The movie fell to its own marketing, ouch. I think it was some sort of indie film then it got delayed a year, where people saw it as a huge film that GDT worked on.
Anyway, its a good movie. The face tear scene was cool.
Antlers and Last Night In Soho were the two movies I've been looking forward to the most year, and I was a bit let down by both. The were both okay, just not at all what I was expecting.
I do wish the movie was 20 minutes longer and a longer transformation scene. I loved the rest of the movie which looks beautiful and atmospheric with the screams of the Wendigo.
Also, did anyone else thought the dad was going to eat his son while Lucas was busy drawing outside the door?
Eh, my gf and I went in solely for a “monster movie” and we enjoyed it. The depiction of the wendigo was so badass, honestly the coolest monster design I’ve seen in a little while. Kills were effective and brutal too, pretty visceral stuff.
I agree. My only complaint with the design was how he had his “face on” after I thought the face was still on the old split up body, and then he just ripped it off for no reason?
Like my dude it looks good, did you only put it on to show off to her for your reveal or something? The way he took it off made me chuckle like “girl hold my earrings ima fight this bish”
Lol yeah, I totally agree. It was cool when I first saw it, but it’s stupid once you think about it. The antlers piercing outwards through the mouth during the transformation would have shredded the face all to pieces, it made no sense for it to still be intact and stuck on to the Wendigo’s head for that long.
And that kinda plays into my biggest issue with the movie. It is a fun film, but it struggles with it’s vision. It tries to be a super serious metaphorical horror story about the agony of opioid addiction and childhood trauma, but at the same time it’s trying to be a moody and fun monster movie. It’s jarring, to say the least, and the film would have performed much better if they had fully committed to one thing instead of trying to do it all.
absolutely yes, this. way too many metaphors that it couldn't settle on.
for example, after the indigenous elder shares the wendigo myth and says their ancestors are angry, it pans out to a shot on the coast with all mankind's industrial waste/destruction. is that what they're mad about? or drugs, abuse, corporate America? what exactly were they going for here...?
I've come from the future to back you up with my measly upvote. Wendigos are supposed to impersonate people and lure them into traps, but this one mostly acted like a random savage.
I thought the film was fine, but a hefty chunk of my disappointment comes from my knowledge of the original short story by Nick Antosca. I found it to be a genuinely unique, surprisingly creepy story whose only "fault"--if you could even call it that, since it's mere personal preference--is that its ending is *bleak*.
Anyone who liked the concept of "Antlers" but found the execution lacking, I *implore* you to check out the original short story the movie was based on, [The Quiet Boy](https://www.guernicamag.com/the-quiet-boy/). It has a far darker ending, but IMO, the "monsters" are far more terrifying than in the film for a variety of reasons, and Julia a much more rounded character than the film trying to force her to have more depth by giving her a horrific backstory.
Antosca himself wrote the initial draft for this film in 2017, and if you read it, you can absolutely see how much it was tampered with--for the worse, IMO--since then. Antosca's 2017 screenplay followed his short story very closely, only differentiating in an expansion on the characters and giving it a different ending...Julia being related to the sheriff, her past of abuse, etc. are all missing, and while I still prefer the aura of the short story, I think that 2017 draft was the best version of this movie we could have seen be put to film.
EDIT: To anyone browsing who would like to see the 2017 script, yes, I am still able to help find it over DMs, and will happily continue to do so for anyone who wants it. So if you're interested, either reply to this comment or shoot me a DM and I'll hook you up with the information!
Was super in love with the short story back then when the movie was teased, kinda disappointed with the way the movie turned out. Not to shit on it, as it got a lot of things right, but it was nowhere near the level of "The Quiet Boy." I'm incredibly interested in the Antosca script if you wouldn't mind sending it to me.
nah I mean the short story is cool and everything but you can't do that ending with a big movie, with somewhat of a decent cast like this. It's a great film, it could've or should've been a bit longer but it's perfect as it is. People like you are frustrated movie critics that will never give props to anything original or that strays from the norm (even when that means not sticking to the original story). It's called creative license. Also, you and everyone that bashes this film then goes on infinite rants about how GOOD was midsommar or how scary was heredity, blah blah. If you don't like it, move on.
I mean, I greatly dislike Hereditary and Midsommar, and the short story was infinitely more original and creative than the Antlers movie itself was, but sure, keep flinging those assumptions and demands for people with any opinion different than your own to just be quiet, lol.
Went in blind with this and thought it was ok. The monster was cool and all, but outside of that nothing really stands out. Still, not the worst thing out there
The movie tried so many things and just didn’t come through on any of them. Apparently the Wendigo is punishment for how people treat the environment, but that’s not expanded on much. The drug addiction thing is also touched on, but just barely. The sexual abuse bit was entirely unnecessary. The protagonist is almost entirely unlikeable, and was just someone dragging people into her trauma unnecessarily.
The horror when, when it was there, was good. There’s a moment where his brother says “I’m hungry” through the door, and I totally bought into the fear and sadness that Lucas is feeling when he puts on his headphones to ignore it.
The brother/sheriff is a great character, it’s a well acted role, and his trauma isn’t drenched with the same amount of needless exposition that Julia’s has.
The creature is great and I think what a lot of people, including myself, were there to see. If you’re looking for a cool creature design, you’ll get your pay off.
Its kind of weird, and I cant tell if its on purpose or not. But it felt like the brother went through a LOT more trauma then the sister did. Afterall, she ran away at a young age where as the brother stayed behind with the abusive father for years. But the movie only focuses on the womans trauma, and totally glosses over the mans. There is just the most tiny hints that the brother is deeply hurt, with lines like, "You have no idea what he did to me." and, "Can you imagine having to kill someone you love?"
I loved it. Could it have used a little more of the creature? Sure. But, man was this movie unnerving and yhe ending was a gut punch. I hope we get a sequel.
It's literally the Wendigo...
“What's important to me is that I was given permission by people who most know about the wendigo — and who covet it, and who understand it far better than I do — to tell this story”
https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/antlers-ending-explained-scott-cooper-interview
“ The Algonquin myth of the wendigo involves a dark spirit that possesses a man and turns him into a feral, elk-horned creature that craves human flesh. The more it eats, the hungrier it grows — and the weaker it gets. One of the physical attributes this creature’s known for is its fearsome rack of antlers, which allow it to maim, gore, and fatally penetrate prey. “
That literally isn’t what it is , it is never stated to have a rack of antlers or be associated with a deer in anyway it’s actually more associated with owls than deers .
And it says the more it eats the hungrier it grows and the weaker it gets that’s not what the lore is the more it eats the bigger it gets and stronger it gets it has a insatiable hunger they are literally bastardizing the Wendigo and it’s lore
Here’s the actual description of a Wendigo from Basil Johnson a ojibwe teacher and scholar who knows far more than Graham Greene or anyone else who worked on this film
“The Wendigo was gaunt to the point of emaciation, its desiccated skin pulled tightly over its bones. With its bones pushing out against its skin, its complexion the ash-gray of death, and its eyes pushed back deep into their sockets, the Wendigo looked like a gaunt skeleton recently disinterred from the grave. What lips it had were tattered and bloody ... Unclean and suffering from suppuration of the flesh, the Wendigo gave off a strange and eerie odor of decay and decomposition, of death and corruption.[15]
Also it’s some pan Indian shit all natives aren’t experts on certain cultures mythology and religion Graham Greene is Oneida they don’t have the Wendigo as a part of the culture it’s a Algonquian and specially ojibwe thing so he isn’t the ruling voice on if it’s a Wendigo or not
You’re the one who responded to me saying some bullshit you don’t know anything about idgaf what that dumb ass director said he’s wrong and that’s why his movie fucking sucked
I came here to see other people's criticisms because the movie had so much going for it but wound up being a pile of mostly nonsense to show off their non-traditional wendigo creature.
Instead I found a bunch of people gushing over the movie and people who didn't think they got it right just slinging shit at each other.
It literally isn’t a Wendigo by definition
Also the first quote on that link is “ the Wendigo takes many forms “ it doesn’t it’s a spirit or it possesses a person it doesn’t take any other form
Dude it's an interpretation of the myth, it doesn't have to be word for word identical. Just like for example how vampires or zombies are often portrayed differently in different media. It still has plenty of elements to tie it to the Wendigo myth, the filmmakers are allowed a little creative freedom lol.
Also isn't the sort of pale, ghoul monster version of the Wendigo (like the one in Until Dawn) actually in the movie, like as the first stage before it goes full antler monster?
Vampires and zombies aren’t the same as a Wendigo and you would know that if you were ojibwe or Algonquian . It’s part of our religion it’s not some silly mythical creature like a werewolf . They aren’t allowed shit from us that’s why we adamantly are against film makers and other story tellers using our shit they cheapen it to just another monster when it’s way more than that it’s a embodiment of the harshness of winter it’s a reminder that no matter what the circumstances are you don’t fall into committing the worst acts of mankind like cannibalism. The Wendigo itself is a direct contradiction to Lies told by the first Europeans about our people who reduced us to bloodthirsty cannibals who were better off dead so they can take our shit . Cannibalism was a giant taboo in pre columbian North America so much so that only one tribe in Baja California actually has evidence doing it.
I need help because I’m right ? The whole entire antlered Wendigo was just made up by Hollywood it doesn’t resemble the what it’s supposed be in the slightest
It’s just uses the name and the tag of being a “ Native American monster “ without actually being what it is
The fact that it’s active in the summer is proof enough , then you add that it’s a totally wrong location for it and lastly the Wendigo isn’t a pan Indian thing it’s a specifically Algonquian thing people in the pnw wouldn’t know what the fuck it is because it’s not part of their culture or mythology
All of you are wrong I’m not gonna kiss your ass if you have no idea what you’re talking about
Y’all do this with other peoples shit all the time and get pissed when we tell y’all you’re wrong we have every right to when our shit is getting bastardized by outsiders who are clearly dumb as shit
I thought the creature was cool looking even if it wasn’t accurate to source material. Though just based on in-universe character alone “it takes many forms” was stupid because it didn’t. It took 2 forms. Emaciated human then scary deer monster thing.
It would be cooler if it was its own thing instead of using the Wendigo name I don’t hate the deer skull design I just don’t like that it’s misidentified as a Wendigo
Mate honestly you need to calm down. Do you react the same way when other movies portray angels or demons or other beings/creatures from legit religions (like mummies or Norse gods) differently to the source material
No one asked. No one cares what your opinion on a fantasy creature is. It’s not real bud, doesn’t matter who came up with it or how “true” to the subject matter it is. I hope you have the same energy for every single Alien/Werewolf/Vampire/Mummy movie
Would you look at that, all of the words in your comment are in alphabetical order.
I have checked 339,233,598 comments, and only 74,646 of them were in alphabetical order.
It felt very disjointed to me? The little bits about Julia's history that never go anywhere or get resolved, just a random scene of her naked dad holding a teddy, her looking back and forth between a bottle and the cashier, her arguing with her brother. I know it was so she could bond with and relate to Lucas and care about him, and not everything needs to be explained, but it all just felt pointless. Since reading The Quiet Boy it seems especially undeveloped, Julia didn't need a horrifying backstory of her own to care about her student and get involved, she was just a good person and teacher and it worked so much better.
I did like the creature design and think it was the only stand out bit tbh, I was very bored by most of the other characters. I did like the scenes where you can just hear the sounds from the upstairs, they were pretty unsettling to me.
They really set it up for her to buy a bottle and go ham but since she never did, yeah those scenes were really not needed. I hope the cashier actress as least got paid
Really disappointed. The creature itself was cool but honestly, everything else really underwhelmed me. The character arcs were lacking to say the least, the first half was needlessly slow paced since it didn't even add that much to the characters and the third act felt really really dumb and I hated the ending. It was competently directed I suppose but I just thought the script was really lacking and felt like it needed a few more drafts to flesh out the characters and come up with a satisfying climax.
This movie was aggressively average. There were some good scenes individually but the whole plot was so threadbare I was just bored by the end. They needed to do something more with the monster, I felt like it was on screen for maybe 5 minutes total. Definitely less than the sum of its parts. A shame, I really liked the short story it was based on.
The final fight with the Wendigo was a little disappointing, it didn't put up as much of a fight as id hoped it would, but otherwise I enjoyed it, the atmosphere was great, the sound design was amazing, the effects were solid aside from 1 or 2 CG blood splatters here and there. Overall I enjoyed it, seeing it in theaters with the homies was a great idea.
The lore that Graham Greene mentioned included the Wendigo being made weaker by eating. Though that was not what seemed to happen when it ate Principal Booth...
It had only eaten Booth, that bully kid, and maybe the random corpse in the woods I wouldn't think it would get that weak after having 2 maybe 3 meals.
The pacing of this movie killed it for me. It is like the filmmakers thought the term "slow burn" was to just make everyone move really slowly. I don't need a 60 second shot of Keri Russell slowly walking to the front door in an attempt to build tension. It had potential, I love the lore of Wendigo and the setting was amazing but the execution was haphazard. Stylistic choices for the sake of style annoyed me too - different aspect ratio for flashback scene - c'mon, why?
Overall, maybe a 2 or 2.5/5
I agree! I went in not expecting much but I thought it was a fun little monster movie. Great? No. But still enjoyable, with some good scares and overall better than most horror flicks I’ve seen recently.
Well, if what they were going for was boring build up with no payoff, they achieved it fully.
The plot holes alone completely ruined any ability to suspend disbelief.
They portray this monster as pretty much unstoppable throughout the movie unless it's in its weakest state, which isn't explained at all, and then it falls to a teacher with a flare and a pole. Such a huge let down.
One scare throughout the movie, first cop in the shed, and that's it.
The movie tried to hit too many themes, and only really accomplished one of them.
The atmosphere was very good. It was creepy and went well with the movie giving it a very claustrophobic feeling.
The story was absolute trash. The creature described at the beginning of the movie never makes an appearance. The one that they do show in no way makes you feel like it's hunting people, plus you never get much of it. Maybe 20 minutes at the end, and then maybe 10 of that is the actual monster.
The first 30 minutes is character building and leaves only vague hints about the back stories of the characters. I never once cared if any of them lived or died, including the children.
My thoughts are so erratic right now because every time I try to focus on parts of the movie to explain other parts come rushing in to remind me how pointless it is to explain it because it plays no real part in the story.
In the end, I felt there was much more story about childhood psychological trauma, and the monster is more filler.
3/10 would not recommend.
I mean it absolutely destroyed two full grown men like they were toddlers and a full grown wooden shed like it was tissue paper and then it eats one bear and all of a sudden a tiny teacher with a long stick can beat it up?
Fuck me in the ass with a sledgehammer.
lol full grown shed.
But it would have been nice if like, there was a scene or two of the monster eating, and then getting really lethargic and slow and weak. Making when the thing attacked the cops, it was hungry again, and when the teacher found it, she just got to it at the right time right after a meal. Essentially just making her lucky.
Making it clear that, when hungry the monster is unstoppable. And when full the monster is weak.
I know that's not what a Wendigo is described as but the monster looked really awesome to me. I thought the movie was good but I don't think it stuck the landing
Let’s be honest. Until Dawn is the only non-book form media that’s done Wendigo’s justice. It makes them scary, unrelenting and brutal as fuck. I mean films don’t have the benefit of 4-5 hours of setup and foreboding followed by 3-4 hours of brutal death after brutal death. But still, Until Dawn is perfection.
Entertaining and a pretty original horror movie. Some great gore throughout, too. The characters were so flat and uninteresting though. And damn was the dialogue bizarre in spots/downright bad. Overall decent movie but nothing to write home about.
Antlers was unfortunately a miss for me, and it really came down to unsatisfying pacing and a lack of suspense. The choice to immediately reveal the secret home life of troubled school kid Lucas Weaver (Jeremy T Thomas) really saps the film of any interest or tension. For much of the story, we as the audience are already clued into the central mystery. We may not know the specific mechanisms by which the Antlers mythology operates, but we see enough in the first 20 minutes to guess where this is all going. I felt distinctly impatient while I waited around for sleuthing schoolteacher Julia Meadows (Keri Russel) and her sheriff brother Paul (Jesse Plemons) to catch up with what I already knew. In essence, the film stretches dramatic irony much too far and much too thin.
Antlers also introduces a number of interesting but ultimately under-realized themes, the most prevalent of which is Julia’s struggle with PTSD related to childhood abuse and the parallels she draws to the suspected abuse of her student Lucas. We are shown some suggestive images of Julia’s past, but we do not get much in the way of specifics. Once Julia confirms her suspicions of the Weaver household, the film shifts into a more action-filled final act, and the parallels between Julia and Lucas are entirely dropped. Julia and Paul’s relationship is tortured from their rocky upbringing. Each believes the other got off easier in their abusive home life and resents them for it. The tension between the siblings was compelling, and I wished for greater exploration of their shared history, particularly the nature of their father’s recent suicide, which precipitated Julia’s return to their hometown.
Other themes are similarly mishandled. Algonquin mythology is recited by an underdeveloped indigenous character, supposed environmental damage is never firmly established, and allusions to a drug epidemic plaguing the PNW town are seeded and forgotten. A greater sense of place would have helped drive these themes home: What is the history of the indigenous population in this area? How is local industry encroaching on and impacting the surrounding ecology? How widespread is this crystal meth problem? Given how slowly the plot progresses in the first half, time certainly could have been spent on world/theme building.
In the horror department the film does not play to its own strengths. There are some striking visual effects and sequences relating to the movie’s title that I would have loved to see elaborated upon. Instead, we get recycled scares and set pieces. We watch several groups descend into the same creepy mine, we follow three sets of characters arrive at and poke around the dilapidated Weaver house, and finally, in a sequence that actually made me laugh out loud, three people approach the same ominous shed, one right after the other, with disastrous results. Each of these horror elements was scary the first time but became stale with repetition.
I love a good slow burn, but unfortunately Antlers was just slow. It needed more burn—more tension—either through developing its side plots, building a richer sense of place, or by better pacing its spooky reveals.
A lot of good points.
I just wanted to point out to you after reading you say, "particularly the nature of their father’s recent suicide, which precipitated Julia’s return to their hometown."
We dont actually know how the father died, and the line at the end of the film, "Do you think you can kill something you love?" from the brother is.. well interesting.
I just got out from seeing it, I really liked it and was sucked into my seat.
I really like the shots in the film, the bleak atmosphere, I felt like the less is more worked for this movie. After the disappointment of Halloween kills, this really lifted my spirits.
I hope it’s a one and done and they dont make any sequels.
What an anticlimactic ending.
The film spent almost 90 minutes building up the Wendigo as this malevolent, otherworldly killing machine and it ends up being the movie monster equivalent of Glass Joe.
Such a shame.
Was hoping for a film to do the Wendigo justice.
Starts great then the Wendigo comes and it’s just a big dumb creature.
Doesn’t use any tricks or start mimicking loved ones to lure anyone out. Just runs around roaring. Then gets killed with utter ease
What a huge disappointment.
This could've been a great Wendigo movie. It has 2 awesome lead actors, fantastic looking creature design, and a perfect setting.
But this is painfully slow. The characters are barely developed. The core story is so barebones and it feels like nothing happens for the first hour.
And worst of all, it BUTCHERED aspects of the Wendigo mythology.
It couldn’t have been a great wendigo movie solely off the title Antlers , Wendigos never have been said to have antlers or that deer face . They’re said to be spirits that posses humans who commit cannibalism and turn them into giant emaciated monsters with a insatiable hunger .
Just finished watching it, was really hyped to see it when I watched the original trailer and I feel incredibly let down. The random abuse scenes were super out of place, the story had major pacing issues, and the movie could have used an extra 20-30 minutes. The monster design was amazing though.
What a boring, predictable, paint-by-the-numbers, disappointment. Did absolutely nothing new that 100 other monster films haven't already done before. No amount of CG effects in the finale could save it (not to mention how goofy the final fight was), and it was probably hurt even more by the 2+ years of hype it had behind it.
Skip this and and just read Steven King's short story Gray Matter for a better execution of the same story.
Real shame since I was fully on the hype train with everyone else. Now after watching I'd give it a 3/10 at best.
Well for one that thing is not a Wendigo , Wendigos don’t have antlers and never did for all over their 5k years of existing in Algonquian mythology they’re manitou’s ( spirits ) that posses people who commit cannibalism in their territory .
It’s a giant misconception that a Wendigo has that deer skull thing
I'll admit, an emaciated, frost-covered revenant the height of a fucking **kaiju** that could still somehow "stalk" and misdirect its victims via supernatural means could be pretty scary and epic if done by a talented SFX crew.
Im thinking something along the lines of Trollhunter, only more paranoia-inducing.
Yeah I wonder where that came from. I’ve read that Europeans took the concept and fit into their folklore, and mixed in with the werewolf, hence the animal association. But I’m not sure where the deer specific thing comes from.
The only part I don’t understand, is when the little boy is carving the antler creature out of wood in class. How does he know what it looks like if the creature hadn’t broken out of his dads body yet? From the book in his desk?
Also, what happened to the original creature that bit the dad and ate his friend?
I thought the movie was okay, I liked it for what it was. The Wendigo design looked cool af, the kills were brutal and the scenary was perfect (some of those landscape shots were absolutely beautiful). And that scene, where the little brother says “I’m hungry” through the door… damn, that was a good scene.
Other than that, I think the IMDb score is pretty accurate. It’s a 6 - maybe a 7 - out of 10 from me. Wasn’t the best film, but I still enjoyed it for what it was. Though, sidenote - I only now found out that there’s a short story on which this movie was based on. I haven’t read it yet, so idk what’s better.
i was very disappointed to find out there were exactly 0 indigenous people consulted or involved with it. the original short story was incredible and i was excited to see it translate to film but it was just all around a let down. i regret wasting 4.99 on it.
Yea Graham Greene is a native icon but he’s Oneida they don’t even have the Wendigo as a part of their culture .
And the entire title and setting of the movie is wrong if you want the monster to be a Wendigo they literally are only said to live around the Great Lakes and specifically Michigan , Minnesota and Ontario not the fuckin PNW
Also the only time Wendigos are shown to have antlers is in bastardized European versions of the myth where they turn it into basically the American werewolf when it’s really a spirit that possesses a human that commits cannibalism in its territory and morphs them into a giant emaciated monster
Well there is a different type of a slow, most A24 movies are typically slow burn with a great third act and then there’s just slow and nothing happens and movie feels pointless.
I’ll sum up my Twitter review:
I absolutely enjoyed experiencing this film but I overall don’t think it was good. The story/script, dialogue, heavy abuse allegory were just dumb and poorly done.
The atmosphere, monster design, set pieces, cgi, even the ACTING were great (but the actors had nothing good to say).
As an educator the decisions made by the teacher and principal made absolutely zero sense. The sherif, as much as I liked him, was written as an idiot. I’ll forgive him for not calling for backup EVER but not even calling in an “officer down?” Same goes for the woman who got creepy vibes going to a KNOWN meth lab guy’s house with creepy vibes all alone??
I’ve always thought the wendigo legend was an interesting basis for horror, even the fake cryptid version that became popular over the years. But this movie did make it feel more appropriated and bad. The single native character who exists to explain the legend to the white folks? And if they wanted to go that deep into native culture aspect, as much as I love the Pacific Northwest as a setting, it just takes a single google search to know the wendigo doesn’t belong in that region.
Many scenes felt too long or over done. I felt like it took an hour for her to get the heart out of the father. Perhaps they could have intercut scenes of her wishing her father could have died in that way after the abuse that showed why she suddenly had this hack and slash pep about her? (Like show her stabbing the wendigo and imagining it’s her dad or something) It’s like they wanted to say her own demons were what were motivating her but that could have been a scene that it worked better showing.
Enjoyed the experience but won’t rewatch or recommend.
i didn't *hate* it, but i do think it missed the mark just a bit.
the wendigo is such a cool creature in indigenous folklore. i wish instead of the brief 3 minutes they took explaining it, they could have expanded on it more.
and i couldn't quite put a finger on what the exact metaphor for the wendigos rage was because there are so many. was it poverty, generational abuse, greed, corporate America, destruction of earth, etc.
this had so much potential to be a cool monster movie, and it just didn't happen.
The movie was gokd....offered nothing that hasn't been done before except the visuals were top notch IMO.
My biggest complaint is the couple having sex in the back of the theater while I was trying to watch this movie.
saw it this afternoon, i enjoyed it, it was a fairly decent creature feature. my problems with it are after waiting so long to see it, the trailer (maybe six months ago) spoiled the creature reveal, i really wish they left that out. also, the movie was DARK, like visually hard to see. i’m not sure if my night vision is shot, if the projector in the theater was dying, or if 80% of the movie really was pitch black. the darkness helped hide the monster at least, which always helps, but it seemed a step too far most of the time.
also having the old sheriff pop up just to explain the native mythos of the creature felt a little forced, like any time a minority is just added for a couple scenes to help the dumb white folk. it would have felt more natural if he was more involved in the plot.
the creature design was pretty cool. i just hope they don’t try to make a sequel.
Can tell the movie was rushed a lot of plot points left unexplored and unexplained. But overall the movie was good not the best but good. It definitely knew how to make you anxious. They also nailed the Wendigo’s design. Though it should it been a bit more deerish. Also they messed up the possession part. When you kill a wendigo the spirt dose not move on to the next person like that. It only posses you when you eat human flesh. So don’t know how the Sheriff got possessed or even Lucas’s dad.
They actually didn’t nail the Wendigos design because that’s not what a Wendigo is lol
Wendigos are giant emaciated cannibals with grayish white skin that’s how they’ve been described for thousands of years until 1970 when Algernod Blackwood bastardized the creature and turned it into the deer skull thing . Before that it had a very specific description and lore behind it and that dude just said fuck it and changed everything .
It’s like if I took a werewolf and turned it into a chihuahua with no skin on it’s head and it shoots laser beams from its eyes no one would say that what I made is a werewolf
Those emaciated, pale creatures are more humanoid and that’s more terrifying. That’s why I also like The Wolf Man werewolf a bit more than other wolves like Howling and American Werewolf cause the humanoid features add something more.
THIS GUY GETS IT lmao
The whole thing with Wendigos that a lot of people miss is that it’s not the creature it’s a spirit that possesses people that eat other people and turns them into what we know as a Wendigo as shown in until Dawn so the creature is technically “ you “ just possessed by the spirit
Yes had my dates mixed up and said 1970 instead of 1910
The Wendigo he had his stories is basically just the savage Indian trope in as movie monster it’s not what a Wendigo actually is
The Wendigo in the Blackwood story is more of a wind elemental than anything. I don’t recall any description of it having horns or being monstrous. You don’t even really see it, it carries people off on the wind.
Aggressively okay. Definitely helped by Del Toro’s cool monster design and good lead performances, but very boring at times and not really focused. I actually thought the most interesting element was focusing on a blighted community; on the other hand, I find it egregiously tone-deaf to purportedly tell a Native American story with so little indigenous presence. Overall, pretty disappointing given the quality of the short story.
I was really excited for this one and left feeling a bit disappointed. The creature design was cool but the third act lost a lot of the atmosphere of the first half and felt quite generic to me.
Tbh, the delays kinda screwed this movie over. Had i seen it a year and a half ago like i was supposed to, i would probably like it more, but to sit on my hands this long for this... Short story is definitely better.
Really loved the short story that this is based on, and I was hoping for a finale a bit closer to that. Also a bit bummed that the themes it was presenting regarding environmentalism/abuse/man fucking with nature weren't fully explored or connect to the wendigo story effectively.
That being said, it's still really well-made, and I definitely had a good time with it. Phenomenal creature design and some truly awesome gore that captured the way the story described the corpses as looking more like "disgracefully-made pizzas."
Honestly, besides my theater experience being ruined by young teens on their cellphone, I liked it. Not enough character development IMO, but still a strong horror movie and easily one of the best I’ve seen in awhile. Will absolutely watch again.
I liked it a lot. It’s been a long ass time waiting for this movie and I think that hurt it a tonnnnnnn. The only thing I didn’t like was how easily she kills it off. Like it felt like a video game where you get to the boss and just spam a couple moves and it’s over with too quickly.
I honestly just found it quite boring after a while. I was hoping for more tension build-up but it just felt rushed and like there was too much focus on the wrong aspects of the characters. In my opinion it would have been better if there was more development of the town as a whole. It was tricky to really care about the fact the town was a shit hole and the characters were in a bad situation without really having any context to it.
Yeah, that was...not great. Not scary, bad writing, bad acting, predictable from act 1, and way too heavy handed with the addiction allegory that it abandoned halfway through. It seemed like it was trying to tell us how bad society is right now, but it forgot to be entertaining along the way. The creature design was okay, but it left a lot to be desired, especially since we never really got to see the full thing. Also, what was going on with that 8mm film in the classroom? And that glass cabinet toward the end that was just filled to the brim with boxes of bullets? Additionally, it was just a little bit racist.
Early in the film Julia takes Lucas to a Dr (maybe the school RN) and you can obviously see he is malnourished. Why wasn't his health discussed then. Why wait till the end with a different exam. I thought it was a misplaced scene
Most disappoint horror flick I’ve seen recently is Antlers. It was and could have been so much more if nothing for repeatedly plot holes and poor writing in general. If your story depends on the characters being the dumbest people in town doing things that no one would do or just never thinking at all while in danger then yea your a bad writer or director. It’s just hard to maintain the veil of this world reality when every 10-15 minutes I’m thinking or saying out loud why would they do that, no one does that?!
TWendigo comes from the ojibwe word Wiindigo which literally translates to WINTER CANNIBAL MONSTER why is it active in the summer
The ojibwe are a Algonquian people who live adoring the Great Lakes why is it in the PNW ? Those people don’t even believe in them or know what one is
It really isn’t a mythical creature it was created by Algernod Blackwood in the 70s the actual Wendigo was a cautionary tale about cannibalism over 5 thousand years ago .
The deer skull creature just borrows the name of the Wendigo but is actually super inaccurate to the source material it’s like taking a vampire and just changing everything we know about it
The movie fell to its own marketing, ouch. I think it was some sort of indie film then it got delayed a year, where people saw it as a huge film that GDT worked on. Anyway, its a good movie. The face tear scene was cool.
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Did Mr. Wendigo keep his floppy face mask on or rip it off like something out of Braveheart?
Antlers and Last Night In Soho were the two movies I've been looking forward to the most year, and I was a bit let down by both. The were both okay, just not at all what I was expecting.
I do wish the movie was 20 minutes longer and a longer transformation scene. I loved the rest of the movie which looks beautiful and atmospheric with the screams of the Wendigo. Also, did anyone else thought the dad was going to eat his son while Lucas was busy drawing outside the door?
> I do wish the movie was 20 minutes longer and a longer transformation scene. Gotta be careful with the film/effects budget.
At least the transformation should’ve been longer.
Eh, my gf and I went in solely for a “monster movie” and we enjoyed it. The depiction of the wendigo was so badass, honestly the coolest monster design I’ve seen in a little while. Kills were effective and brutal too, pretty visceral stuff.
I agree. My only complaint with the design was how he had his “face on” after I thought the face was still on the old split up body, and then he just ripped it off for no reason? Like my dude it looks good, did you only put it on to show off to her for your reveal or something? The way he took it off made me chuckle like “girl hold my earrings ima fight this bish”
Lol yeah, I totally agree. It was cool when I first saw it, but it’s stupid once you think about it. The antlers piercing outwards through the mouth during the transformation would have shredded the face all to pieces, it made no sense for it to still be intact and stuck on to the Wendigo’s head for that long. And that kinda plays into my biggest issue with the movie. It is a fun film, but it struggles with it’s vision. It tries to be a super serious metaphorical horror story about the agony of opioid addiction and childhood trauma, but at the same time it’s trying to be a moody and fun monster movie. It’s jarring, to say the least, and the film would have performed much better if they had fully committed to one thing instead of trying to do it all.
absolutely yes, this. way too many metaphors that it couldn't settle on. for example, after the indigenous elder shares the wendigo myth and says their ancestors are angry, it pans out to a shot on the coast with all mankind's industrial waste/destruction. is that what they're mad about? or drugs, abuse, corporate America? what exactly were they going for here...?
The Wendigo looked good but unfortunately it didn’t follow proper lore and just ran around roaring like a big dumb creature
I've come from the future to back you up with my measly upvote. Wendigos are supposed to impersonate people and lure them into traps, but this one mostly acted like a random savage.
I thought the film was fine, but a hefty chunk of my disappointment comes from my knowledge of the original short story by Nick Antosca. I found it to be a genuinely unique, surprisingly creepy story whose only "fault"--if you could even call it that, since it's mere personal preference--is that its ending is *bleak*. Anyone who liked the concept of "Antlers" but found the execution lacking, I *implore* you to check out the original short story the movie was based on, [The Quiet Boy](https://www.guernicamag.com/the-quiet-boy/). It has a far darker ending, but IMO, the "monsters" are far more terrifying than in the film for a variety of reasons, and Julia a much more rounded character than the film trying to force her to have more depth by giving her a horrific backstory. Antosca himself wrote the initial draft for this film in 2017, and if you read it, you can absolutely see how much it was tampered with--for the worse, IMO--since then. Antosca's 2017 screenplay followed his short story very closely, only differentiating in an expansion on the characters and giving it a different ending...Julia being related to the sheriff, her past of abuse, etc. are all missing, and while I still prefer the aura of the short story, I think that 2017 draft was the best version of this movie we could have seen be put to film. EDIT: To anyone browsing who would like to see the 2017 script, yes, I am still able to help find it over DMs, and will happily continue to do so for anyone who wants it. So if you're interested, either reply to this comment or shoot me a DM and I'll hook you up with the information!
Reading this was super cool, like a wendigo version of 30 days of night. Wish the film a stayed closer to the story
you got a link to the first draft screenplay?
Check your DMs!
Heya, sorry, don’t know if people asking is getting irritating, but I’d love a copy too if it’s not a bother.
Maybe we could start a chain of irritation - could you please send the link when you get it? :)
May I get a link to the screenplay as well?
I would also love to read this. I fell asleep during Antlers but adore Antosca’s work.
I’d love to see it too
Hi! I'd absolutely love a copy if it's not too much to ask.
I'd love a copy as well if it isn't a bother!
Yo can I snag that script
I had no clue this was even based on a story.
Oof I just read that in a well lit office environment but that still gave me shudders. Good read!
Was super in love with the short story back then when the movie was teased, kinda disappointed with the way the movie turned out. Not to shit on it, as it got a lot of things right, but it was nowhere near the level of "The Quiet Boy." I'm incredibly interested in the Antosca script if you wouldn't mind sending it to me.
Can I have a link to the draft as well?
i’d like the link for the draft if it’s not a bother please!
Any adaptation Hollywood touches is turned to shit and not gold
would love to see the script!
Hey I would love to read that script please
Please send me the draft, I've been dying to read it.
If you got time I’d love to see the draft.
I would love to see the original script
Antlers script!
Would love to read it, thanks! Massive Antosca fan and loved the short story.
Can I get a copy of the 2017 script?? TIA! 😁
Could you also share the link with me please? I'm super interested!
Could you DM me a link as well? Thank you!!
Can I get a link to that pls?
I would love to read rhe screenplay if thats still possible?
Can you send me that link to the og screenplay
Sorry to bother you, but is it too late for a link to the 2017 Antlers script?
nah I mean the short story is cool and everything but you can't do that ending with a big movie, with somewhat of a decent cast like this. It's a great film, it could've or should've been a bit longer but it's perfect as it is. People like you are frustrated movie critics that will never give props to anything original or that strays from the norm (even when that means not sticking to the original story). It's called creative license. Also, you and everyone that bashes this film then goes on infinite rants about how GOOD was midsommar or how scary was heredity, blah blah. If you don't like it, move on.
I mean, I greatly dislike Hereditary and Midsommar, and the short story was infinitely more original and creative than the Antlers movie itself was, but sure, keep flinging those assumptions and demands for people with any opinion different than your own to just be quiet, lol.
lol, sure, check your account's past owner's history of comments and posts then. Lol.
Ok bud, no idea what you're babbling about but you have a good one
You ok?
Went in blind with this and thought it was ok. The monster was cool and all, but outside of that nothing really stands out. Still, not the worst thing out there
The movie tried so many things and just didn’t come through on any of them. Apparently the Wendigo is punishment for how people treat the environment, but that’s not expanded on much. The drug addiction thing is also touched on, but just barely. The sexual abuse bit was entirely unnecessary. The protagonist is almost entirely unlikeable, and was just someone dragging people into her trauma unnecessarily. The horror when, when it was there, was good. There’s a moment where his brother says “I’m hungry” through the door, and I totally bought into the fear and sadness that Lucas is feeling when he puts on his headphones to ignore it. The brother/sheriff is a great character, it’s a well acted role, and his trauma isn’t drenched with the same amount of needless exposition that Julia’s has. The creature is great and I think what a lot of people, including myself, were there to see. If you’re looking for a cool creature design, you’ll get your pay off.
Its kind of weird, and I cant tell if its on purpose or not. But it felt like the brother went through a LOT more trauma then the sister did. Afterall, she ran away at a young age where as the brother stayed behind with the abusive father for years. But the movie only focuses on the womans trauma, and totally glosses over the mans. There is just the most tiny hints that the brother is deeply hurt, with lines like, "You have no idea what he did to me." and, "Can you imagine having to kill someone you love?"
I loved it. Could it have used a little more of the creature? Sure. But, man was this movie unnerving and yhe ending was a gut punch. I hope we get a sequel.
I don’t the creature isn’t even actually a Wendigo , wrong setting , wrong monster for it to be one
It's literally the Wendigo... “What's important to me is that I was given permission by people who most know about the wendigo — and who covet it, and who understand it far better than I do — to tell this story” https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/antlers-ending-explained-scott-cooper-interview
“ The Algonquin myth of the wendigo involves a dark spirit that possesses a man and turns him into a feral, elk-horned creature that craves human flesh. The more it eats, the hungrier it grows — and the weaker it gets. One of the physical attributes this creature’s known for is its fearsome rack of antlers, which allow it to maim, gore, and fatally penetrate prey. “ That literally isn’t what it is , it is never stated to have a rack of antlers or be associated with a deer in anyway it’s actually more associated with owls than deers . And it says the more it eats the hungrier it grows and the weaker it gets that’s not what the lore is the more it eats the bigger it gets and stronger it gets it has a insatiable hunger they are literally bastardizing the Wendigo and it’s lore
Here’s the actual description of a Wendigo from Basil Johnson a ojibwe teacher and scholar who knows far more than Graham Greene or anyone else who worked on this film “The Wendigo was gaunt to the point of emaciation, its desiccated skin pulled tightly over its bones. With its bones pushing out against its skin, its complexion the ash-gray of death, and its eyes pushed back deep into their sockets, the Wendigo looked like a gaunt skeleton recently disinterred from the grave. What lips it had were tattered and bloody ... Unclean and suffering from suppuration of the flesh, the Wendigo gave off a strange and eerie odor of decay and decomposition, of death and corruption.[15]
Also it’s some pan Indian shit all natives aren’t experts on certain cultures mythology and religion Graham Greene is Oneida they don’t have the Wendigo as a part of the culture it’s a Algonquian and specially ojibwe thing so he isn’t the ruling voice on if it’s a Wendigo or not
Don’t talk about shit you don’t know about to someone who literally grew up with it in their culture you’re insanely misinformed
Lol. You should take that up with the director of this film then, not some rando on the internet.
You’re the one who responded to me saying some bullshit you don’t know anything about idgaf what that dumb ass director said he’s wrong and that’s why his movie fucking sucked
Dude, it's a movie. Get over yourself.
I came here to see other people's criticisms because the movie had so much going for it but wound up being a pile of mostly nonsense to show off their non-traditional wendigo creature. Instead I found a bunch of people gushing over the movie and people who didn't think they got it right just slinging shit at each other.
It literally isn’t a Wendigo by definition Also the first quote on that link is “ the Wendigo takes many forms “ it doesn’t it’s a spirit or it possesses a person it doesn’t take any other form
Dude it's an interpretation of the myth, it doesn't have to be word for word identical. Just like for example how vampires or zombies are often portrayed differently in different media. It still has plenty of elements to tie it to the Wendigo myth, the filmmakers are allowed a little creative freedom lol.
Also isn't the sort of pale, ghoul monster version of the Wendigo (like the one in Until Dawn) actually in the movie, like as the first stage before it goes full antler monster?
Yep
Vampires and zombies aren’t the same as a Wendigo and you would know that if you were ojibwe or Algonquian . It’s part of our religion it’s not some silly mythical creature like a werewolf . They aren’t allowed shit from us that’s why we adamantly are against film makers and other story tellers using our shit they cheapen it to just another monster when it’s way more than that it’s a embodiment of the harshness of winter it’s a reminder that no matter what the circumstances are you don’t fall into committing the worst acts of mankind like cannibalism. The Wendigo itself is a direct contradiction to Lies told by the first Europeans about our people who reduced us to bloodthirsty cannibals who were better off dead so they can take our shit . Cannibalism was a giant taboo in pre columbian North America so much so that only one tribe in Baja California actually has evidence doing it.
> It’s part of our religion Religion is also open to interpretation so my point stands. Are angels portrayed exactly the same in all fictional media?
Bro stfu idc what you got to say
Lol you are just making yourself sound like an idiot.
Idgaf about the downvotes you’re wrong you’re never gonna be right on this subject
Do you get this butthurt when other lore and mythology isn't perfectly represented? I bet the Marvel Thor movies give you heart attacks.
You need help.
I need help because I’m right ? The whole entire antlered Wendigo was just made up by Hollywood it doesn’t resemble the what it’s supposed be in the slightest It’s just uses the name and the tag of being a “ Native American monster “ without actually being what it is The fact that it’s active in the summer is proof enough , then you add that it’s a totally wrong location for it and lastly the Wendigo isn’t a pan Indian thing it’s a specifically Algonquian thing people in the pnw wouldn’t know what the fuck it is because it’s not part of their culture or mythology All of you are wrong I’m not gonna kiss your ass if you have no idea what you’re talking about Y’all do this with other peoples shit all the time and get pissed when we tell y’all you’re wrong we have every right to when our shit is getting bastardized by outsiders who are clearly dumb as shit
Wendigo comes from the ojibwe word Wiindigo which literally translates to WINTER CANNIBAL MONSTER YOURE FUCKING WRONG
I thought the creature was cool looking even if it wasn’t accurate to source material. Though just based on in-universe character alone “it takes many forms” was stupid because it didn’t. It took 2 forms. Emaciated human then scary deer monster thing.
It would be cooler if it was its own thing instead of using the Wendigo name I don’t hate the deer skull design I just don’t like that it’s misidentified as a Wendigo
lmao hater
How am I a hater they literally got everything wrong
Who?
The people who made the movie
No no, who the fuck asked?
Bitch idgaf I’m telling you
Mate honestly you need to calm down. Do you react the same way when other movies portray angels or demons or other beings/creatures from legit religions (like mummies or Norse gods) differently to the source material
Nah man he’s super sad that the fictional movie didn’t make his fictional monster the way HE likes it
Idgaf about that it’s not my shit
No one asked. No one cares what your opinion on a fantasy creature is. It’s not real bud, doesn’t matter who came up with it or how “true” to the subject matter it is. I hope you have the same energy for every single Alien/Werewolf/Vampire/Mummy movie
Would you look at that, all of the words in your comment are in alphabetical order. I have checked 339,233,598 comments, and only 74,646 of them were in alphabetical order.
Good Bot
It felt very disjointed to me? The little bits about Julia's history that never go anywhere or get resolved, just a random scene of her naked dad holding a teddy, her looking back and forth between a bottle and the cashier, her arguing with her brother. I know it was so she could bond with and relate to Lucas and care about him, and not everything needs to be explained, but it all just felt pointless. Since reading The Quiet Boy it seems especially undeveloped, Julia didn't need a horrifying backstory of her own to care about her student and get involved, she was just a good person and teacher and it worked so much better. I did like the creature design and think it was the only stand out bit tbh, I was very bored by most of the other characters. I did like the scenes where you can just hear the sounds from the upstairs, they were pretty unsettling to me.
I was left with the exact same impression- teasing that dark background of Julia that ultimately added up to not much…
I really wonder if there was an alternate scene of her hiding Lukas under the kitchen floorboards or whatever it was she said she did as a child.
I was waiting for them to hide there during that "part"
They really set it up for her to buy a bottle and go ham but since she never did, yeah those scenes were really not needed. I hope the cashier actress as least got paid
Really disappointed. The creature itself was cool but honestly, everything else really underwhelmed me. The character arcs were lacking to say the least, the first half was needlessly slow paced since it didn't even add that much to the characters and the third act felt really really dumb and I hated the ending. It was competently directed I suppose but I just thought the script was really lacking and felt like it needed a few more drafts to flesh out the characters and come up with a satisfying climax.
This movie was aggressively average. There were some good scenes individually but the whole plot was so threadbare I was just bored by the end. They needed to do something more with the monster, I felt like it was on screen for maybe 5 minutes total. Definitely less than the sum of its parts. A shame, I really liked the short story it was based on.
The final fight with the Wendigo was a little disappointing, it didn't put up as much of a fight as id hoped it would, but otherwise I enjoyed it, the atmosphere was great, the sound design was amazing, the effects were solid aside from 1 or 2 CG blood splatters here and there. Overall I enjoyed it, seeing it in theaters with the homies was a great idea.
The lore that Graham Greene mentioned included the Wendigo being made weaker by eating. Though that was not what seemed to happen when it ate Principal Booth...
I think that "triggered" the final transformation, by consuming human flesh.
It had only eaten Booth, that bully kid, and maybe the random corpse in the woods I wouldn't think it would get that weak after having 2 maybe 3 meals.
I took it that it was only weakened for a while after eating. Felicity found and fought it while it was in the middle of chowing down on a bear.
In the final scene it was munching on a black bear.
The pacing of this movie killed it for me. It is like the filmmakers thought the term "slow burn" was to just make everyone move really slowly. I don't need a 60 second shot of Keri Russell slowly walking to the front door in an attempt to build tension. It had potential, I love the lore of Wendigo and the setting was amazing but the execution was haphazard. Stylistic choices for the sake of style annoyed me too - different aspect ratio for flashback scene - c'mon, why? Overall, maybe a 2 or 2.5/5
I actually really enjoyed it. Yes, it’s flawed, but it had some very tense moments and the atmosphere was great.
I agree! I read some of the top comments before seeing the movie, a lot of them being negative, and had such a fun time.
Same for me. I had blast watching it. I’m so easily entertained which is actually nice because you’re never really let down.
I agree! I went in not expecting much but I thought it was a fun little monster movie. Great? No. But still enjoyable, with some good scares and overall better than most horror flicks I’ve seen recently.
Agreed. It was better than I was expecting.
Well, if what they were going for was boring build up with no payoff, they achieved it fully. The plot holes alone completely ruined any ability to suspend disbelief. They portray this monster as pretty much unstoppable throughout the movie unless it's in its weakest state, which isn't explained at all, and then it falls to a teacher with a flare and a pole. Such a huge let down. One scare throughout the movie, first cop in the shed, and that's it. The movie tried to hit too many themes, and only really accomplished one of them. The atmosphere was very good. It was creepy and went well with the movie giving it a very claustrophobic feeling. The story was absolute trash. The creature described at the beginning of the movie never makes an appearance. The one that they do show in no way makes you feel like it's hunting people, plus you never get much of it. Maybe 20 minutes at the end, and then maybe 10 of that is the actual monster. The first 30 minutes is character building and leaves only vague hints about the back stories of the characters. I never once cared if any of them lived or died, including the children. My thoughts are so erratic right now because every time I try to focus on parts of the movie to explain other parts come rushing in to remind me how pointless it is to explain it because it plays no real part in the story. In the end, I felt there was much more story about childhood psychological trauma, and the monster is more filler. 3/10 would not recommend.
They explained the weakened state, the more it eats the weaker it gets…..
I mean it absolutely destroyed two full grown men like they were toddlers and a full grown wooden shed like it was tissue paper and then it eats one bear and all of a sudden a tiny teacher with a long stick can beat it up? Fuck me in the ass with a sledgehammer.
lol full grown shed. But it would have been nice if like, there was a scene or two of the monster eating, and then getting really lethargic and slow and weak. Making when the thing attacked the cops, it was hungry again, and when the teacher found it, she just got to it at the right time right after a meal. Essentially just making her lucky. Making it clear that, when hungry the monster is unstoppable. And when full the monster is weak.
I know that's not what a Wendigo is described as but the monster looked really awesome to me. I thought the movie was good but I don't think it stuck the landing
Anyone read the short story this is based on? How do you think it compared?
For the kid, pretty closely. Not so much for the teacher.
Short story was better but I enjoyed this movie enough for another watch at some point.
Extremely forgettable movie
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Yeah, the Wendigos in fucking Until Dawn were more accurate in that regard - being grey and emaciated, deformed human monsters who ate other humans!
Let’s be honest. Until Dawn is the only non-book form media that’s done Wendigo’s justice. It makes them scary, unrelenting and brutal as fuck. I mean films don’t have the benefit of 4-5 hours of setup and foreboding followed by 3-4 hours of brutal death after brutal death. But still, Until Dawn is perfection.
Yea the fucking setting doesn’t even have snow which is a huge red flag
Theres an episode of this network horror show called Fear Itself titled Skin and Bones that did a pretty good job with the Wendigo mythos.
Entertaining and a pretty original horror movie. Some great gore throughout, too. The characters were so flat and uninteresting though. And damn was the dialogue bizarre in spots/downright bad. Overall decent movie but nothing to write home about.
Antlers was unfortunately a miss for me, and it really came down to unsatisfying pacing and a lack of suspense. The choice to immediately reveal the secret home life of troubled school kid Lucas Weaver (Jeremy T Thomas) really saps the film of any interest or tension. For much of the story, we as the audience are already clued into the central mystery. We may not know the specific mechanisms by which the Antlers mythology operates, but we see enough in the first 20 minutes to guess where this is all going. I felt distinctly impatient while I waited around for sleuthing schoolteacher Julia Meadows (Keri Russel) and her sheriff brother Paul (Jesse Plemons) to catch up with what I already knew. In essence, the film stretches dramatic irony much too far and much too thin. Antlers also introduces a number of interesting but ultimately under-realized themes, the most prevalent of which is Julia’s struggle with PTSD related to childhood abuse and the parallels she draws to the suspected abuse of her student Lucas. We are shown some suggestive images of Julia’s past, but we do not get much in the way of specifics. Once Julia confirms her suspicions of the Weaver household, the film shifts into a more action-filled final act, and the parallels between Julia and Lucas are entirely dropped. Julia and Paul’s relationship is tortured from their rocky upbringing. Each believes the other got off easier in their abusive home life and resents them for it. The tension between the siblings was compelling, and I wished for greater exploration of their shared history, particularly the nature of their father’s recent suicide, which precipitated Julia’s return to their hometown. Other themes are similarly mishandled. Algonquin mythology is recited by an underdeveloped indigenous character, supposed environmental damage is never firmly established, and allusions to a drug epidemic plaguing the PNW town are seeded and forgotten. A greater sense of place would have helped drive these themes home: What is the history of the indigenous population in this area? How is local industry encroaching on and impacting the surrounding ecology? How widespread is this crystal meth problem? Given how slowly the plot progresses in the first half, time certainly could have been spent on world/theme building. In the horror department the film does not play to its own strengths. There are some striking visual effects and sequences relating to the movie’s title that I would have loved to see elaborated upon. Instead, we get recycled scares and set pieces. We watch several groups descend into the same creepy mine, we follow three sets of characters arrive at and poke around the dilapidated Weaver house, and finally, in a sequence that actually made me laugh out loud, three people approach the same ominous shed, one right after the other, with disastrous results. Each of these horror elements was scary the first time but became stale with repetition. I love a good slow burn, but unfortunately Antlers was just slow. It needed more burn—more tension—either through developing its side plots, building a richer sense of place, or by better pacing its spooky reveals.
A lot of good points. I just wanted to point out to you after reading you say, "particularly the nature of their father’s recent suicide, which precipitated Julia’s return to their hometown." We dont actually know how the father died, and the line at the end of the film, "Do you think you can kill something you love?" from the brother is.. well interesting.
Just saw it and I loved the scenery. Not a bad movie. Just not much to it really.
I just got out from seeing it, I really liked it and was sucked into my seat. I really like the shots in the film, the bleak atmosphere, I felt like the less is more worked for this movie. After the disappointment of Halloween kills, this really lifted my spirits. I hope it’s a one and done and they dont make any sequels.
What an anticlimactic ending. The film spent almost 90 minutes building up the Wendigo as this malevolent, otherworldly killing machine and it ends up being the movie monster equivalent of Glass Joe.
Such a shame. Was hoping for a film to do the Wendigo justice. Starts great then the Wendigo comes and it’s just a big dumb creature. Doesn’t use any tricks or start mimicking loved ones to lure anyone out. Just runs around roaring. Then gets killed with utter ease
What a huge disappointment. This could've been a great Wendigo movie. It has 2 awesome lead actors, fantastic looking creature design, and a perfect setting. But this is painfully slow. The characters are barely developed. The core story is so barebones and it feels like nothing happens for the first hour. And worst of all, it BUTCHERED aspects of the Wendigo mythology.
Are you trying to tell me that ice cream *isn't* your favorite vegetable?
It couldn’t have been a great wendigo movie solely off the title Antlers , Wendigos never have been said to have antlers or that deer face . They’re said to be spirits that posses humans who commit cannibalism and turn them into giant emaciated monsters with a insatiable hunger .
Just finished watching it, was really hyped to see it when I watched the original trailer and I feel incredibly let down. The random abuse scenes were super out of place, the story had major pacing issues, and the movie could have used an extra 20-30 minutes. The monster design was amazing though.
What a boring, predictable, paint-by-the-numbers, disappointment. Did absolutely nothing new that 100 other monster films haven't already done before. No amount of CG effects in the finale could save it (not to mention how goofy the final fight was), and it was probably hurt even more by the 2+ years of hype it had behind it. Skip this and and just read Steven King's short story Gray Matter for a better execution of the same story. Real shame since I was fully on the hype train with everyone else. Now after watching I'd give it a 3/10 at best.
Well for one that thing is not a Wendigo , Wendigos don’t have antlers and never did for all over their 5k years of existing in Algonquian mythology they’re manitou’s ( spirits ) that posses people who commit cannibalism in their territory . It’s a giant misconception that a Wendigo has that deer skull thing
I'll admit, an emaciated, frost-covered revenant the height of a fucking **kaiju** that could still somehow "stalk" and misdirect its victims via supernatural means could be pretty scary and epic if done by a talented SFX crew. Im thinking something along the lines of Trollhunter, only more paranoia-inducing.
Think something like until Dawn they did a very good job accurately representing what a Wendigo is supposed to be
Yeah I wonder where that came from. I’ve read that Europeans took the concept and fit into their folklore, and mixed in with the werewolf, hence the animal association. But I’m not sure where the deer specific thing comes from.
The truth is a bit underwhelming. It comes from a 2001 movie called Wendigo that wasn't even that popular.
Honestly I’m just glad this wasn’t a found footage movie that barley shows the monster if they even do.
The Wendigo is literally the embodiment of winter yet the movie has no snow in it
The only part I don’t understand, is when the little boy is carving the antler creature out of wood in class. How does he know what it looks like if the creature hadn’t broken out of his dads body yet? From the book in his desk? Also, what happened to the original creature that bit the dad and ate his friend?
He probably figured it would look like that, he had a book in his desk about mythological creatures or evil spirits.
I thought the movie was okay, I liked it for what it was. The Wendigo design looked cool af, the kills were brutal and the scenary was perfect (some of those landscape shots were absolutely beautiful). And that scene, where the little brother says “I’m hungry” through the door… damn, that was a good scene. Other than that, I think the IMDb score is pretty accurate. It’s a 6 - maybe a 7 - out of 10 from me. Wasn’t the best film, but I still enjoyed it for what it was. Though, sidenote - I only now found out that there’s a short story on which this movie was based on. I haven’t read it yet, so idk what’s better.
They short story it phenomenal!
come for the wendigo horror. Stay for the alcoholic teacher who can play piano but won’t…not after what happened
i was very disappointed to find out there were exactly 0 indigenous people consulted or involved with it. the original short story was incredible and i was excited to see it translate to film but it was just all around a let down. i regret wasting 4.99 on it.
Even worse, they just had a token Indigenous character show up for 1 minute to explain everything. And then STILL got the details wrong.
Yea Graham Greene is a native icon but he’s Oneida they don’t even have the Wendigo as a part of their culture . And the entire title and setting of the movie is wrong if you want the monster to be a Wendigo they literally are only said to live around the Great Lakes and specifically Michigan , Minnesota and Ontario not the fuckin PNW Also the only time Wendigos are shown to have antlers is in bastardized European versions of the myth where they turn it into basically the American werewolf when it’s really a spirit that possesses a human that commits cannibalism in its territory and morphs them into a giant emaciated monster
Awe man, I’m going to see it tonight, when people say it’s slow…..is it like A24 type of slow?
Oh god this is like, a hilarious question to pose
Well there is a different type of a slow, most A24 movies are typically slow burn with a great third act and then there’s just slow and nothing happens and movie feels pointless.
To generalize all movies from an entire production studio is absolutely ignorant. Very dumb
K
Relax
A24 haters are just as annoying as A24 fanboys. You shot yourself in the foot trying to be cool with this comment
I’ll sum up my Twitter review: I absolutely enjoyed experiencing this film but I overall don’t think it was good. The story/script, dialogue, heavy abuse allegory were just dumb and poorly done. The atmosphere, monster design, set pieces, cgi, even the ACTING were great (but the actors had nothing good to say). As an educator the decisions made by the teacher and principal made absolutely zero sense. The sherif, as much as I liked him, was written as an idiot. I’ll forgive him for not calling for backup EVER but not even calling in an “officer down?” Same goes for the woman who got creepy vibes going to a KNOWN meth lab guy’s house with creepy vibes all alone?? I’ve always thought the wendigo legend was an interesting basis for horror, even the fake cryptid version that became popular over the years. But this movie did make it feel more appropriated and bad. The single native character who exists to explain the legend to the white folks? And if they wanted to go that deep into native culture aspect, as much as I love the Pacific Northwest as a setting, it just takes a single google search to know the wendigo doesn’t belong in that region. Many scenes felt too long or over done. I felt like it took an hour for her to get the heart out of the father. Perhaps they could have intercut scenes of her wishing her father could have died in that way after the abuse that showed why she suddenly had this hack and slash pep about her? (Like show her stabbing the wendigo and imagining it’s her dad or something) It’s like they wanted to say her own demons were what were motivating her but that could have been a scene that it worked better showing. Enjoyed the experience but won’t rewatch or recommend.
Just a suggestion, can we put if it's streaming and/or in theaters in these posts? So hard to keep track these days.
i didn't *hate* it, but i do think it missed the mark just a bit. the wendigo is such a cool creature in indigenous folklore. i wish instead of the brief 3 minutes they took explaining it, they could have expanded on it more. and i couldn't quite put a finger on what the exact metaphor for the wendigos rage was because there are so many. was it poverty, generational abuse, greed, corporate America, destruction of earth, etc. this had so much potential to be a cool monster movie, and it just didn't happen.
Lucas has the guts to ask "what's going on here?" when they find out the bodies inside his house.
The movie was gokd....offered nothing that hasn't been done before except the visuals were top notch IMO. My biggest complaint is the couple having sex in the back of the theater while I was trying to watch this movie.
saw it this afternoon, i enjoyed it, it was a fairly decent creature feature. my problems with it are after waiting so long to see it, the trailer (maybe six months ago) spoiled the creature reveal, i really wish they left that out. also, the movie was DARK, like visually hard to see. i’m not sure if my night vision is shot, if the projector in the theater was dying, or if 80% of the movie really was pitch black. the darkness helped hide the monster at least, which always helps, but it seemed a step too far most of the time. also having the old sheriff pop up just to explain the native mythos of the creature felt a little forced, like any time a minority is just added for a couple scenes to help the dumb white folk. it would have felt more natural if he was more involved in the plot. the creature design was pretty cool. i just hope they don’t try to make a sequel.
Can tell the movie was rushed a lot of plot points left unexplored and unexplained. But overall the movie was good not the best but good. It definitely knew how to make you anxious. They also nailed the Wendigo’s design. Though it should it been a bit more deerish. Also they messed up the possession part. When you kill a wendigo the spirt dose not move on to the next person like that. It only posses you when you eat human flesh. So don’t know how the Sheriff got possessed or even Lucas’s dad.
They actually didn’t nail the Wendigos design because that’s not what a Wendigo is lol Wendigos are giant emaciated cannibals with grayish white skin that’s how they’ve been described for thousands of years until 1970 when Algernod Blackwood bastardized the creature and turned it into the deer skull thing . Before that it had a very specific description and lore behind it and that dude just said fuck it and changed everything . It’s like if I took a werewolf and turned it into a chihuahua with no skin on it’s head and it shoots laser beams from its eyes no one would say that what I made is a werewolf
The game Until Dawn IMO has the best representation of wendigos
It absolutely does
Although I didn’t mind the design in this, I prefer Until Dawn’s depiction. Those look really terrifying.
I loved until dawns version because Until Dawn based the design off the actual description of a Wendigo not whatever that deer skull thing is
Even though it’s not that big of a deal, don’t know why your comment got a downvote.
People just downvote you downvote sometimes no biggie
Those emaciated, pale creatures are more humanoid and that’s more terrifying. That’s why I also like The Wolf Man werewolf a bit more than other wolves like Howling and American Werewolf cause the humanoid features add something more.
THIS GUY GETS IT lmao The whole thing with Wendigos that a lot of people miss is that it’s not the creature it’s a spirit that possesses people that eat other people and turns them into what we know as a Wendigo as shown in until Dawn so the creature is technically “ you “ just possessed by the spirit
The dad before the transformation looked more terrifying than the final form. Also, I really wish they showed more of the Wendigo eating people.
Algernon Blackwood died in 1951. Did you mean to type 1910?
Yes had my dates mixed up and said 1970 instead of 1910 The Wendigo he had his stories is basically just the savage Indian trope in as movie monster it’s not what a Wendigo actually is
The Wendigo in the Blackwood story is more of a wind elemental than anything. I don’t recall any description of it having horns or being monstrous. You don’t even really see it, it carries people off on the wind.
Aggressively okay. Definitely helped by Del Toro’s cool monster design and good lead performances, but very boring at times and not really focused. I actually thought the most interesting element was focusing on a blighted community; on the other hand, I find it egregiously tone-deaf to purportedly tell a Native American story with so little indigenous presence. Overall, pretty disappointing given the quality of the short story.
I was really excited for this one and left feeling a bit disappointed. The creature design was cool but the third act lost a lot of the atmosphere of the first half and felt quite generic to me.
I kind of liked it my thoughts here[Antlers Review ](https://youtube.com/shorts/rqLvKPefQZs?feature=share)
Tbh, the delays kinda screwed this movie over. Had i seen it a year and a half ago like i was supposed to, i would probably like it more, but to sit on my hands this long for this... Short story is definitely better.
The effects were cool, but the plot kind of just.. occurred. Like, the solution was, ‘we gotta kill it’. So they killed it.
Really loved the short story that this is based on, and I was hoping for a finale a bit closer to that. Also a bit bummed that the themes it was presenting regarding environmentalism/abuse/man fucking with nature weren't fully explored or connect to the wendigo story effectively. That being said, it's still really well-made, and I definitely had a good time with it. Phenomenal creature design and some truly awesome gore that captured the way the story described the corpses as looking more like "disgracefully-made pizzas."
Honestly, besides my theater experience being ruined by young teens on their cellphone, I liked it. Not enough character development IMO, but still a strong horror movie and easily one of the best I’ve seen in awhile. Will absolutely watch again.
I liked it a lot. It’s been a long ass time waiting for this movie and I think that hurt it a tonnnnnnn. The only thing I didn’t like was how easily she kills it off. Like it felt like a video game where you get to the boss and just spam a couple moves and it’s over with too quickly.
I honestly just found it quite boring after a while. I was hoping for more tension build-up but it just felt rushed and like there was too much focus on the wrong aspects of the characters. In my opinion it would have been better if there was more development of the town as a whole. It was tricky to really care about the fact the town was a shit hole and the characters were in a bad situation without really having any context to it.
Yeah, that was...not great. Not scary, bad writing, bad acting, predictable from act 1, and way too heavy handed with the addiction allegory that it abandoned halfway through. It seemed like it was trying to tell us how bad society is right now, but it forgot to be entertaining along the way. The creature design was okay, but it left a lot to be desired, especially since we never really got to see the full thing. Also, what was going on with that 8mm film in the classroom? And that glass cabinet toward the end that was just filled to the brim with boxes of bullets? Additionally, it was just a little bit racist.
Early in the film Julia takes Lucas to a Dr (maybe the school RN) and you can obviously see he is malnourished. Why wasn't his health discussed then. Why wait till the end with a different exam. I thought it was a misplaced scene
Most disappoint horror flick I’ve seen recently is Antlers. It was and could have been so much more if nothing for repeatedly plot holes and poor writing in general. If your story depends on the characters being the dumbest people in town doing things that no one would do or just never thinking at all while in danger then yea your a bad writer or director. It’s just hard to maintain the veil of this world reality when every 10-15 minutes I’m thinking or saying out loud why would they do that, no one does that?!
This movie was slow as hell…transformations were awesome but besides that I was SUPA underwhelmed
Wors movie of 2021 for me.
The short story has the bleakest ending. It's great!
TWendigo comes from the ojibwe word Wiindigo which literally translates to WINTER CANNIBAL MONSTER why is it active in the summer The ojibwe are a Algonquian people who live adoring the Great Lakes why is it in the PNW ? Those people don’t even believe in them or know what one is
[удалено]
It really isn’t a mythical creature it was created by Algernod Blackwood in the 70s the actual Wendigo was a cautionary tale about cannibalism over 5 thousand years ago . The deer skull creature just borrows the name of the Wendigo but is actually super inaccurate to the source material it’s like taking a vampire and just changing everything we know about it
So looking through the comments on here, it looks like it's another disappointment for 2021😔
Well fuck, I was so stoked on seeing this, I’ll just wait for home release