For tonight’s movie we’re heading to recent years and checking out 2021’s “Anters”. This is a horror movie from director Scott Cooper, who has given us a number of high quality movies including the excellent neo-noir “Out of the Furnace” (2013). Other movies of his include “Crazy Heart” (2009), Hostiles (2017) and more recently “The Pale Blue Eye” (2022). Antlers was Coopers first horror movie and his lowest rated on IMdb (At 5.9/10). It also scored an underwhelming 57/100 from critics on Metacritic. The story was adapted from Nick Antosca’s short story “The Quiet Boy” and stars Keri Russell, Jesse Plemons & Jeremy T. Thomas.
“Frank Weaver” (Scott Haze) runs a secret Meth lab out of an inactive mine. He and an accomplice are attacked there by a mysterious creature. Later he becomes semi-feral, constantly hungry for freshly killed meat. This is provided by his son “Lucas” (Thomas). “Julia” (Russel), a teacher at Lucas’ school starts to suspect Lucas is being abused and decides to investigate. When the body of the Meth Lab accomplice is found torn in half, Julia’s brother “Paul” (Plemons), the local Sheriff begins to investigate. When the leads bring both investigations together the pair are left with the possibility that something unnatural may be going on and that poor Lucas may be caught up in the middle of it.
The Grey, The Bland and The Average
If I could sum up Antlers in one word, it would be “Bland”. It’s not that it is particularly bad, it’s just got nothing about it that I found at all interesting. Russell and Plemons give reasonable, performances. Jeremy T. Thomas gives a good performance as disturbed child Lucas. But none of the characters are particularly compelling. There is an obvious theme here of parental abuse, but the film doesn’t really do anything of note with it. The movie is a slow burn with a fairly short running time (99 minutes). By necessity that means there isn’t a whole lot to the plot. So what we have is a fairly straight forward monster movie with a slow, plodding pace.
This is the kind of film that could perhaps be salvaged by the style. This was a Guillermo del Toro produced movie and the kind of movie I could really see shine under his direction. Instead, he hand picked Scott Cooper to direct. A good director, but I’m not sure Cooper is a well suited to horror. Here he is assisted by cinematographer Florian Hoffmeister, again not a bad choice. But what we ended up getting are very bland visuals supporting a slow, yet straightforward story. All the ingredients are here, fog, rain, dark and light. We have some wide shots and overhead shots. But it all just looks dull. Perhaps the issue is it all looks too real instead of horror films preferred ethereal look.
Oh Look, Daddy Issues
The creature itself, when we actually get to see it is pretty well constructed. Once again though, it isn’t really presented in a way that makes me feel anything. It has a pretty low body count and I barely knew any of the victims. Perhaps the area the film is most lacking is in atmosphere. It doesn’t really manage to establish a mood. Yet there were plenty of things here to work with. A child that collects roadkill to take home is pretty creepy, but that’s not really how he is presented. Instead, the movie is sympathetic to him right away, so what we are watching is drama and not horror. There’s also an innate tragedy to what has happened to his family. But neither this nor any history of abuse in the family is really explored.
Perhaps this is a case of the themes not properly resonating with the story. Lucas’ father has a secret meth lab we see in the opening. The next time we see him, he is locking himself in the basement to protect his kids. It doesn’t look like he was previously abusive to them, though obviously not father of the year. After this he slowly becomes monstrous. The suggestion is Paul and Julia’s father became abusive (or more so) due to alcoholism. So there is a clear link here. However, we’re only ever told about this abuse and honestly, it doesn’t really impact that story that much. Julia would likely have been concerned about a potentially abused child in her classroom anyway. A flashback or two could have really helped, especially with the transitions blended with the current story.
Conclusion
This movie has an IMdb rating of 5.9 (At the time of writing). As a big fan of Coopers’ “Out of the Furnace” movie from 2013, my instinct was this was a harsh rating and I would probably score it higher. Sadly, that won’t be the case. While there is no outright failures here, the acting, directing, cinematography, music and editing all all competent. It just doesn’t work. This feels like they went with the first draft of the script that clearly needed more work. I’m not sure Cooper was the right director either. He does dramas and thrillers well, but horror needs a different mentality. His “The Pale Blue Eye” (2022) had similar issues, but managed to work thanks to a more complex story and longer running time.
The best I can give this movie is a 5.5/10 and I was debating with myself between scoring it at a five. The reason being that when I give a 5.5 I normally can recommended it to at least some people. Maybe it’s a franchise movie that is of interest to fans of that franchise. Maybe it’s a fun B-Movie that while objectively bad is enough fun for fans of B-Movies to enjoy. Here though, I’m not sure this will really appeal much to anyone. But it is very competently made and doesn’t have any glaring faults. So a five would be harsh. But a six would be a universal recommendation. So a 5.5/10 it is.
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