 There'd be some antlers in them hills. Ooh, that's a hot mug, guys. Hey guys, this is my review for antlers. This is a film directed by Scott Cooper that I had been looking forward to for quite some time. Not only is it a story about a when to go with some really cool looking shots and some good tension, at least given off from the trailer, a lot of this is filmed in my area are near me. The Town of Hope is heavily used in this film. They shoot right outside the field store, which is funny, they don't even try to hide it. They also shot at the Bleeberger House, which for those of my supernatural fans, you'll know that that house has been used many a time for supernatural. Now, this film got heavily debilated by COVID as did many others, but I loved the idea of what was going behind this. It was being produced by Camillo del Toro, and it really did look like it had some potential to it. Scott Cooper has directed other movies like Crazy Heart, Out of the Furnace, or Hostiles, which I have done a review about, and a lot of the style choices from that film definitely carry over to this one. The cinematography in this film is exceptionally well done. It's as well shot as an A24 film, but it's not weird, I guess you could say. The story follows this young boy who is harboring his father and his younger brother in his house who have an illness, a sickness about them, which is in fact related to the Wendigo myth. All the while, Kerry Russell has returned to her hometown, trying to be a schoolteacher, living with her brother in the old family house, which definitely has some dark past, some dark history. And Kerry starts to kind of pick up on what's going on with the young boy who's coming to school. Kerry is trying to combat her own abuse, her own past by helping him. I would definitely say that the first half of this film is pretty well done. It's a slow burn kind of style, but there's a lot of good tension building. There's a lot of good use of atmosphere building. The cinematography is very good. I love a lot of the very centralist shots that are done this with the slow dolly in, slow dolly out. It really helps build that kind of fear and mystery. The opening bit in the mind is probably, I'm gonna say the best part of this movie in terms of scares. You really get to know the boy. And I feel that while his vocal acting is not that great, what he does in the scenes, especially when he's taking care of his family in the house, I very much love those bits. Those bits were full of good slow building horror. Kerry Russell's involvement in this story, I also did enjoy, but I feel that they definitely kind of just took a generic kind of style of story in terms of abuse. There is definitely a lot of room here for more about what her history is, but I feel it kind of just gets dropped. Instead of it being an actual kind of connection to help build the two characters, it's more so it's like a necessary involvement rather than a part that was naturally put into the story. And that is where I kind of start to bring in my complaints. Once the second half starts, the movie starts to drag. It starts to kind of devolve into an incredibly generic sort of storytelling. And it just kind of disappoints you. It doesn't take full advantage of what it's trying to do. And if anything, it tries to wrap up the story quite quickly at the end when there was so much more room to delve further into the Wendigo myth. They go and visit the old town sheriff who is a Native American himself in the story. He's the one who kind of points out, hey, there was a Wendigo going around. And his line reading here is just so bare bones. All right, I'm going to be talking about the Native American stereotype stuff again. And when I say that, I'm not saying it as a means that the movie's insensitive. I'm also just saying it's like, oh, this is another necessary kind of checklist idea rather than actually being a natural part of the story. And then there's a part that involves a shed, a garden shed. That's just, this is where the movie just hits you with so much disappointment. This is a part that should have been way more terrifying, way more evocative, way more brutal, at least more creative than it could have been. Remember how Voss in Far Cry 3 would say that insanity is repeating the same thing, expecting a different outcome? That happens almost in this scene. Once the film does come to its conclusion, kind of rather anticlimactic. It really feels like they just try to wrap the movie up rather than actually trying to do something creative. They just take the when to go idea and they're like, okay, let's put that in this movie. Are we gonna do anything with it really? No, we're just gonna make it look creepy and we're gonna really shoot it well. That's it. Antlers has a very great visual palette. Not gonna take any points away from that. It also has some pretty decent sound design and atmosphere building. Whenever the film doesn't allow the characters to talk, whenever there's just visual storytelling, those parts are good. It's when the actual storytelling, the plot progression or the written dialogue comes in that takes the movie down so many unnecessary notches that it really makes it a pretty generic story. In the words of one of my actual friends, you're basic. It's a human insult. It's devastating. You're devastated right now. It's unfortunately incredibly generic. It's unfortunately incredibly bland. It just looks real pretty. So in the end, I'm gonna give Antlers a two out of seven. I wanted to give it a three, but I feel like I already gave my generous rating to Eternals for the year. So I can't really excuse this movie for the issues that it has. There's just so much wasted potential in this film and I feel really bad for the people who worked on this movie because there is a lot of good work done in this film. The visual aspect of the story is really good and if you're interested in that, sure, but don't expect anything grand. Don't expect anything decent. Don't expect anything beyond blandy McBlandland in terms of the storytelling. Anyways, guys, I hope you enjoyed the review. If you did, leave a like and if you're interested in more, subscribe. Otherwise, I'll see you guys next time.