Stanko's Stance

The first 15 seconds of this trailer remind of the hit video game, The Last Of Us. Desolate, dark and bleak…and that tone then persists throughout this entire trailer.

“But one day…little bear came home, and big bear and baby bear were different.”

Yea, I’ll say so!

Antlers has the small town plot description of “A small-town Oregon teacher (Keri Russell) and her brother (Jesse Plemons), the local sheriff, become entwined with a young student (Jeremy T. Thomas) harboring a dangerous secret with frightening consequences.”

Antlers looks and feels a lot like It Comes At Night, which was a 2017 thriller mystery surrounding a family living in isolation having to deal with extraneous circumstances. While the world of Antlers doesn’t appear as post-apocalyptic as It Comes At Night, the same dark intention is prevalent. If you compare the two trailers as well, the visual of a doorway and ominous hallway is there is both.

Also another movie this reminded me of is The Ritual. The brief look of the creature at the end of the trailer reminds me of that from The Ritual. Same type of woodsy, folk-story type of horror.

Staring the main draws of child actor Jeremy T. Thomas, Keri Russell and Jesse Plemons, Antlers is directed by Scott Cooper. I’ve personally seen two of his movies, Out Of The Furnace (2013) and Hostiles (2018). I liked Out Of The Furnace but recall being a tad bit underwhelmed, giving it a B- grade. Hostiles on the other hand I thought was criminally underrated when it came out and I gave it an A-. Cooper started out with the critically acclaimed Crazy Heart in 2009, but also had the underwhelming Black Mass in 2015.

Antlers peaks my interest because this is just a fantastic trailer and I’m a sucker for a unique tone and story. This looks like a horror movie that’ll rattle your mental cage. Color me intrigued!

Also can we talk about the poster for this movie? It’s awesome.

“Antlers” IMDB
“Antlers” Rotten Tomatoes