Connect with us

Film Reviews

‘Antlers’ Review: Dir. Scott Cooper (2021)

Antlers is a well-made horror, one that relies on the viewer’s own personal connection to the subject matter in order to become properly disturbing.

Produced by Guillermo del Toro and directed by Scott Cooper, Antlers is one of several films originally due for release during the spring of 2020. The pandemic struck and whilst many of the film’s peers released onto digital and streaming platforms, the team at Searchlight Pictures (formerly Fox Searchlight) held their nerve, this week finally seeing the movie release into cinemas across the UK. The story is based upon “The Quiet Boy” by Nick Antosca, and weaves a dark path through trauma, neglect, abuse, and sibling bonds.

© 2019 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation All Rights Reserved

Antlers has a bold opening set within a vacant coal mine. Here comes the first of what will be many violent attacks. The sequence manages to set up the tone and style of the movie immediately, it’s dark and foreboding, the soundscape populated with creepy noises. The sound design in the opening is especially strong. From the tapping of footsteps running, splashing through puddles, to the hissing of flares, the sounds are all crisp and envelop the viewer, sweeping them up and into Cooper’s world. Visually there’s a lot of dark blacks and red lights, offering plenty of places for the monsters to hide, keeping the viewer on tenterhooks. As strong as these first few moments of Antlers are, it’s a sequence that plays out uncannily like the start of an episode of The X-Files

Once the first scare is out of the way, the narrative fast forwards three weeks and joins school teacher Julia (Keri Russell). Julia has recently returned home to her sleepy Oregon after a twenty year absence. She has moved back into the former family home with her brother and local Sheriff, Paul (Jesse Plemons), and is struggling with demons from their past. Whilst in the midst of battling her own trauma, she grows concerned for Lucas (Jeremy T. Thomas), one of her pupils. Lucas has much more going on than mere school bullying however, as he is also masking a dark and disturbing home life. 

The narrative shifts back and forth between both Julia and Lucas, allowing both to assume the role of lead. Dual lead characters mean a feast of information for the audience as they are privy to the whole story, one that proves Lucas’ reality to be far worse than anything Julia is imagining. Lucas’ bleak existence is distilled through horror, but aspects of his life will ring terribly true for many children of neglectful parents. It is in these concealed nuggets of truth that Antlers finds its voice and strength. Anyone can create a scary story, but the ones with longevity are those that connect on a personal level, and that is certainly true of elements within Antlers. Thomas is exceptionally talented in his role as Lucas, the young actor having to exist in some awful situations. He portrays his on-screen alter-ego with a quiet strength and undercurrent of strangeness, the viewer never quite sure of to whom his allegiances lie. Visually he is pale and trauma-stricken, physically he is quiet and subdued. Thomas conveys so much with so little. His delivery of one line, “I just have to feed him and he’ll love me”, is delivered with complete childlike innocence, presenting a warped child’s perspective on abuse that is heartbreaking to hear and further affirms the tragic nature of Lucas. 

At school, Julia, Lucas, and the rest of the class are studying myths and fairy tales whilst Cooper is simultaneously telling his own dark-hearted story. On the scare front, Cooper demonstrates a flair for spectacle. The bulk of his horror scenarios rely on larger and more action-packed stunts than a simple tired jump scare. There aren’t many instances of red herring frights as Cooper keeps the intensity on real components that serve to keep the narrative pushing forwards. One of the closest “jump scares” comes from a cleverly placed camera flash sound effect during a scene transition. Antlers does tread into familiar territory in terms of creepy children, and troubling illustrations. The inclusion of these elements is vital to the type of story being told, but does dilute some of the impact of Lucas’ life by stepping into the more generic arena. The big horror element of Antlers though is the creature stalking the town. It’s a big violent beast of a monster. The design veers dangerously close to Alien Queen territory in some moments, but overall is an elegant interpretation of a well known supernatural creature. 

Scott Cooper is a director better known for work outside of horror, Antlers marking his first jaunt through the genre. In del Toro, Cooper has a great guide, the Mexican filmmaker is a master at dark and disturbing films and Antlers is the latest project to benefit from his involvement. His inclusion on the creative team means that comparisons will inevitably be drawn to former projects that he has worked on. In this case, Antlers feels very close in tone and nature to Andy Muschietti’s Mama. The two films are both set in similar woodland locations with both films dealing with childhood neglect, past and present, and how that trauma shapes and moulds personalities. Whilst Antlers has enough individuality to maintain its own autonomous agenda, one can’t shake the feeling that you are watching a distant cousin to Muschietti’s movie. 

Antlers isn’t the loud and noisy scare attraction that many might perceive it to be from the marketing campaign. Instead it is a well-constructed story of domestic abuse and neglect that explores the conflict of emotions that they create. A film whose themes and complexities require quiet thought and musings long after viewing, Antlers does suffer from the inclusion of some formulaic genre aspects, but remains a solid first horror from Cooper.

Antlers

Kat Hughes

Antlers

Summary

Conjuring similar thoughts and feelings to Mama, Antlers is a well-made horror, one that relies on the viewer’s own personal connection to the subject matter in order to become properly disturbing.

3

Antlers will be released in UK cinemas on Friday 29th October. 

Kat Hughes is a UK born film critic and interviewer who has a passion for horror films. An editor for THN, Kat is also a Rotten Tomatoes Approved Critic. She has bylines with Ghouls Magazine, Arrow Video, Film Stories, Certified Forgotten and FILMHOUNDS and has had essays published in home entertainment releases by Vinegar Syndrome and Second Sight. When not writing about horror, Kat hosts micro podcast Movies with Mummy along with her five-year-old daughter.

Latest Posts

More in Film Reviews