The Big Picture

Antlers
is a creature feature and folk horror movie based on Nick Antosca’s short story “The Quiet Boy.”
The wendigo creature design, created by director Scott Cooper, producer Guillermo del Toro, and the team, is visually engaging and frightening.
The film, which stars Jesse Plemons and Keri Russell, combines folk horror with social commentary on addiction and small-town America’s struggles.

Mixed in with all the brightly colored art-house horror movies of the last few years is Scott Cooper’s 2021 Antlers. Based on Nick Antosca’s 2019 short story, “The Quiet Boy,” Antlers is a classic creature feature and folk horror mash-up. The movie follows a teacher, Julia Meadows (Keri Russell), and her police chief brother, Paul Meadows (Jesse Plemons), as they investigate what at first appears to be a child abuse case. However, as the case unfolds, the Meadows siblings discover that the culprit isn’t a cruel parent but an otherworldly monster. Having worked with Guillermo del Toro on creating the creature’s design, Cooper delivers not only a fearsome monster but a visually engaging one. Watching Antlers is like reading an old Stephen King novel. The world is gritty, and the monster is properly frightening, but there is a human element at the heart of the story. It’s terrifying but impossible to look away from.

Antlers Release Date October 29, 2021 Runtime 99 Main Genre Horror Writers Nick Antosca , Henry Chaisson Tagline Pray it desires not you. Expand

Guillermo del Toro Helped Design the ‘Antlers’ Wendigo Creature
There is a fine line in monster movies. It doesn’t matter how many bodies the creature has left behind or how impressive the sound design is. If the monster looks campy or unsophisticated, the audience stops being afraid the minute it appears in full. Antlers’ wendigo beats these odds and delivers an actually frightening-looking monster. A small team made up of director Scott Cooper, concept designer Guy Davis, producer Shane Mahan, and producer and horror legend Guillermo del Toro, conceived the wendigo’s look.

In a 2022 interview with the Stan Winston School of Character Arts, the team explained they wanted to pay special attention to the wendigo’s Native American origins and incorporate “elements of the earth.” Halfway through the film, the Meadows siblings go to former police chief, Warren Stokes (Graham Green), for help identifying the wendigo. While Paul dismisses the wendigo as a folklore monster, Stokes reminds him that the wendigo is not a myth to him or his people. The script acknowledges the origins of the wendigo, but the physical design of the creature hammers it home.

For the “elements of the earth,” the team was especially drawn to the appearance of iron ore and the earth’s core. The final result is a triumph. Just before the human fully transforms into the wendigo, their chest glows. Once the transformation is complete, the human body looks like, and is described as, “a burned-out shell.” Throughout the movie, it’s suggested that the wendigo is nesting in the mine and the creature is first introduced in an abandoned mine shaft. The appearance of burning in the wendigo’s design fleshes the creature out. Combined with Stokes’ warning that the wendigo is real, the audience can believe that the wendigo of Antlers exists and lives in the wooded area outside this ordinary small town.

Antlers distinguishes itself from other visually engaging horror movies released the same year. Rather than the electric coloring of Titane, Antlers leans into the dark coloring of traditional horror. Establishing shots interspersed throughout the film are of remote, wooded areas and swaths of still water. Everything is set in a cool, muted color palate, often with a heavy, rolling fog. The eerie tranquility and fog are evocative of the iconic visuals in 2006’s Silent Hill. The coloring and physical setting of Antlers, however, is on par with Catherine Hardwicke’s moody 2008 adaptation of Twilight. The Pacific Northwest is a criminally underused backdrop in horror cinema. Antlers uses its Oregon setting to wash the majority of the movie in cool blues and grays. In doing so, Antlers feels like a winter movie, permanently caught in the cold. This atmosphere is pointedly juxtaposed with the wendigo’s association with burning and heat. In the final showdown of the film, Julie ignites a flare. The spitting red fire and infernal glow of the wendigo’s chest stand out in the cool, misting air.

Related Guillermo del Toro Helps Create the Wendigo in ‘Antlers’ Featurette A blind, man-eating monster? Created by GdT? No way!

The small-town, Americana vibe of Antlers is only strengthened through Cooper’s utilization of cultural markers woven throughout the film. Wooden shacks, convenience stores, and abandoned mine shafts-turned-meth-labs take up several of the sets. Homemade charms meant to repel the wendigo hang in the mine shaft. These little details come together for a palpable folk horror vibe. The opioid epidemic is referenced several times, with Julie listening to a statistics report on the radio and Paul frequently taking pills of no clear origin. While there is deference to the wendigo’s origin, Cooper also uses the monster as a shorthand for addiction. The first victim to succumb to the wendigo is Frank Weaver, an addict who runs the meth lab in the abandoned mine. Paul’s pill habit is unspoken throughout the film, but he ultimately becomes the final victim of the wendigo. The destructive nature of the wendigo mirrors that of drug addiction, with those infected by the wendigo described as “hollowed out” and “shells.”

Jesse Plemons’ Performance in the Final Scene of ‘Antlers’ Will Give You Chills
Image Via Searchlight Pictures

Antlers closes the movie out on an unnerving note. Utilizing a calm lake backdrop, with Julia and Paul peaceably watching Lucas by the water, the audience is primed to believe this piecemeal family may heal. With the wendigos defeated and the three united, there is hope for them yet. Except Antlers is unrelenting in its dread as it reveals that Paul has been infected by the wendigo. Jesse Plemons plays this final scene brilliantly. The last bit of dialogue is between Julia and Paul, “Could you kill something you love?” with Julia never verbally answering. As she walks away, Paul’s eyes begin to leak black goo. He coughs up a similar blackish blood into his hand and stares off after Julia. Julia’s lack of answer hangs heavy over Paul and the audience. Plemons’ entire face twists, with micro-expressions of panic and fear. And yet, his fear is not of becoming a wendigo. Paul never saw the wendigo, as he was attacked from behind at his house and was absent from the final showdown. Instead, he fears Julia, who has shown she has the strength and grit to do what must be done.

Antlers makes great use of its monster. Once the wendigo appears on-screen, the audience is desperate to see more of it. It fits in with the film’s environment, feeling like a natural byproduct of the woodsy setting. But more than that, the wendigo is representative of horrors facing much of small-town America today. Cooper’s wendigo represents familial abuse through the backstory of the Meadows siblings and addiction, as seen through Frank Weaver and Paul, as well as drug addiction that plagues the small town. Julia does her very best to take down the monster, but it is not enough. The wendigo has found another host — in the person most dear to her, no less. The final scene trades out the traditional jump scares and loud noises for an impossible-to-shake sensation of complete and utter dread.

Antlers is available to rent on Amazon in the U.S.

Rent on Amazon