Antlers

Antlers

A small-town Oregon teacher and her brother, the local sheriff, discover a young student is harbouring a dangerous secret that could have frightening consequences.

  • Released: 2021-10-28
  • Runtime: 99 minutes
  • Genre: Drama, Horror, Mystery
  • Stars: Keri Russell, Jesse Plemons, Jeremy Thomas, Graham Greene, Scott Haze, Rory Cochrane, Amy Madigan, Cody Davis, Sawyer Jones, Arlo Hajdu, Glynis Davies, Dorian Kingi, Andy Thompson, Jesse Downs, Dendrie Taylor, Emily Delahunty, Katelyn Peterson, Charmaine Wilson, Jay Brazeau, Lyla Marlow
  • Director: Scott Cooper
 Comments
  • gregorik - 8 February 2024
    Great horror world-building let down by autopilot script.
    Pitch dark from minute 1 to the last, this is one of those rural tales featuring few characters that live in mostly drab rust belt type environments covered in sticky mud, with skies that seem to be overcast all the time. I normally love films like that because they're forced to be character-based and forced to have good stories -- since the milieu and scenery themselves are nothing to write home about. "Fargo" and "A simple plan" are perfect examples of this subgenre.

    Antlers does deliver on the character bit: its minimalistic approach only allows 3 or 4 well-rounded folks to come to the forefront. The haunted kid and his almost equally troubled teacher seem to be present in almost all scenes.

    When things finally pick up by the third act, the film switches to full-blooded horror tale, and things go a little trite, which might explain poor reviews.

    I for one have enjoyed the worldbuilding, the mood, the sense of palpable dread, and how we gain a fairly deep insight into the personal lives of key characters.
  • jordondave-28085 - 3 September 2023
    Interesting but not scary at all.
    (2021) Antlers PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR

    Adapted from the short story "The Quiet Boy" by Nick Antosca, co-written and directed by Scott Cooper, which the setting takes place on a small town in Oregon called Cispus Falls that has two men operating a meth lab in an abandoned mine. Something happened to the two men in the mining shaft as we hear noises, and then when we see the young child getting out of his dad's truck curiously go into the shaft where his dad was supposed to come out from, before it goes dark. We are then introduced to teacher, Julia Meadows (Keri Russell) teaching her class about mythical legends before 12 year old introvert, Lucas Weaver (Jeremy T. Thomas) goes about his business, which looked like he was heading through the abandoned mine. Besides looking at how depressing Lucas's life is, we also get to see Julia's home life as well, that does not appear to look any more cheerful. As we find out, she has just moved back to living in their family home where her brother, Paul Meadows (Jesse Plemons) happens to be town sheriff- of one of two people. And just like her brother they are both single, and are trying to get over a past traumatic event, that is a little vague. We then go back to 12 year old Lucas as he is looking for dead animal carcasses to bring them home. And for awhile, we are oblivious who Lucas was bringing it home to, until we see him going toward a padlocked bolted door. Further knowing more about Lucas's life, is that he lives in the house with his brother 7 year old Aiden (Sawyer Jones) and his dad, Frank Weaver (Scott Haze) except that viewers never see him come out of the house nor do we ever see what his brother was supposed to look like. The only thing we do know is that we suspect that it was a good chance they were the same people we saw at the intro, before viewers are oblivious to know anything more about their status.

    SPOILERS As it turns out, while Frank and his son are turning into the mythical "Wendigo" creature, Frank's other partner did not survive. And that Frank Weaver drove both him and and his seven year old son back home, giving instructions to Lucas to keep the door locked, while he is transforming into Wendigo along with his younger brother Aiden. That Lucas was bringing dead carcasses to feed them while at the same time, the school principal, Ellen Booth( Amy Madigan) had the misfortune of going over to the Weaver's house by herself for the intention of talking with their father, even if means trespassing. Jules along with her sheriff brother Paul then go to visit indigenous,, Warren Stokes (Graham Greene) because of the discovered "antler" shows them what the Wendigo is supposed to look like. The final confrontation takes place at the abandoned mine, with Julia managing to kill Frank Weaver who transform into the Wendigo character, and at the same time convince Lucas that his brother Aiden is not the same boy anymore, she kills him too, making Lucas accept the reality. And at the early stages her brother Paul is showing signs he himself may urn into the Wendigo character himself as he may have been infected.

    One of the problems with this film is that I am quite baffled about the time this movie takes place, is it like before Iphones? And that, whenever there's like more than one murder, as grisly as they movie makes it, I think the feds should have been involved. And I also do not care when a single person goes to the house all by herself, is a common scenario whenever someone is going to be killed. And how come the brother was not like tested for rabies and so forth, as he was clearly bitten or poked by the Wendigo's antlers. It is those questions and more a sequel would "not" be possible, unless it has to ignore inconsistencies. It is though one of those movies that can keep a persons interest as a result of the subject matter that is not scary at all, since I myself would not have done what most of the characters were killed or have been attacked have done in this movie. So for interest sake, it gets a pass but as a horror film, it is not even close.
  • temptedblaze - 6 January 2023
    Better Than Expected
    Antlers is a pretty nice take on some classic horror elements. It's very dark and moody. The scene is set beautifully. Amazing camera work throughout. The acting is phenomenal and the cast was really solid. The characters are fairly well flushed out for the most part.

    The thing is that it felt like they rushed the ending. I would have appreciated if they had bumped it to a 2 hour film and actually finished the build up with the past trauma that occurred for the cop brother and teacher sister. Any sort of conclusion there would have been nice, or even just more of the backstory to fully bring out their motivations. Something was missing there. The final battle was also pretty rushed and very anti-climactic. The thing felt too easy to kill, but I guess that's because it never really dies. So maybe it didn't really care all that much. Either way, it detracts a fair amount from the overall fear element.

    Their take on the creature was really nicely done though. Definitely one of the best wendigos I've seen on screen. I would have liked if they had somehow weaved in more cultural elements earlier though, as it seems like they remembered halfway through that the lore is Native, so they said, 'Wait.. Don't we need to introduce a Native character? Woops.' Everyone else had a well-established back story, but not that vital character? They just kinda threw him in halfway and said "Oh, yea, you remember him right? Cool, moving on." It's lazy, at best. More realistically though, they probably just didn't want to actually research the culture they were working with and write a real character. At least they cast someone who was actually Aboriginal, I guess?? Hard to be grateful for the bare minimum there, but it is what it is.

    Ultimately, I didn't have high hopes for the movie so I was pleasantly surprised by what they did right. Most creature features don't do it for me, but this one was enjoyable for the most part.
  • Slarkshark - 31 October 2022
    Where Have I Seen This Before?
    Oh right, I just finished watching the HBO series 'The Outsider' literally three days before watching this. Very similar feeling throughout its entirety. Killings that plague a small town and puzzle local authorities who can't possibly believe it's the result of a mythical being or creature.

    Dark, grim, and depressing is the theme and about right if doing a story about the Wendigo. And all of that comes as no surprise given Scott Cooper was directing. The atmosphere was very familiar to 'Out of the Furnace' which he also directed. There's not much that's more creepy than a wendigo in my opinion, so I was looking forward to this film for some time. Also, it was filmed in Hope, BC which I am well acquainted with.

    Unfortunately the execution was just a bit lacking, especially the ending. It just seemed very anticlimactic in the final stand off, and I think most would agree.
  • angethology - 25 July 2022
    Too Jumbled
    Feels like it has potential but it tries too hard to have a bit of everything without tying everything coherently. Elements of abuse, folklore and the supernatural are there but the overarching themes and plot are all over the place and very underdeveloped. L do appreciate the visuals/effects, there were some good scenes that were eerie.