Directed By Scott Cooper

Starring – Keri Russell, Jesse Plemons, Jeremy T. Thomas

The Plot – In an isolated Oregon town, a middle-school teacher (Russell) and her sheriff brother (Plemons) become embroiled with her enigmatic student (Thomas), whose dark secrets lead to terrifying encounters with a legendary ancestral creature who came before them.

Rated R for violence including gruesome images, and for adult language

ANTLERS | Final Trailer [HD] | FOX Searchlight – YouTube

POSITIVES

– Richly atmospheric. Cooper is one of those directors who places grave importance in the elements of an environment that fleshes out the true terror of a situation. In “Antlers” respects, it’s the constant rain, weathered hue of the lens, and gritty visuals of the small town that enrich a darkly ominous layer of dread for these people plagued by an ages old fairytale brought to life. Because of such, Cooper is able to supplant an unsettling thickness in the air that plagues his characters like an invisible presence constantly looming over them, all the while enriching us with layers inside of the tragic circumstance, that while not entirely scary in the thrills department, does make for an endearing experience that finely articulates the basic elements of horror that directors unfortunately often overlook.

– The beast. Considering horror movies have been a staple of mainstream cinema for over a hundred years, it’s not always an easy task to create a compelling antagonist with an entirely new means of torture for their captors. Enter the wendigo, a mythological creature of Native American folklore, whose evil nature possesses human beings while feasting on their bodies through a means of cannibalism. While there’s nothing original about this idea, the realization of the creature’s design is most effective in articulating bodily horror of the most contorted variety, making for a gut-wrenching transformation made all the more believable because of the combination of computer generated and practical effects designs that work cohesively in intensifying the heft of the beast’s outline. The looks of the creature are kept to a minimal until film’s end, which allow him to maintain fresh originality in the eyes of the audience throughout, while keeping the ferocity of his spontaneity on edge at all times.

– Familiar faces. It was certainly great to see Keri Russell back in front of the camera for a mainstream release because I’ve always felt her depth in emotional resonance gets tragically overlooked in filmgoers perception. Here, Russell is able to unload the kind of care and gentle nature of her character, which make her a warm blanket of hope for a student without an ounce of it. She also maintains matters while wearing the traumatic heft of her characters’ abusive past, which plays an informatively revealing psychology to her character’s motivations, illustrated all the more accordingly in her jaded chemistry with her brother Paul (Played earnestly by Jesse Plemons). Another actor deserving of critical praise is nine-year-old Jeremy T. Thomas, whose palpable grief that is decades ahead of his experience supplants a pivotal depth to the role that elevates him to being so much more than just another creepy kid in these horror movies, providing ample time for him to flex his dramatic chops in a character whose interactions are intentionally ambiguous.

– Invigorating sound. There’s a crafty subtlety to the various sound schemes and general mixing heard throughout the film that conveyed a bigger picture to the limitations in imagery that we’re often presented. In my favorite usage, the echoing of footsteps and animalistic roaring in the distance sets the pace for unsettling anxiety that begin and end in audible articulation. Likewise, the slicing of the antlers themselves protruding through various victims antithesized the sharpness of their sting, as well as the heft of their power, which feel so colossal when channeled in such tight spaces. It’s easily one of my favorite elements of production in the entire film, and captivates an audible outline that serves as the biggest emphasis for the audience to interpret the transformation from man to beast that drives much of the film’s primary conflict.

– Scenic documentation. Before I even attempt to breakdown the moody beauty from Florian Hoffmeister’s breathtaking cinematography, I first have to praise producers for the shooting location of British Columbia, and its chilling effects on the aesthetics for the film. In filming this movie in such a region, we’re treated to a radiance of green forests, blue waters, and aging architecture that deposits the very same bleakness that I previously praised the atmospheric elements for. This film was also shot during the winter months of such a location, so the over-hanging fog moving in and around the mountains offers these poetic instances documented by Hoffmeister that blankets the region in a dread of foreshadowing doom, all the while articulating overwhelming isolation factor that is often the source for peace and serenity in the northwest, but here the fear of inevitably that has been handed down in folklore for centuries.

NEGATIVES

– Limited capabilities. With a brief 94 minute runtime that introduces many pivotal themes of neglect and abuse that transcends the creature feature horror at the forefront of the story, there’s simply not enough opportunity in the script to properly address them with the kind of needed importance to make their channeling something meaningful in the eyes of the audience. Take Russell’s own abuse subplot, which instead of fleshing out to conjure something intuitive for the way she triumphs over it, instead uses it as a means of convenience for the traits of danger she notices in a troubled student. In addition to this, the wendigo backstory and indiginous history feels like a tacked-on afterthought to the necessity of the exposition whose rich history would keep it from feeling like just another monster movie. With about fifteen more minutes of justified screen time, these lukewarm elements of storytelling could suffice something far more satisfyingly substantial, instead of the hodgepodge of unrealized ideas it becomes saddled with.

– Muddled pacing. There were several instances during the second act where I found my interest in the film drifting off as a result of a stagnant form of storytelling that tried to emphasize that less is more. Because the first and third acts are so pivotal to the development of the feature, and the second relies more on the set-up for its eventual confrontation, the middle moments of the screenplay feel uneventful in their stagnant laziness, made all the more problematic by a limited body count and lack of aforementioned backstory on the main characters that I feel could’ve saved this section from being the obvious weakness. For 94 minutes, the film lacks any semblance of urgency, even when the story shifts to where the humans are forced to be the aggressors against the beast, and makes this feel like the lone example of the movie being art house horror, but for all of the wrong reasons.

– Troubling tropes. Even despite the aspects of some credible production at its disposal, which more than paint a canvas full of despair and bleakness, the familiarity of outdated tropes continue to be an aspect of cinematic creativity that feels as resonant now as they ever did in 1984. There’s the Stephen King bullies of the school, who not only take bullying to unnecessary level of antagonism, but are also so one-dimensional that they’re only called upon when the movie absolutely requires them to push the scene ahead. In addition to this, there’s braindead decisions made at the hands of certain characters who would lose their livelihood as a result of unjustified actions. Finally, the inconsistencies of the beast itself outline a predictability for character well-being that goes a long in piecing together who will be standing when this film concludes. In some examples, the beast dominates in his devastation, but in others he simply knocks people out and shoves them to the corner, supplying an inexplainable convenience for them that should stand out strangely to the audience.

– Underwhelming climax. Great endings will often send audiences home with the kind of satisfaction for pay-off that echoes what was great about the experience. So it’s unfortunate that the closing moments for “Antlers” is marred by a rushed emphasis and clean resolution that seems geared to set matters up for a sequel we will never get, instead of cementing something riveting for the effort in front of it. Considering everything we’re told in exposition about the beast already alludes to what is going to happen in the closing moments, the final notes are even more of a by-the-book detection that isn’t even grueling or compelling for the sake of vulnerability or anxiety. The Wendigo itself is a bit of a letdown, especially considering the ruthless intensity it was saddled with in the previous scenes is nowhere to be found during the climax, proving to be a temporary speed-bump instead of the world-ending nightmare that was previously promised.

My Grade: 6/10 or C