Antlers (2021)

Directed by Scott Cooper. Starring Keri Russell, Jesse Plemons, Jeremy M. Thomas, Rory Cochrane, Amy Madigan, Graham Greene, Scott Haze, Sawyer Jones. [R]

Small-town teacher Russell is concerned about a strange, withdrawn student (Thomas) in her class, little realizing that among the dark secrets he’s harboring is that his father and brother were recently attacked by a cannibalistic spirit, and the possessed father is transforming into an antlered monster. More ambitious and issues-driven than the average creature feature, but that’s its Achilles heel—childhood abuse, drug addiction allegories, environmental regulations rollbacks, inherited trauma, indigenous people mythologies, and more are all squirming through the pages of the screenplay, but the topics are adrift and don’t meaningfully serve the atmospheric dread and bloody ambushes that sell the motion picture. The pace is also turgid most of the way, with a tepid fright quotient and a disappointing, infrequently-seen monster, which lets good lensing and sturdy direction go to waste. Based on a short story (“The Quiet Boy”) by co-scripter Nick Antosca. Co-produced by Guillermo del Toro and David S. Goyer.

44/100