Antlers

Antlers

The film “Antlers” is about darkness. Darkness in the world and in oneself. Supernatural darkness. Literal, low-lit filmmaking darkness. It’s also a slimy, icky, violent mess of a movie that doesn’t always work but undeniably feels like it has sprung from the souls of its creators especially director Scott Cooper and producer Guillermo del Toro. Like Cooper’s other films, it concerns people on the economic fringe who carry heavy emotional burdens. Like del Toro’s movies, it posits a world where real pain can open doors to unimaginable horror (one can easily trace some of co-writer Nick Antosca’s previous work themes to this project as well, for all you “Channel Zero” fans).

Trauma, grief, abuse, addiction these are not new genre themes and those who are quick to dismiss “elevated horror” will find much to gripe about here too but that would also mean dismissing this movie’s strong craft workmanship across the board along with its committed ensemble performances and admirable ambition. “Antlers” may fall short of what it could have been but I suspect over time there will be an audience for this one.

It feels like we’ve been waiting forever for Cooper’s film which was scheduled to come out in April 2020 but now opens 18 months later; based on Antosca’s short story The Quiet Boy,” it takes place in a small Oregon town like so many others we’ve seen before a blue-collar community that has been decimated by economic downturns and drug addiction.

Jesse Plemons plays Paul Meadows the sheriff of this part of the country which seems like it was thriving 30 years ago and may not exist in another 30 years. His sister Julia (Keri Russell) has come back home to a place that already haunted her based on childhood trauma and now just looks like maybe the saddest town on Earth.

Julia has also returned to a teaching job, where she becomes intrigued by the quiet boy in class, Lucas (Jeremy T. Thomas). You know the type a kid who seems just a little too skittish and quiet, as if something is very wrong at home. It turns out he’s right. Lucas’ mother died not long ago and his father Frank (Scott Haze) is taking care of him and his brother Aiden (Sawyer Jones) but everyone knows that’s not going well.

In the movie’s extremely effective opening scene which sets the mood perfectly Frank is attacked by something along with a drug-producing colleague of his. Since then he’s been physically falling apart inside their house, barely there mentally outside it; feral almost like a werewolf-zombie hybrid thing; growling around at night while Lucas locks himself in his room hoping dad doesn’t get any worse than he already is about to become.

Florian Hoffmeister (a collaborator of Terence Davies on “The Deep Blue Sea” and “A Quiet Passion,” as well as a veteran of AMC’s “The Terror,” which shares these film’s tone) shot this visually assured film, “Antlers.” It is not afraid to use shadows in such a way that you find yourself leaning forward, trying to make out the shape of the thing haunting the dark corners of the room but never so much so that it feels muddled or unfair. Cooper and Hoffmeister give us a movie with a bold visual language, and the great Dylan Tichenor (“There Will Be Blood”) cuts it in ways that further enhance its forced POVs and disconcerting angles.

If there’s one thing wrong with “Antlers,” it’s how much its script is willing to underline its themes instead of people who embody them. We don’t really get to know any of these characters, and supporting turns by talented performers like Amy Madigan and Graham Greene feel particularly undercooked. Russell and Plemons do an awful lot of heavy lifting in order to help their roles feel three-dimensional; they’re both incredibly gifted actors, and you wish they had more meat on the bone here. It’s also a pretty monotonous movie; it could’ve used some humor to break up the child-torture sections.

Scott Cooper makes movies about broken people; Guillermo del Toro makes movies about broken places. Both filmmakers are fascinated by darkness, so fans should be excited about what they’ve done for Antlers.”

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