classicsoncall Review of Antlers

Antlers (2021)

"Me and you..., we was born under the lucky star."

[7/10 · 27 February 2022]

While the movie generates some interest in the horror genre, there's something to be said about its theme of child abuse as well. It shows up not only in the case of the two young sons of meth dealer Frank Weaver (Scott Haze), but also with the principal characters, Cispus Falls, Oregon sheriff Paul Meadows (Jesse Plemons) and his sister Julia (Keri Russell), both of whom were violated by their own father. Some of the situations are surreally grotesque, like when Lucas (Jeremy T. Thomas) cuts up the carcass of a dead animal to feed his younger brother Aiden (Sawyer Jones); that one approached the neighborhood of vomit inducing. With the half eaten remains of unfortunate victims showing up a number of times, the story turns to a Native American legend of the wendigo, described as a diabolical wickedness that devours mankind. It's what took over Frank Weaver's body and turned him into a monstrous living cadaver, for a time locked away in the attic of the Weaver home before it escaped on its murderous rampage. For once, I didn't mind the dark filming, even if it meant masking the appearance of the wendigo. It was almost as if the monster didn't have a real shape of its own, as it was portrayed in various scenes exhibiting spikes, horns and the titled antlers, which led me to wonder why they just didn't call the picture 'Wendigo'. It might have made more sense. It also made me search my memory on whether or not Scully and Mulder ever investigated the legend of the wendigo. Close, but not quite. In a first season episode of "X-Files", they got involved with a creature called a manitou, essentially a Native American version of a werewolf.