Direction: Scott Cooper
Country: USA
Produced by Guillermo Del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, 2006; The Shape of Water, 2017) and directed by Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart, 2009; Black Mass, 2015), Antlers is an average exercise in horror that mixes indigenous folklore and modern psychology. A solid story would be vital to make the combination work but the director, more inventive in the action and drama genres, doesn’t have one because Antlers has not much to chew on. Unfortunately, a couple of gory scenes doesn’t make for a contrived screenplay and a saturated mood that requires freshness.
The story, co-written by Cooper, C. Henry Chaisson and Nick Antosca from a short story from the latter, is set in a small mining Oregon town where a series of gruesome deaths occur. The local authorities, represented by Sheriff Paul Meadows (Jesse Plemons), doesn’t have a clue about what could be so ravenous for human flesh. However, the sheriff’s sister, Julia (Keri Russell), a traumatized teacher, suspects that one of her students - the shy Lucas Weaver (Jeremy T. Thomas) - is being abused. In her mind, his junkie father might have something to do with the case. Willing to protect the kid, Julia follows him home, where a dark secret lies hidden.
The film doesn’t have the scope to match its visual craft, and one of its biggest sins is relying on the predictable mechanisms of the horror narrative. Cooper is also unable to deliver real jolts; it’s a pity that, having a wendigo (a demonic creature that originates from Native-American myth) as the source of this fantasy, so little mystery and tension were delivered. I suppose we have seen this too many times before to be frightened.
