Antlers

Starring; Keri Russell, Jesse Plemons, Jeremy T. Thomas, Graham Greene, Rory Cochrane, Scott Haze, Amy Madigan, Sawyer Jones

Director: Scott Cooper

Based on the short story "The Quiet Boy" by Nick Antosca

Julia (Russell), who left when she was young due to her abusive father, has just moved back to her sleepy town in Oregon to teach at a local school. Living with her brother Paul (Plemons), who serves as the Sheriff, she tries to navigate the tricky emotions of being back in a place that brought her so much pain. At school, a student named Lucas (Thomas) has caught her attention because she believes his bizarre and borderline violent behavior is a cry for help due to abuse at home. As she continues to look deeper into the situation, she discovers there may be a more sinister and terrifying force at play, one tied to local Native American folklore.

Director Scott Cooper has tackled a wide variety of genres: musical drama with Crazy Heart, indie thriller with Out of the Furnace, gangster film with Black Mass and most recently the western with Hostiles. Now, along with Guillermo del Toro as producer, he tackles the horror genre. While I was not really a fan of any of his previous films, maybe his talents would be best served in horror. I also think del Toro is a much better director than he is a producer, although I appreciate him letting filmmakers complete their vision, whatever the quality of the finished product.

While I did appreciate the atmosphere that Cooper was able to create, including a well shot finale, that is the only praise I can give the film. The movie is filled to the brim with the type of bad decisions that give horror films a bad name and an ending that forced me to ask questions I don't think Cooper wants the viewer to ask (How does the creature sneak up and easily defeat some characters but at the end is easily defeated by the main character? Why didn't Julia just call the police or CPS? Why do characters explore dark places alone?)

Horror can be a fantastic avenue to explore some very real and hard hitting topics (see Last Night in Soho). While this attempts to be an examination of abuse under the guise of a horror film, it doesn't quite hit the mark thanks to many of the observations being made only hitting on the surface level. Especially once the supernatural and horror elements settle in, this idea is basically forgotten about.

Despite featuring a creature from Native American folklore and apparently taking place in a town that is deeply rooted in that culture, there is only one Native American character in the film. It felt like a waste of an interesting angle to tell the story and of Graham Greene. He seems to only be around to explain what is going on before disappearing entirely from the film.

Keri Russell and Jesse Plemons bring their all to their characters but I wish we could have seen more regarding their relationship. Paul was left behind with their abusive father after Julia left but it's all waved away with an apology and never really brought up again.

While it is well made, Antlers feels like a film plagued by missed opportunities.

Grade: C-