Antlers: Gory, Creepy Horror Conjures Scares Both Literal and Figurative

By Thom Ernst

Rating: A-

Several years ago, I walked out of a TIFF screening baffled by the film I saw. The film was The Last Winter and had I not remembered that it stars Ron Perlman, I might never have dug up the title.

The Last Winter is directed by prolific filmmaker and even more prolific actor Larry Fessenden. In the film, a group of workers at an isolated Arctic post—a la The Thing—are tormented by mystifying visions, mainly an angry herd of deer ghosts.

It's possible that in 2008 I wasn't ready for a killer deer story. It seemed a ludicrous bit of business despite a pre-existing film about the Wendigo (also directed by Fessenden), a half-man/half-deer creature from Indigenous folklore—although this film is set in a remote arctic wilderness, they were probably caribou.

I worry that Fessenden was irreversibly traumatized by an early screening of Bambi.

Years later, Ring Two includes a scene of rampaging deer, and again the result is baffling yet even more ludicrous than before. Also, I don't recall much Indigenous folklore involved in Ring Two—more of a nod to the zoo scene in The Omen.

But now, several years after its intended release, we have Antlers from director Scott Cooper with the production muscle of Guillermo del Toro.

I was curious about Antlers, given the pedigree of Cooper and del Toro, not to mention the presence of Jesse Plemons, a substantial actor in his own right but also the closest we have to the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

But that the title; Antlers.

Is this to be another attempt at demonizing woodland creatures? To my memory, the only show to succeed with such a storyline is “The Woodland Critter Christmas: episode of South Park (Season 8, Episode 14)—those beasts are scary.

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But, in the spirit of experiencing the story as it unfolds, I will remain vague about whether the film does or does not have killer deer.

Although, let's not forget that the film is titled Antlers.

A.N.T.L.E.R.S.

Unless the title references people belonging to a cult of ant worshipers, maybe we can agree that it's in the title if there is a spoiler anywhere.

But unlike the vague horrors in Wendigo or the ghostly caribou that trampled people in The Last Winter, Antlers provides some valid shocks and scares.

Antlers works because of Cooper's dedication to creating genuine characters despite dropping them in an illogical premise.

The town Cooper captures in Antlers is trapped in poverty and hopelessness. The weariness of a broken community is shaped in buildings left vacant, on half-painted concrete walls, and in fields littered in debris. Futility is etched on the faces of the people lining up to buy simple household necessities or waiting outside employment offices.

The despair is most prevalent in the eyes of Julia (Keri Russell), who teaches a classroom of unresponsive 12-year-olds. Julia returns to her hometown after running from an abusive home and, leaving her younger brother, Paul (Plemons), fending for himself.

Julia is haunted both by the memory of her abuse and the guilt of abandoning her brother. But it is because of this tumultuous past that Julia is able to recognize the signs of a young student in need—a reserved boy named Lucas Weaver.

The film touts Russell, Plemons, and even Graeme Greene (who has a small role as the town's former Sheriff), but it's Jeremy T. Thomas as Lucas who is the real star.

Thomas has an unsettling vulnerability that incites an urgency not on the screen but in the audience. It is impossible not to care for Lucas and equally impossible to be sure that he has earned our trust. The role of Lucas demands an ambiguity that carries the film even in the final scenes where Antlers stumbles into the traps of traditional creature-feature fare.

Not to be overlooked is Sawyer Jones as Aiden Weaver, Lucas' younger brother. Sawyer too combats the stereotype of an impoverished child whose sole provider is outside of the law. There is a gentleness in both these young boys' performances that is as heartbreaking as it is terrifying.

Lucas and Aiden's father, Frank Weaver (Scott Haze), runs a meth lab in an abandoned mine where you'd think you'd be safe from anything with antlers. Frank Weaver is the prime suspect when a mangled body shows up in the woods, and several townspeople go missing. Frank is also suspected of abusing his boys. But one of Cooper's extraordinary abilities with this film is to shatter the stereotype of addicts as abusive, torturous monsters.

Frank is a loving father with an unforgiving habit.

Horror films have become the go-to analogy for drug addiction, and you don't have to dig deep to find a correlation between meth abuse and the kind of creature that surfaces in Antlers.

Visually, Antlers is stunning as a portrait of a town dying. And there are plenty of gruesome, hide-behind-your-eyes scenes to satisfy most genre fans.

But it's Cooper's commitment to his characters and the performance of the film's two youngest leads that make Antlers more than just a movie about killer—well, you'll have to see for yourself.

Antlers. Directed by Scott Cooper. Starring Keri Russell, Jesse Plemons, Graeme Greene, Jeremy T. Thomas, Sawyer Jones, and Scott Haze. In theatres October 28.