Antlers [Digital]
Directed by Scott Cooper, and based on Nick Antosca’s novel “The Quiet Boy”, Antlers follows Julie Meadows (Keri Russell), a middle-school teacher in a quiet town in Oregon, who along with her brother Paul (Jesse Plemons) - who just so happens to be the recently-appointed local Sheriff - find themselves uncovering more than what they’d anticipated when looking into a worrying issue with the family of one of Julie’s students, Lucas Weaver.
Keri Russell delivers a fantastic portrayal of a concerned teacher, witnessing tell-tale signs of abuse in one of her pupils. The character, Julie, is plagued with traumas from her own childhood, and her struggles with alcohol are evidenced solely through the frequent checkout-counter-dance of her eyes flicking back and forth to the liquor cabinets, as she fights the urge time and time again. Her empathy for young Lucas’ situation leads her to feel the need to investigate further, as his classroom stories and macabre scribblings tucked away under his desk bring cause for concern, so she cares for and wishes to look out for him; a luxury she was never afforded growing up.
The strained relationship between the Meadows siblings, stemming from Julie’s need to get away from the family home - and her father - as soon as she was able to, leaving her brother behind, only to now be back during a stressful time in both their lives is evident, and you really feel for each of them. Julie is intent on diving into whatever the hell is going on with Lucas, but with Paul’s knowledge of the family, particularly the father’s criminal background, he is conflicted and fears his sister is meddling where she shouldn’t. Paul has recently become the Sheriff - somewhat reluctantly as seemingly nobody else wanted the job - and whilst at first he believes there’s nothing to look into, events spiral out of control, quickly unfolding in front of him, leaving him in way over his head. Honestly, even the most experienced Sheriff would be a mess in this situation.
It’s a slow burn, with the third act being where things really start to take off. The cinematography is really well done throughout, with interesting shots and effective use of alluding to the monster through Lucas’ drawings - something that portrays the family dynamic at home as filled with fear and hurt, and which can be seen as him trying to reach out for help even if subconsciously. The droning, ominous score really adds to the tension, and leaves you with that tight feeling in your chest - just waiting for things to go south for the characters. The few times we see the monster earlier on in the film, there’s a great use of lighting and camera angles, obscuring the monster just enough to build up the final reveal. It does create a lot of questions due to the slow pacing, though thankfully most are answered by the end; with only a few things remaining unsolved.
Jeremy T. Thomas was phenomenal in his role as Lucas, giving the role a very genuine quality in everything from his fear, his anger and frustration, his somewhat numb ‘going through the motions’ appearances at school, and the love he still has for his dad and younger brother despite their ‘sickness’.
Overall, Antlers was a decent, if slow, movie that fell victim to a slight generic vibe, but picked up well from the third act - redeeming itself in the process. The effective use of practical as well as digital effects made for an incredible creature design that works off of Native American folklore, and was delightfully creepy and gory in its appearance - although we could have done with seeing a bit more of it. After a plethora of delays, we’d probably built it up more in our minds so it did feel ever so slightly underwhelming compared to what we’d anticipated, but it was still a worthwhile watch. If you love slow-burn horror movies, then this is one that’s worth checking out.
In the end, we decided to give Antlers the Collecting Asylum rating of 7/10.
Are you looking forward to Antlers? What are you hoping to see next?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
Thank you to Searchlight International for the Antlers screener copy to review!
