In October 2017 the podcast Lore launched a television adaptation for Amazon Prime. Read that again. A podcast was adapted into a TV show. And this wasn’t a particularly narrative podcast like Homecoming that could tell a thrilling story or a true-crime true-story that just as easily works as an unsolved murder told on Biography (channel 119 on Dish Network) on a random Sunday evening in the mid-2000’s like anything Serial digs up, or Doctor Death, or you know any of the ten thousand true crime podcasts that I’ve listened to while at the gym or unable to go to sleep. Okay actually Serial landed on HBO and Doctor Death is a *checks notes* a Peacock Original? But you get my point.
Look, side note, evidenced by that very specific description of what I did with my weekends as a less than popular kid in middle school, along with watching episodes of Ancient Aliens on History Channel or ANYTHING involving Nostradamus or secret future codes in the Bible also on History Channel (hey Ice Road Trucker haters, that channel never had *that* much passion for actual History) I loved true crime shit from a young age; gobbled up anything creepy or mysterious. October is my favorite month.
So of course I’ve also had a soft spot for folklore and spooky stories. Which brings me back to Lore.
And will eventually bring me to a new release this weekend by Scott Cooper, Antlers.
Some of my favorite Lore episodes were featured in the short two season run of the show. They are mostly early ones, if you want to get into the podcast and can see Aaron Mahnke’s haunting voice as a feature not a flaw, just start with episode one and go. A story that didn’t make the cut for adaptation was Episode 18: Hunger Pains. It begins as all episodes do, setting the stage with a frightening tale making you question what is or isn’t true in the world. This introduces the fear of starvation though the infamous Donner Party. As if the normal human fear of cannibalism isn’t enough (and it is for great horrors like Silence of the Lambs or Sweeney Todd or that one episode of The Walking Dead) Aaron Mehnke takes us further into the Native American lore of the Wendigo.
A steady diet of horror adjacent Monster-of-the-Week TV shows has given me a passing understanding of the Wendigo. Or at least how western culture interprets it.
- A large figure with the head of a deer
- Lives in cold abandoned places
- Spirit can jump from person to person
- Eats people
Thank you Supernatural, X-Files, etc. Now how about that new movie.
Antlers takes place in an old abandoned Oregon mining town. We open with a The Shining level atmospheric drone shot of the water and trees and setting we’re in. But then the camera goes from the wide open country into a cramped dark mine where a couple heroes are engaged in some illicit activities. They’re cooking meth. But it’s a shock to go from sweeping nature to underground isolation. Before any mythical monsters start eating anyone, the audience is already on edge. And then there is an attack and the last shot we get before the cold open ends is one of the guys’ sons starting his way down the mine with his fate uncertain.
Cut to school teacher Keri Russell. She grew up in this two stoplight town but left for California before coming back to be with her brother, Sheriff Jesse Plemons. All that guy does is pick winners. She wanted out as soon as she could because, we learn through tasteful flashbacks, she was abused by their father. Now one of her students in class in addition to getting bullied by the other kids is also showing the tell tale signs of neglect at home.
Everything is tight in this movie. I prefer a simple stripped down horror and there is nothing in Antlers that doesn’t need to be there. Not one single scene, interaction, or shot is out of place. It doesn’t have that lazy scene of a character hearing about the Wendigo and Googling it to learn a list of facts. There’s something more unsettling about never quite knowing what the rules of the creature are.
And the characters are real. Not overly complicated and not full of jokes. Keri Russell’s character carries trauma from her childhood that mirrors what the kid in her class is going through now. Everyone’s story is there for a reason in a way you can build in fiction. But also, statistically not that unlikely for a small town like this. The details of the crappy old house the main characters live in just feel like the kind of place where everyone who can leave has. Hope has left this town. It’s the kind of real place all over America today that feels like a darkness looms over it. And in this place, it actually does.
When we finally see the monster, the creature design is amazing. A monster slowly emerges from a man that spent most his life being a monster of a different kind. And the acting from the kid still looking for approval from what is now a full fledged demon is amazing. Horror works great with creepy kids, and this kid fits the bill. Definitely a great performance and also a great look. Dark circles under the eyes and timid and jumpy, but like that because he’s living with a monster and always has to be on guard. And the kicker is he’s probably been like that even before his father took a trip down the mine and was infected with the spirit of the Wendigo.
The current state of horror is confusing. We still have the old slashers and cheap franchises chugging along. Click the link, I’ll bet you didn’t know there was another Paranormal Activity movie that came out…today. Social horrors of modern American life are being shown more obliquely in popular horror than ever before. And there’s a certain A24 brand of classy horror that has its audience and always ends with some kind of balls to the wall witchcraft ending.
I’m on record on this website that that last sub-genre is not for me. But watching Antlers I got a taste of what the people who gushed over Hereditary liked about it. Slow plodding and focused story, but instead of devolving into chaos and pure evil at the end, we have an actual monster to confront. The people aren’t consumed by the evil, they find a way to fight it. There is hope in Antlers (yes even after the final scene) that you don’t get from Suspiria (2018) and the like.
And I guess at the end of the day, I also just prefer folklore and monsters to witches and cults.
To each his spooky own in the month of horror. Antlers is my favorite horror I’ve watched this October and so far 10 full months into the year, it is my favorite new release of 2021.
You can see Antlers in select theaters October 29, 2021. Fun IMDb fact, it’s based on a short story by Nick Antosca a guy with Hannibal, Channel Zero, and uh Teen Wolf (the show) credits on his page.
And hey it is horror month. Cole wrote about all the movies he watched last year here. And if you check back in a couple days, he’ll tell you what he’s been watching this year too!
Want to find a showtime? Well, here you go!
Feel free to follow Antlers on Twitter and Instagram.
In ANTLERS, a small-town Oregon teacher (Keri Russell) and her brother (Jesse Plemons), the local sheriff, discover that a young student (Jeremy T. Thomas) is harboring a dangerous secret with frightening consequences.
Directed by: Scott Cooper
Screenplay by: C. Henry Chaisson & Nick Antosca and Scott Cooper, based upon the short story THE QUIET BOY by Nick Antosca
Produced by: Guillermo del Toro, p.g.a., David Goyer, p.g.a., J. Miles Dale,p.g.a.
Cast: Keri Russell, Jesse Plemons, Jeremy T. Thomas, Graham Greene, Scott Haze, Rory Cochrane, Amy Madigan
Check out other Horror, Scary, and Halloween film reviews while you’re here!