151) Antlers (2021)

"But one day, the little bear came home, and Big Bear and Baby Bear were different. Big Bear got sick and his insides turned black. Big Bear has become more angrier and meaner, because they had no food, no meat. But they had each other."

Director

Scott Cooper

Cast

Keri Russell - Julia Meadows

Jesse Plemons - Paul Meadows

Jeremy T. Thomas - Lucas Weaver

Scott Haze - Frank Weaver

Sawyer Jones - Aiden Weaver

Graham Greene - Warren Stokes

Amy Madigan - Ellen Booth

For some reason, I've been asked by a handful of friends and acquaintances if I had seen the 2021 movie "Antlers."
I hadn't until now.
Honestly, I had little interest in seeing it. However, Guillermo Del Toro's name as well the producer alongside Scott Cooper as director piqued my interest once I found out they were involved. I initially missed those details.

I admire Del Toro's visual style but often his stories are not my glass of beer. 

Cooper, on the other hand, has been involved in some popular films. He stars in a favorite movie of mine - "Get Low" (2009). 

"Antlers" takes place in Cispus Falls, located in Central Oregon. Some guy named Frank Weaver (Scott Haze) along with an accomplice operate a meth lab deep within an abandoned mine. 

Frank has his seven-year-old son, Aiden (Sawyer Jones), wait in the truck while he and this accomplice finish up their meth manufacturing shenanigans. When the two hear strange noises from within the mine, they investigate because that's what people have to do in horror movies despite any warnings or protests. As expected, they're attacked by some kind of unseen monster.

The story shifts to three weeks later. Frank's 12-year-old son, Lucas (Jeremy T. Thomas) is a lonely kid who roams the town killing small animals or collecting roadkill and taking them home. 

His quiet melancholy demeanor, disturbing drawings, and the constant bullying he endures at school captures the attention and sympathy of his teacher Julia (Keri Russell).

Julia lives with her brother, Paul (Jesse Plemons), who's the local sheriff. She's returned to Cispus Falls soon after her mentally ill, alcoholic and abusive father committed suicide.

Having suffered sexual abuse as a child at the hands of her father, she suspects Lucas may be going through some kind of abuse at home. 

First, Julia visits Lucas's house unannounced. No one answers the door, but she hears strange sounds coming from within which scares her away.

She then tries to connect with Lucas by following him into town and then "bumping" into him by chance outside an ice cream parlor where she offers to treat him.

He accepts the on-the-spot invitation. However, he soon tells Julia not to come by the house and to also stop following him. 

It's revealed through a flashback that while Frank and Aiden, who wandered into the mine after his dad didn't come out, survived the attack. Frank became possessed by this monster, which turned him into a ravenous animalistic version of his former self. Aiden is also affected somehow but he remains relatively normal. 

Lucas keeps both of them locked up in the attic and feeds them the dead animals he collects. 

Meanwhile, the remains of Frank's accomplice from the beginning are found in the woods. The majority of what's left of him looks like it was devoured by animals.

The rest of his remains are found in the mine. A piece of an antler is also found in inside. 

Julia goes to the school principal, Ellen (Amy Madigan), to ask if she'll look in on Lucas and talk to his father about the school's concerns. 

Of course, when Ellen arrives at the house, it appears that no one's home. 

She also hears odd sounds coming from inside. But she, in true horror movie fashion, decides to walk in and see where the noises are coming from. 

Ellen makes her way to the locked attic door. She unlocks it and walks in, seeing Aiden who's dirty, thin, and looking miserable. She doesn't see his dad. You know as soon as she walks up the front steps of the house that things aren't going to end well with her. This is the movie's most terrifying moment which isn't saying much. 

After Ellen is reported missing, Julia finds her car at Lucas's house. 

The cops show up and find what's left of Ellen along with Frank. Whatever was possessing Frank escaped his body and left Frank's remains on the floor. Aiden is missing, though. 

Lucas shows up and is taken to the hospital where the doctor tells Julia and Paul that he's malnourished and dehydrated. They allow him to stay at their house. 

Meanwhile, Julia shows the antlers and Lucas's pictures to Warren Stokes (Graham Greene), a Native American expert of spooky mythological monsters.

He identifies the antlers and the creature in Lucas's drawings as a wendigo - a demon of Algonquin lore that possesses people and is passed from person to person.

Turns out Frank was possessed by one of these wendigos and Aiden is a part of it. So, Paul and Julia take it upon themselves to take care of the issue. Of course, as horror movies go, things don't turn out quite as planned. 

"Antlers" is simply a fancy new creature feature movie with a hint of allegory surrounding drug use and child abuse, and with Guillermo Del Toro's name attached to it.  

Del Toro is superb at creating a distinct atmosphere that can be chilling and fantastical. He has a unique style when it comes to his creatures. And he accomplishes that with "Antlers." The atmosphere is mostly dark and damp. But the visuals and effects (however little of it there is) are great. Otherwise, the story is rushed through and gives the audience very little outside of a quick allegory, some blood and

 Jeremy T. Thomas in "Antlers."

gore, and characters who are pretty much forgettable. There's little about the characters that allow the audience to take interest in them. Lucas being a child in peril, having to take care of his possessed father and little brother. Children, the most innocent among us, depicted in peril always pulls at the heart strings. That gives the audience something to be invested in as far as he's concerned. The rest of the characters are dull and forgettable. These characters are planted in the story but offer nothing grab the audience's interest. 

I found "Antlers" underwhelming and weak as far as the story goes. Even with the drug/ child abuse allegory, by the end it just feels like a quick thrill monster movie with a rushed story meant to give the audience a quick thrill...that barely works. To its credit, though, the story doesn't completely depend on blood, guts, and gore to frighten the audience. It tries to let the nasty old monster do the work. That doesn't help the fact that the entire story feels haphazard, lacking and unconvincing. By the end, "Antlers" is another substandard creature feature that takes itself too seriously because something Native American is tossed in. It's $5 bargain bin filler I'm sure I'll find at Walmart in the near future.

The intrigue that it builds throughout the story goes up in a is a puff of smoke by the end, leaving room for a sequel that would probably be the same thing as before. 

By the way, I haven't seen Amy Madigan in a while. I remember her best from John Hughes' comedy "Uncle Buck" and the 1993 Stephen King film "The Dark Half." 

But her character, sadly, succumbs to the age-old horror trop seen all too often - the bad decision. Still, what's a horror movie without a blatantly bad decision or two?