Julia Meadows (Keri Russell), a teacher in small-town Oregon, becomes concerned that one of her students, Lucas (Jeremy T. Thomas), is being abused. As she and others look into the situation, it becomes apparent that Lucas is hiding a much darker secret that anyone could have expected.

What Works:

This is a dark movie. Unapologetically dark. From the trailer, I figured that would be the case, but Antlers doesn’t pull any punches. Abuse is a major theme of the movie and no one is safe from being killed or even eaten in some cases. I really respect movies that shy away from the darkness and Antlers is certainly one of those.

To continue with how horrific this movie is, there is some really awesome gore here. Like I mentioned above, people get eaten in this movie and there is enough left over to be found by our characters…and it’s always nasty. Anyone who is a big gore-hound, like myself, will definitely enjoy it.

The first 2/3rds of the movie act like a classic small-town murder mystery. I definitely got some Stephen King and Twin Peaks vibes. I love those kinds of stories. They always manage to get me engaged and although we know more about what’s going on than the characters, we don’t know everything, which makes it feel more of a mystery movie at times than a straightforward horror film.

The atmosphere is really fantastic. The film takes place in Oregon, but was shot in British Columbia. The mountainous setting really works fantastic for this sinister story and we get lots of fog and grim weather to match the mood,

What Sucks:

The 3rd act isn’t quite as good as the first two. We get two of our main characters fighting with the creature and neither fight looks very good. Luckily, the more emotional moments of the 3rd act work fine, but the climatic action is underwhelming.

Most of the characters are a little bit underdeveloped as well. We are given a really interesting potential setup with Julia’s brother, Paul (Jesse Plemons), being her investigative partner for the movie, instead of a random love interest. These two have some tough backstory, but we never really get enough of what it was and it’s never fully wrapped up.

Finally, Graham Greene is an actor I really like, but he is woefully underused in this film. He has about four scenes and is only used to deliver exposition. It’s a waste of a talented actor.

Verdict:

Antlers is a very dark film, with awesome gore, great atmosphere, and a really solid first two acts. The 3rd act loses some steam and some of the characters are underused and underdeveloped, but this movie has still got it going on.