LOS ANGELES — In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus asks his followers a rhetorical question: “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” This is asked of Nicolas Cage’s titular character in “The Surfer.”

For a long, sun-addled stretch, Lorcan Finnegan’s beach-set “The Surfer” simmers as a deliciously punishing nightmare, driving Nicolas Cage into his most natural state: a boil. “Don’t live here, don’t surf here,