Affamés

Steeped in dark, grim & brooding atmosphere yet failing to capitalise on it to fully realise its ambitions, Antlers begins on a promising note but it doesn't take long for the film to devolve into a frustrating slog. It tries to be too many things yet doesn't have the discipline or clarity to deliver the desired goods. There is plenty it wants to say yet has no idea how to articulate it right.

Co-written & directed by Scott Cooper (Black Mass), the story does create the right sort of intrigue with its foreboding mystery but the human drama that unfolds is not only bland but also inauthentic. Cooper is unsure of what road to take and plays with several ideas hoping some would somehow stick. The balance between its genre elements is off, and the themes aren't properly handled either.

On the plus side, the creature design, gore effects & moody camerawork is worth a mention but the plot & characters don't have that gripping quality to it that would make us care. Still, the actors do what they can to make the journey worthwhile but it doesn't amount to a lot in the end. The problem lies with the script itself that required more fine-tuning to figure out its identity and what themes to address or discard.

Overall, Antlers strives to be a supernatural horror rooted in indigenous folklore, an allegory about unresolved trauma, drug addiction & child abuse, and also an environmental parable, all at the same time, yet falls remarkably short on nearly all fronts. Its premise had potential but its execution is dry & directionless, thus resulting in a tedious & disappointing genre fare that in an effort to say several things ends up saying nothing at all.

When I saw that this title was available to stream on HBO MAX, I wasted no time in sitting down to watch it. I remember seeing the trailer for it well over a year ago and being genuinely excited. Any new high budget film in the horror sub-genre stirs my curiosity, and especially one like this where hardly any details about the plot or story line were revealed in the trailer.

The initial thing that caught my eye about Antlers was the gorgeous landscape around where it was being shot. A sense of isolation was also present in the remote part of Canada where filming took place. Feeling isolated and alone almost always will make a horror movie scarier to the viewer.

Antlers had more type of feel to it than straight up horror which to me was fine. It was not what I was expecting going into the film, but to be fair, I had done no research beforehand. The horror elements do shine through at times, however. There are no jump scares or anything of that nature. But the violence and gory at times are definitely real and remind you this is no PG fairy-tale you are watching. Fantasy horror is not typically my thing, though if anyone can do it right, it sure is Guillermo Del Toro.

The pacing was my favorite aspect of Antlers. Lulls can be a killer to a horror flick, and this was no issue for this film. If nothing else, you will be entertained for 100 minutes. I gave Antlers a 6/10 overall. The acting by both adult leads, Keri Russell and Jesse Plemons (who is always a shoe-in for a great performance) were solid and probably even above expectations for most movies of this genre. Lucas (Jeremy T. Thomas), was also surprisingly effective for someone his age. This film further proves that director Scott Cooper will almost make an engaging piece of cinema, and that having Del Toro on your team is never a bad idea.

I am a red-blooded horror fan, I like 'em all. This was a solid mid-tier movie but boy, was it depressing. The kids in peril in this movie are not the same as the kids in peril in, for example, It Chapter One, who are (with one obvious exception) redeemed. The poor kids in this one are downtrodden, damaged and real victims to the bitter end - and the adults aren't any better. Overall it's dark, desperately sad, and there's not much in the way of redemption for anyone beyond the temporary. Lucas is just so world-weary at the age of 12, you want to pluck him from the screen and give the blighter a hug and a cheeseburger. I did get it, I do dig it, but it's an instant trigger for depression. Abandon hope, then stick on Harold and Kumar.

Julia Meadows (Keri Russell) is a recovering alcoholic and school teacher in remote Oregon. She is estranged from her sheriff brother Paul Meadows (Jesse Plemons). One of her students, Lucas Weaver, is getting bullied. She tries to connect with the child who is showing some disturbing signs.

The opening text threw me off and the story is a bit muddled. I do like the dark atmosphere and the overall creepiness. I like the monster designs. The story may have a few too many elements. Some simplifying could be helpful.

I'm somewhat of a fan of Mr. Cooper. Especially his last movie Hostiles made me really appreciate his movies. Even if his works aren't masterpieces I'm more intrigued to watch one of his movies instead of something completely generic. He feels like someone that truly wants to tell a story what sometimes works and sometimes doesn't.

With Antlers I'm really ok the fence as we have some decent ideas that could make maybe not the most creative horror flick but something enjoyable. I just feel like a lot of the plotpoints were handled so poorly that it left me quiet bored for a huge part of the movie. So often I just asked myself why this was written the way it is.

Not many characters here feel like they make rational decisions and stuff just happens so we can get to the next scene in the script. The climax doesn't really feel like it was deserved and the monster acts really inconsistence at times. It felt like they should have done a better job setting up the lore about it which is weird as a huge chunk of the movie is just build up.

The acting is fine. It feels like the script didn't really give them a lot to work with. Character interactions feel rather stiff at times and could've used a bit of warmth to them.

Something I have to praise the movie about are the special effects. It reminded me a bit of the Thing, even though there is still a huge difference, but with both movies I felt really uncomfortable at times looking at a corpse or such. So good job for that.

We are also awarded with some nice looking shots. They made a good job of using the area they shot in to their advantage.

So all in all a slightly above average horror movie that just feels rather sloppy with it's execution at times and could have definitely been better just having the core setup in mind.

I wouldn't say you need to see this in the theaters. Just wait until it's streaming somewhere and watch it then if you're really interested.