by Carolyn Blum
☆☆ ½
Antlers seems to check all the boxes for a great horror film, but it falls short in the third act when it is unable to take advantage of the ideas it has set up. The movie is well thought out and purposeful, but missteps along the way result in a lacking resolution and a climax that leaves the audience wanting more. Directed by Scott Cooper and produced by legendary horror filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, Antlers was set for release in April of 2020, but this date was pushed to October 29th, 2021. This was Scott Cooper’s first step into the horror genre and he embraced it head-on.
Antlers is based on the story, The Little Boy, by Nick Antosca and takes place in a small coal-mining town in Oregon. Reeling from the effects of the industry and a drug epidemic, the town is struggling to find its footing. There we meet Julia Meadows (Keri Russell), a middle school teacher who has just returned to the town, her former home, after her father died. Julia lives with her brother, Paul (Jesse Plemons) who is the newly elected sheriff and has taken on the responsibility of watching over the town. Julia takes interest in a particular student of hers, Lucas Weaver (Jeremy T. Thomas), who comes to school in the same tattered clothes and is a bit too skittish for her not to suspect something is wrong. Her investigation leads to a discovery and the unleashing of an ancient evil on their town.
The evil that descends upon them is a wendigo–a vengeful spirit prominent in Native American folklore–that haunts those that have lost their way. When I learned that the wendigo is the focus of this film, I was initially worried that Scott Cooper, along with the writers, would misrepresent the native folklore and turn it into something that would fit the plot rather than stay true to the legend. However, I was pleased to learn that Cooper and his team worked closely with Native American consultants to help bring the wendigo to life in a way that honors the folklore. This is a nod to Cooper’s dedication to the film and its authenticity; this makes watching the creature on the screen feel quite realistic.
The wendigo creates an opportunity for some incredible imagery that encapsulates the mysticality of the creature and the fear it breeds. While this is Scott Cooper’s first horror movie, he proves he knows the genre well and did not pull any punches when it came to showing the sticky, bloody carnage left in the creature's wake.
One would assume the main villain of this story is the wendigo since it serves as the driver of the plot and as the catalyst of the main characters’ coming together. However, the creature becomes a secondary evil; a subplot to the greater themes that Cooper and the writers focus the film around. The audience learns that the real horror the characters face are the situations in which they live. Their town has been plagued by opioid addictions and destructive coal mining. The characters are burdened with generational trauma that drives their every decision.
This is an interesting and unique angle to take, establishing the film as one with more substance rather than the blood-filled murder spree movies that we see so much of today. Antlers is a think piece that really tries hard to drive home its greater themes, but ultimately falls short in the third act. The writers overshadow the main characters by focusing too much on explicitly stating the themes. For instance, the progression of the characters seem to get lost in the commentary on trauma, leaving them unable to deliver the message with their performances; which would have been a more effective use of storytelling. They are more allegories than they are characters, with each one representing a modern crisis that we cannot hide or escape from–much like the wendigo in the film. Since these characters are no more than vessels, their development becomes muddled and lost. By the end of the film, we know that they have changed from the person they were, but we just don’t know who that person was.
About an hour into the film, after establishing the different dynamics and slowly building up the plot, the story starts laying everything out. The audience no longer needs to put the pieces together as to how Lucas got into the position he’s in and where it’s going to take him. The wendigo is no longer a mysterious entity that lurks in the shadows of the town–because the former sheriff, and only Native American character in the whole film, tells them exactly what it is, who it goes after, and how to kill it. The tone of the movie, once set, never changes. The audience ends up feeling the same way they felt when they first stepped into this world. I can understand this decision from a thematic standpoint. The director and the writers emphasize the importance of the present issues, which we can’t afford to avoid, by largely focusing on them throughout the film. That being said, it makes the film feel monotonous and heavy, dragging out the 100 minute run time.
I do have to commend the acting, though. Each of the actors bring all that they can to their characters. While they are not able to shine in the way they should, their performances elevate their minimal stories. While the other actors’ characters are underutilized or their execution falls flat at times, Jeremy T. Thomas’s performance stands out as the best in the film. This is his first role and you wouldn’t know it with his empathic ability to evoke such strong and powerful emotions from the audience. I only wish the character was given the opportunity to come into his full potential.
Overall, Antlers is a deeply emotional film that stumbles at times, but helps to make up for some of its mistakes with its visual style and impressive acting.
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