Antlers review
Hello everyone and welcome to my blog. For those who know me you know about my love for horror films so once a month, I’m going to review and discuss a scary flick. We’ll look at the classics, and some new films, and I want your suggestions on what I should review. I’ll do my best to cover all the different genres within the genre – slashers, ghosts, monsters, etc.
SPOILER ALERT! – These will be reviews so if you haven’t seen the movie you’ll want to watch it first before you read this. Let’s do this.
ANTLERs
The dark and rainy landscape of the Pacific Northwest is tucked up into the very corner of the lower 48. Beautiful cities like Portland, Eugene, and Seattle. Smaller places like Snoqualmie and Bend. Lovely to drive through to see mountains and forests. Where some see beauty, some others see a depressing landscape without sunshine and opportunity. Small industrial logging towns where that way of life has gone away. Hard times for residents lead to bad habits. Maybe a place where more than just bad habits could live.
The 2021 film Antlers was produced by Guillermo Del Toro and directed by Scott Cooper. Based on the short story The Quiet Boy by Nick Antosca, it’s the story of a small fictional Pacific Northwest town called Cispus Falls where inside a makeshift meth lab in an old mine, something attacks a man named Frank while his son Aiden disobeys his father and enters the mine as well. The film then follows the story of a young, unhealthy-looking boy named Lucas and his concerned teacher Julia – played by Keri Russell. Julia’s character has relocated back to Cispus Falls and is now living with her brother Paul who is the town Sheriff. Lucas makes strange drawings and just wanders around the beautifully depressing landscape of this town collecting roadkill. She tries reaching out to Lucas as she has personally felt the effects of abuse via her father and sees similar things. She shows up unannounced one day at his house, enters, hears noises, and leaves. We later see Lucas open a door with multiple locks to feed a young boy and a ravenous sort of half-man. Flashbacks show us Frank and Aiden survived the attack at the beginning of the film and have demanded he and Aiden stay locked in this room. Julia presses the matter of Lucas even more to the principal who also visits the home only to be brutally murdered by the creature who is shown to be Frank in a bloody transformation sequence involving you guessed it – antlers - and then escapes. The police later discover the scene at the house and bring Lucas to the hospital where he is later released into Paul and Julia’s care. Paul and Julia meet with the former Sheriff and show him Lucas’s drawings and learn they are dealing with the Wendigo - a legendary Native American spirit. Lucas is told his father died but he says his new dad is coming for him. We get a climax back in the mine where Julia defeats the Wendigo-possessed Frank and sadly, must also kill the younger son Aiden as the curse has been passed on to him. Julia doesn’t hold back here and kicks some serious ass. The final scene of the film shows Paul coughing up some sort of black liquid. The same Frank did after his original encounter in the mine.
I had been interested in seeing this film before I knew it involved the Wendigo legend which is a favorite of mine. The Wendigo is of Algonquian origin and is local to the Atlantic coast and Great Lakes area. It is an evil spirit that once it has possessed someone, fills them with an unending appetite for human flesh among other things, and murderous behavior. It can also appear as a physical creature that is reported to be an immensely tall, upright monster with antlers and terribly gaunt. The curse is that a creature who cannot stop feeding is almost skin and bones. It is never satisfied.
I like Antlers in a lot of ways. I love scenery and the atmosphere and environment of that part of the country work so well. It’s a depressing place where this sad story is happening. Love the story of the Wendigo and made this more exciting for me when we as the audience learned that. While the mythology is not necessarily located in that part of the country, I’m okay with it. Needs much more Native American involvement and folklore though to drive the story. Appreciate the tease early in a classroom scene where she is discussing myths and folklore with the students. Keri Russell and Jesse Plemons are great talents and enjoyed them in this. Can’t beat the title too, right?
This film tells multiple stories. The first scene is in a run-down mine and a meth lab. This town doesn’t have jobs anymore so like so many other places in the country, drugs and addiction take over. This poor young boy leads a devastating life trying to protect his family who have an unspeakable situation happening to them. Is this something that only happens to people in poverty situations? A few years ago, I drove around the town of Aberdeen, Washington where Kurt Cobain grew up. A dreary, logging town just a stone’s throw from the Pacific Ocean. I saw both the beauty and the despair. It’s what I thought when I watched this film.
Enjoy the trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ng5eyOfL8qM