ANTLERS:
HOLY COW, THIS IS ONE CREEPY CREATURE FEATURE, BUT IS A BIT MESSY ALSO!
By Nico Beland
Movie Review: *** out of 4
SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES
A monster is on the loose in a small Oregon town in Antlers, the new horror film directed by Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart, Out of the Furnace, Black Mass) and produced by Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy 1 and 2, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Shape of Water). Originally scheduled for an April 2020 release and then a February 2021 release, but both times the release was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic until finally landing an October 2021 release just in time for Halloween.
I was hyped to see this movie ever since I saw a trailer for it back in 2019, del Toro, one of my favorite filmmakers producing it being one of the reasons while the other being the ingenious move of never showing the monster in any of the trailers. You got a few glimpses of it here and there, but that’s about it, you had to go see the movie to see what the monster looked like, which 100% sold me.
Now that the movie is finally released after being delayed twice, I can gladly say that Antlers is…good! The screenplay isn’t really anything to write home about as it does rely on a lot of cheap horror movie gimmicks (Jump scares, side characters making dumb decisions, etc.), but there is just enough gorgeous albeit bleak atmosphere that manages to be both pretty and creepy at the same time, suspense, excellent acting from the cast, and a very imaginative-looking monster design to make for a truly effective creature feature.
The film is set in a small town in Oregon and follows a young boy named Lucas (Newcomer, Jeremy T. Thomas) whose father had mysteriously gotten sick (also ravenous) and has been caring for him and his younger brother behind a locked door in their home. This catches the attention of Lucas’ school teacher, Julia (Keri Russell-Mission: Impossible III, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker) and her sheriff brother, Paul (Jesse Plemons-Breaking Bad, Black Mass, Judas and the Black Messiah) who become embroiled by her enigmatic student.
However, as they dig deeper and deeper into learning about Lucas’ past, they end up on a terrifying one-way path to a legendary ancestral creature who was here before them.
The film also stars Graham Greene (Dances with Wolves, Maverick, The Green Mile) as Warren Stokes, Scott Haze (Midnight Special, Only the Brave, Thank You for Your Service) as Frank Weaver, Rory Cochrane (Dazed and Confused, Empire Records, A Scanner Darkly) as Dan Lecroy, and Amy Madigan (Twice in a Lifetime, Field of Dreams, Gone Baby Gone) as Principal Booth.
Overall, Antlers is definitely one of the most interesting horror/thriller films you’ll see all year and plot structure wise, it’s kind of a mess, but the acting, imagination, and terror does make up for most of its flaws. However, what keeps it from being great to me other than the lack of screen-time for the monster (Although, most of the human characters kept my interest despite this), it’s the screenplay and some of the plot holes.
This feels like a much longer movie that was trimmed down in editing to a 99-minute runtime because some plot elements are either left unresolved or abandoned halfway through the film, most notably the teacher’s backstory feels very incomplete despite it being one of the most haunting moments in the entire film, it didn’t feel like there was much of a conclusion to that other than to echo the hard times the Lucas character is going through. Also, the film at times relies on tiresome horror movie clichés such as the inevitable jump scares (One in particular I found very effective and they’re fortunately few and far between), dumb decisions made by idiotic side characters, and the one-dimensional bullies (Though, there’s a very satisfying payoff regarding one of the bullies in this movie!).
For the most part, the main characters are extremely likable and compelling, can’t say the same for the side characters though. While nobody in the film portrays their characters badly, some of the side characters are the typical horror movie trope/plot device, one character goes to the old house where Lucas is keeping his dad and younger brother (Who have practically become monsters) and it was a murder site on top of that…take a wild guess what this character does, if you guess she goes inside the house and upstairs to where the monsters are then you know your horror movie clichés, the rest of the movie was so strong and suddenly they throw this bullshit into it!
Nothing extremely negative, just a few noticeable things as I was watching it, the rest of the film I think is quite solid. The film does a splendid job at keeping you in suspense and anticipation until the monster is revealed, which has a legitimately cool and horrific design, the main characters are interesting, the acting is excellent, and it’s short and sweet without wasting people’s time.
I especially love the atmosphere in this movie which captures a very bleak but at the same time beautiful Oregon town with a lot of gray skies, rain, and clouds. It’s nice to look at while also having a very eerie and mysterious tone as well.
As previously mentioned, the acting from the cast is great particularly from Keri Russell, Jeremy T. Thomas, and Jesse Plemons, Jeremy T. Thomas in his first starring role does an excellent job balancing being innocent and mysterious as at times you’re not certain if what he’s doing is justifiable, he adds a refreshing new spin on the tired creepy kid cliché, Keri Russell as his teacher is this movie’s equivalent of Rebecca Hall from The Night House, she owns every moment and you feel her determination to uncover the truth about Lucas, she’s definitely one of the most likable and relatable horror movie protagonists and her character even has a tragic backstory that mirrors Lucas’ a little, while Jesse Plemons plays her supportive brother and sheriff of the town, just a typical nice guy performance of his who wants to help Julia and Lucas, he plays the part well.
Antlers could have been better, but I’m glad it wasn’t a huge disappointment also, it’s a perfectly serviceable creature feature with a lot of tension, suspense, and compelling characters. You just have to excuse the semi-underwhelming narrative and cheap horror movie clichés to get to those effective moments.
The twist is it’s actually a sequel to the movie, Tusk…actually no, not really!
From the blog www.moviewatchinpsychopath.blogspot.com
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