If you were programming a season of the best of the worst from Nicolas Cage’s filmography – in other words, his most interesting/outlandish/crazed performances in low-budget films – this kooky thriller would certainly be a good candidate. It features an entertainingly deranged performance from Cage, who sports a helmet of bright-red hair and a maroon smoking jacket that makes him look like a leprechaun turned lounge singer, topped off with a broad Boston accent. Cage’s unnamed character crawls without invitation into the car of David (Joel Kinnaman, an excellent straight foil here), who is already late getting to the hospital where his wife is giving birth. Despite David’s protestations that he’s not a taxi or Uber, he pulls a gun on David and insists he start driving. Who would dare to say no to someone with such bright gleaming teeth?
Given the title, viewers might be forgiven for expecting that Cage will turn out to be old Lucifer himself, come to reap his due. It turns out that he is not who you might think he is, but director Yuval Adler and screenwriter Luke Paradise keep up the mystery to the very end, including what’s up with David. The latter’s story remains intriguingly vague throughout: he insists he’s just a guy stressed out about what’s going on at the hospital, where his wife, heard on the phone only, is going through a second difficult birth, but he has a few nifty moves of his own, suggesting there might be more than meets the eye here.
