Filmmaker Scott Cooper, best known for his more dramatic films like Crazy Heart or Black Mass, surprised horror fans in 2021 with Antlers, a Native American folklore horror film. Cooper wrote the film’s screenplay along with Nick Antosca and Henry Chaisson. The film gained some marketing steam by being produced and promoted by Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro.
Antlers stars Keri Russell (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Dark Skies), Jesse Plemons (Breaking Bad), Jeremy T. Thomas, and Graham Greene (Wind River, Dances with Wolves).
In a small town in central Oregon, a father (Scott Haze) and his youngest son (Sawyer Jones) are attacked by an unknown creature while the father is working in a meth lab set up in an abandoned mine. The two survive the attack but don’t escape unscathed, as they seem to be quickly transforming into something evil. The father’s 12-year-old son Lucas (Thomas) locks them away in their house, helps feed their growing hunger for meat, and continues to go to school. Lucas’ teacher Julia (Russell) starts to notice worrisome signs with Lucas, and with the help of her Sheriff brother Paul (Plemons), they do some investigating. The two find that they may be no match for an evil ancestral creature that has invaded the boy’s life.
Since folklore horror is one of my favorite sub-genres, I was extremely excited for Antlers, especially after discovering the story revolved around the Wendigo. For those interested, the Wendigo is an evil spirit that originates from Native American folklore. The Wendigo was often described as a human-beast hybrid, having many features of a deer or elk. The Wendigo can also cause psychosis in humans, forcing them to have intense hunger, only satisfied when human flesh is devoured.
There aren’t any great films where Wendigo is the main focus. The creatures are integral to the stories in films like Pet Sematary (1989) and Ravenous (1999), but Antlers is one of the first times we get an actual creature feature with a decent budget.
Speaking of creatures, the creature design and effects in Antlers were phenomenal. The Wendigo’s design and execution were straight-up nightmare fuel, even without the horrifying sound effects added to its screams. CG was used sparingly and only to amplify the practical effects shown on screen. The effects were done with a perfect blend and were incredibly effective as a result. Seeing it on screen was like getting exactly what I imagined from reading old Native American folklore or a Stephen Graham Jones horror novel. There was also a lot of non-creature gore, relying on excellent body horror and prop effects to make the audience cringe. Good stuff all around.
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The story itself is quite tragic, and even though there’s a bit of slow-burn horror in there, Antlers is much faster-paced than some other recent folklore horror films, like The VVitch or Hereditary. The acting was strong across the board, but some of the character decisions baffled me. I assume the audience is supposed to chalk some of it up to “dumb small-town people,” but inconsistencies in the characters without reasoning can make them frustrating to watch and hard to care about. This was especially true for characters who would say extremely intelligent things in one scene and then do something mind-boggling in the next.
I really loved the overall atmosphere of Antlers. There was a sense of dread in both the environment and story throughout the film that kept the viewer from ever feeling safe. The film relied on the creep factor and a few jump scares to get a rise out of me, and it achieved both. My biggest takeaway was that I felt invested in almost all aspects of the film, and that’s a success for me.
