There are significant encounters. The one between producer Guillermo del Toro and filmmaker Scott Cooper is one. Antlers is besides marked with the tinplate of their respective seal in the development of a true two-headed entity.
Even if he did not participate in the screenplay, the obsessions of the creator of The Shape of Water are omnipresent there. It is about a lurking monster and a traumatized child who hides a terrible secret. A little more and it feels like stepping back to the days of his remarkable The devil’s backbone, where the fantastic, the ambiguity and the subtlety have the last word.
A unique vision that is mixed with that, just as singular, of the director of the excellents Hostiles and Out of the Furnace. Here is one who likes to explore the dark side of America, to smell its suffering and to feel its badly healed wounds which are ready to open at the slightest opportunity.
The past comes back to haunt and it spares nothing and no one, setting up an unhealthy duality. Here, the surrounding evil is a metaphor for the traumas of yesteryear. Those who affect injured individuals intimidate weakened peoples. Evils that are rooted in children’s drawings and First Nations mythology, transmitting a violent heritage.
Bloody
It will not be easy to escape from it, especially in such a brutal environment in which the characters act. One misstep and death is assured. Although generally predictable, the bloody scenes have ample reaction. The slow pace and lack of humor allow fear to creep in deeply.
This ambient darkness manifests itself on the screen. She is practically of all plans. When the light returns the weapons, the inevitably disturbing shadow savors its triumph by sessions of metamorphoses which will be difficult to forget. The careful staging with the refined color palette increases the distressing effects tenfold, especially when combined with soft melancholic melodies that give goosebumps.
No doubt that the final confrontation which pours into the grotesque free of charge does not fulfill all its promises. However, it is redeemed by its impeccable performers (Keri Russell is exemplary sobriety in front of the newcomer Jeremy T. Thomas who is promised a bright future) and a palpable tension which is growing. What to do withAntlers the scariest movie since Saint maud.
Indoors.
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Horror
Antlers
Scott Cooper
With Jeremy T. Thomas, Keri Russell, Jesse Plemons
1 h 39