Between Worlds: A horror thriller for Moms starring Nicolas Cage

Between Worlds stars Nicolas Cage and Franka Potente (Run, Lola, Run) — directed by Maria Pulera. If you’re a Nic Cage fan, you have to check this film out. You won’t be disappointed.

Between Worlds, a thriller with supernatural elements, recently opened in theaters in LA and New York, written and directed by Marie Pulera, produced by Pulera, Eric Banoun, and David Hillary.

The film is about the pain of loss, death, and the difficulties of new relationships — particularly for those in their 40’s and 50’s, who are ‘trying again’ to find love, and as we all know from rom-coms — you never know when lightning may strike, it might even strike in a trucker bathroom.

Nicolas Cage plays a bereaved trucker, who saves Julie (Franka Potente) from a creepy situation— Julie can cross over to the other side, if she experiences a near death situation such as being choked out to the edge of her life.

Kink! Cage saves her and they form a relationship, troubled by Julie’s paranormal gifts, for she accidentally brings a soul back from Joe’s past, when he rescued her mid-choke.

Penelope Mitchell plays Julie’s daughter, Billie, a bad girl with a mane of blonde hair. She rides motorcycles and smile-sneers at the camera in jean shorts like it’s 2004 again.

Mitchell’s character could’ve been called, “Florida,” because she summed up the entire state with her methy, hose-writhing, black-hearted, party girl. Bad girls gonna be bad!

Between Worlds- Courtesy of Rise Up

And Julie, played by the dearly beloved Franka Potente, is a mother trying to help her daughter heal after an accident. I have a soft spot in my heart for mothers, particularly single mothers, so I felt terrible for poor Julie, who had to experience some truly creepy behavior from her ‘daughter’ and new boyfriend.

Between Worlds – Courtesy of Rise Up

Potente is dressed like a Target Mom most of the time, because she’s a mother who cares more about her daughter’s health than looking hot, but it’s hard for Potente to look bad, even dressed as a frump. It pained me to see her eyes fill with sadness, while darn shady play unfolded around her.

Also: will someone please give Potente a HBO series already! I want to see her play a man-hungry, ex-alcoholic detective who solves sordid crimes, like yesterday.

It’s interesting to me that the problems of divorce and remarriage are often depicted in sitcoms for hollow laughs, but this script takes the issue of divorce and the aftermath of being a step-parent or the awkwardness of: ‘I’m just the dude bangin’ your Mom,’ and uses paranormal elements to highlight the problems that come with merging families.

Between Worlds – Courtesy of Rise Up

Many people can relate to how difficult it is to manage new interfamilial relationships after a divorce or the loss of a parent: what if you hate your Mom’s new boyfriend? What if Dad’s new girlfriend hates you? Or worse, what if your own adult child…flirts with your beau???

But this film…takes it in a direction I never saw coming or wanted to see coming, which marks it as a horror film for real…it’s truly a horror film for mothers. To me, that was the most interesting and disturbing part of the film — imagine your worst nightmare as a mother with a new boyfriend — and watch it come true. Eye-bleach, please!

These are the sort of interesting questions the screenplay suggests and it seems to propose that if you want a decent relationship past a certain age, you’re going to have to deal with baggage; and sometimes you have to fight relationship demons. I don’t know, if I were Julie, I’d run as far away as possible from Joe afterwards, I don’t care if his reasoning is ‘valid’. There are boundaries, sir!

Nicolas Cage has a lot of fun as Joe and overall, the film has a camp feel to it; Cage engages in a sex romp involving poetry and everything he does is singular, that’s his gift. You don’t want to miss the pure hoopla of it, it’s campy, self-aware, and pretty, freakin’ funny. Nicolas Cage as a Jim Morrison trucker — running wild with a gator tooth and rings and tattoos and a trucker hat. What’s not to love?

Between Worlds opens in LA on Dec. 21 and is available also on Amazon Prime and ON DEMAND.

Are you a fan of Nicolas Cage? Do you like thrillers with a tinge of paranormal weirdness? Let us know in the comments!