I liked Antlers a lot. I was in the mood for a monster movie and this fit the bill. There are two stars on the bill, Keri Russell who I’ve loved forever, and Jesse Plemons who first made waves on Breaking Bad. They play siblings, Julia, a middle school teacher, and Paul the local Sheriff. As the movie unfolds you find out they had a traumatic childhood and those issues come back when Julia becomes concerned about one of her students, Lucas. First, his behavior is compromised. Julia recognizes a kid who doesn’t go home to a safe environment. Then, the big tell that he’s dealing with something secret is in his disturbing drawings.
Lucas’ father has gotten in trouble. He goes with his dad to do some kind of business with friends, and his dad tells him to stay out of the building, he’s not going to be long. But it turns out he and his friends found something that was meant to be buried forever and he becomes sick. Lucas, who can barely take care of himself because he’s so young, has to manage his father and younger brother on his own. His father is far beyond what medicine can help with.
The Oregon setting is the perfect location for this story as the environment becomes part of the story. The movie looks very good with quality directing. I really liked the weaving of Julia and Paul’s past with the main plot as it felt natural and made Julia a more fleshed-out character. The escalation of dread and horror is spaced out well so when things go really nuts, it feels right. Creepy in all the best ways, I think Antlers is one of the best horror movies I’ve seen recently.
This is what a reboot should do. This is a total resurrection for this franchise where only 1 of the 9 sequels is really worth watching. This script goes back to what made the first so wild and intriguing. Put an oblivious character into the path of a sneaky character with the Lemarchand box, and watch what happens.
Riley is a young woman who is crashing with her brother because she’s fallen on hard times. Her addiction(s) have more or less taken over her life. She’s struggling to keep things together and when her boyfriend Trevor offers her a cut for stealing from some unidentified rich people, she takes it because she’s desperate. It looks simple enough as the business has been abandoned and the safe is easy pickings. What’s in the safe isn’t safe though (surprise, it’s a horror movie!). It’s Lemarchand’s puzzle box. The device that invites Pinhead and pals to come take you to hell. Once that first bit of blood activates the box, it’s a slide into insanity.
I think this reboot works the best on the first watch if you know nothing about Hellraiser. Once the puzzle box shows up, you basically know all the rules even though this adaptation of Clive Barker’s short story changes things up. Riley makes a ton of mistakes and it’s easy to think of her as stupid for most of the movie. Because you know what’s going on it gives you advantages she could never have. There’s no reason for her to think that the puzzle box she has is the problem. She’s high when things start getting weird so she doesn’t believe what bits and pieces she remembers seeing. The natural answer to her is, “I’m hallucinating”. And when the first person gets taken, she doesn’t see it happen, they just vanish. Seeing it would have been a bigger tip-off to put things together faster.
But once she does start putting things together, the annoyance with her wanes as she begins to smarten up and works to fix things. There are still some dumb oversights for horror trope reasons (like no one seeing a character taking the box when everyone there would have seen it) but I stayed engaged and was alright about going along with it. Corners are cut when a journal is found that explains everything but I think it works because of the how and why that information was found. And the lore that comes out is cool. Everything that Voight finds out and what he does is satisfying and builds on the original Hellraiser. The arc of mankind’s weakness for temptation and the never-ending yearning for more. Power and greed are dangerous and the evil that exists to exploit and feed off of those aspects is scary. Plus, being manipulated is something everyone is wary of and is a major betrayal. This movie traffics in a lot of sinister emotions that put us on edge.
Speaking of scary, the Cenobites are next level and carry the torch of icon horror figures. Including the Hellpriest, we see six of them. And they all stand out. They are disturbing not in just the way they look but also because they love what they get to do. This movie is drop-dead gorgeous. The visuals are stunning as are the SFX. Tremendous practical effects mixed with CG to blast us off into hellish dimensions. I love the redesigned Pinhead. The classic Doug Bradley version is little more than a guy wearing leather with pins stuck in his face. This Hellpriest played by Jamie Clayton is all carved up and menacing with a wild augmented voice, but is somehow beautiful and graceful. Now that I think about it, I don’t recall ever seeing her walk, so there’s no movement that could be called graceful. She does caress a character’s face but she doesn’t have fingernails so even that is disturbing. Simply standing and observing is terrifying. And the stuff she says you don’t want to hear anyone say. The first full abduction scene legit freaked me out. Phenomenal direction. I haven’t felt that uncomfortable and hoped that this shit better be 100% fantasy since Hostel. As gruesome as this movie gets, there are still aspects of sensuality and erotism that come through. The BDSM motifs aren’t hidden of course. Major credit to the art and design departments of this show. This stuff would make H.R. Giger proud.
I had no idea this was being made until just before the trailer came out a month ago. And like everyone else I’m sure, I thought this would be another one to skip. The trailer was great and the finished product rocks. There is huge potential for a sequel; I hope this team sticks together and makes another one that is even better.