculine, protective role and contrasting traditional masculinity with the Son's unpredictable power.

LGBTQ+1/10

The narrative focus remains strictly on the horror surrounding the traditional male-female pairing of the Holy Family and the relationship with their son. No evidence exists of the film centering alternative sexualities, deconstructing the nuclear family outside of the supernatural conflict, or lecturing on gender ideology.

Anti-Theism9/10

The movie is based on a heretical, non-canonical gospel and re-imagines the teenage Christ figure as a source of frightening, potentially evil power who is 'morally compromised.' The film directly undermines the core Christian doctrine of Christ's sinless perfection and reconfigures the Holy Family's story as a horror tale of spiritual warfare and existential doubt, which is a direct hostility toward the traditional Christian narrative.