Antlers

A review by Forrest Humphrey  

A dying mining town in Oregon, surrounded by foggy mountain woods. When a local man, Frank Weaver, and his friend set up a meth lab inside a closed down mine, they find something ancient, evil, and hungry within the caves as well. It attacks the pair, and Frank's young son who was also along for the trip. Weeks later, Frank's older son Lucas (Jeremy Thomas) is showing red flags to his teacher Julia (Keri Russel), and her looking into what she thinks is a clear cut case of parental abuse soon reveals the ravenous truth about why Lucas is so scared and tired, and why he's roaming the woods gathering roadkill.

Much like “Halloween Kills” a couple weeks ago, “Antlers” is yet another film I was looking forward to last year that got heavily delayed due to the pandemic. Directed by Scott Cooper and produced by Guillermo Del Toro, the film starts very strong. The small mountain town is beautifully shot, and the film creates an excellent atmosphere thanks to its setting and the great musical score by Javier Navarrete. And of course, its based on one of my favorite stories of Native folklore: The Wendigo, which is what drew me to the film in the first place. 

Not only is the film beautifully shot and scored, the two main cast members put in good performances as well, with the young Jeremy Thomas as Lucas being especially great. The scenes that explore what he's keeping secret and experiencing are the strongest element of the film, both heartbreaking and terrifying. When the film gets going with its monster, the design is amazing, and there is some truly juicy kills and gore on display here. The sound designers put in a good turn too, every howl and scream is inhuman and unnerving. 

Unfortunately the second half of the film lets it down. “Antlers” is trying to be smarter than the average monster mash, exploring themes of familial abuse, generational trauma and substance abuse too. The problem, I feel, is that these themes never actually gel that well with the actual creature action, it feels disjointed. And while the initial half of the film is so good, in the second half it devolves somewhat. Several characters make some truly stupid decisions more at home in a slasher movie, the “you totally deserve to die after this dumb shit” kind of cliché setup when earlier it seemed we were getting smarter about this. 

But ultimately even as it starts to spiral downward toward the end, I feel the strong first half and the awesome monster earned it enough goodwill that I can forgive the cliché climax and somewhat sloppy thematic execution. I don't think it's as good as this year's “Candyman” for horror, but it is better than “Halloween Kills” and I do think its worth a look for sure. 

Rating: 3/5