Here we are, a year-and-a-half after we were supposed to see this one, and it has finally opened in theaters. (The decision to release it when it’s going to have to compete with HALLOWEEN KILLS and DUNE wasn’t the smartest one, in my opinion, but they didn’t consult with me before making that decision, and with the film getting clobbered at the box office, well, this isn’t one you’d expect to launch a franchise, anyway.) Was it worth the wait? Mostly. This one comes to a boil slowly, and while that bothers some critics whose reviews I’ve seen, I don’t mind a nice slow pace, provided the time is properly utilized. Therein lies the problem with ANTLERS.
You could say, and accurately, I think, that its biggest problem is that it isn’t a Guillermo Del Toro movie. He served as producer but didn’t direct or have a hand in the screenplay. If he had done either of those things, or both, we would have gotten to know the characters better, come to care about them more. Even the scene where—SPOILER ALERT—the bully gets eaten by the Wendigo isn’t fully satisfying, because it wasn’t set up correctly. The acting is good and the film is gorgeous to look at, beautiful in its bleakness, but it feels a little underinflated. Like the Grinch before his conversion, its heart is too small.
(Also, Graham Greene’s character serves absolutely no purpose whatsoever, other than to explain to the other characters, and to the audience, what a Wendigo is. Clumsy.)
Even so, what we got is an effective enough thriller with a monster worthy of Stan Winston, and that alone makes it worth the price of admission. I’ll give this one a B+. It’s good, but it would have been better with Del Toro in the driver’ seat.
