Depending on who you ask, Nicolas Cage is either an utter lunatic or one of Hollywood’s most underrated actors. For the record, we fall into the latter camp, even considering some of his less beloved movies to possess a certain Cage-esque charm. Regardless, the actor has made some pretty bad films over the years, and the worst Nicolas Cage movies seem to share one weird thematic trait.
Over his long and generally impressive career, Cage has taken on just about every genre there is. His unique style and approach to acting makes him undeniably magnetic, even in his worst films. It also earns him overwhelming praise on occasion: Cage has won both an Oscar and a Golden Globe, and has been nominated for various awards across his career.
Though Cage has appeared in a number of distinctly forgettable films, some stand out as particularly bad. Among these, though, there appears to be a bizarre thematic trend that pops up with alarming regularity. It seems that the majority of the worst movies Nicolas Cage has made deal with themes of religion or spirituality in some form.
All Of The Worst Nicolas Cage Movies Deal With Some Form Of Religious Theology
Films like Left Behind and The Wicker Man are consistently named as some of the actor’s worst movies. The former concerns the onset of the literal Biblical Rapture (yes, really), where the latter follows Cage as he attempts to uncover a shadowy plot from a group of pagan zealots. Even Knowing, which is somewhat less derided (but still pretty poor) takes its sci-fi premise and makes it a weird Adam and Eve story.
The trend doesn’t end there, though. Drive Angry follows a man who steals Satan’s gun and escapes from Hell. Outcast stars Cage as a soldier during the Crusades who clashes with his commander over God’s will. Cage also starred as a Crusader in Season of the Witch. Army of One follows a man who believes he’s on a mission from God to kill Osama bin Laden. Even Ghost Rider and its sequel Spirit of Vengeance see Cage make a deal with the Devil. Convinced yet?
Each of these films typically rank among the worst movies Nicolas Cage has ever made, and each concern a God of some sort (or at least his evil nemesis). Maybe there’s something in Cage’s acting style that clashes with the idea of a higher power, or maybe it’s just a spooky coincidence. Maybe religious themes and ideas don’t tend to translate well to film. Either way, we hope Cage sticks to vampires, werewolves, and violent revenge horror from now on – they all seem to suit him much better.