Antlers turns five this week, and with Halloween close its wendigo still feels like the right monster to revisit. The Canada–U.S.–Mexico co-production premiered at Beyond Fest in Los Angeles on October 11, 2021, and reached U.S. theatres on October 29, 2021. It did not arrive easily, but the film’s path from an unpublished short story to a $35.7 million global run is full of odd, very specific details.
Adapted from a story that wasn’t published yet
In July 2018, Guillermo del Toro was announced as a producer on Antlers. The screenplay was adapted from Nick Antosca’s short story “The Quiet Boy,” but the story did not appear in Guernica magazine until January 2019. Principal photography ran from October 1, 2018, to November 30, 2018.
A stacked cast came together fast
Scott Cooper directed and co-wrote the film. In the initial July 2018 announcement, Keri Russell was in negotiations to star. Jesse Plemons joined in August 2018, and Jeremy T. Thomas, Graham Greene, Amy Madigan, Scott Haze and Rory Cochrane joined in October 2018.
British Columbia stood in for Oregon
Exterior scenes were filmed in November 2018 in Hope, British Columbia, 100 kilometers (62 mi) inland of the Greater Vancouver region, standing in for the Oregon town of the film. Other scenes were filmed in Port Moody, Langley, Squamish and Alouette Lake.
The release date was a long fight
Antlers was originally scheduled for April 17, 2020, but was removed from the release calendar due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was rescheduled to February 19, 2021, then removed from the calendar again. The film finally premiered at Beyond Fest in Los Angeles on October 11, 2021, and opened in the United States on October 29, 2021. It reached digital download on December 21, 2021, followed by Blu-ray and DVD on January 4, 2022, from Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment.
The wendigo has one very specific weakness
In the story, former sheriff Warren Stokes connects Lucas’s drawings to the wendigo, a legendary Algonquin demon that appears as a ravenous deer-like monster and passes from person to person. According to Stokes, it can only be killed when it is weakest: as it is feeding, and to extinguish its beating heart.
A $35.7 million global run
Antlers grossed $10.6 million in the United States and Canada, and $25.1 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $35.7 million. It opened in 2,800 theaters for its opening weekend and debuted with a domestic weekend total of $4.3 million, finishing sixth at the box office. In its second weekend, the film dropped 54% to $2 million and remained in the top ten for its first three weeks.
Critics were split, but sharp enough
On Rotten Tomatoes, 59% of 179 critics’ reviews are positive, and the critics consensus says it is “sharp enough to recommend as a richly atmospheric creature feature.” Metacritic’s weighted average is 57 out of 100 based on 33 critical reviews, indicating “mixed or average” reviews. CinemaScore audiences gave it an average grade of C+ on an A+ to F scale.
It is both art house horror and trauma allegory
John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter called the film “thoroughly successful both as icky art house horror and as an allegory of generational trauma” and praised Jeremy T. Thomas’s performance. Linda Marric of The Jewish Chronicle gave it 3/5 stars, writing that it was dark in tone and aesthetically stunning, even if it leaned on obvious allegories. Which Antlers fact is the one you’ll remember?
Facts from Wikipedia: Antlers (2021 film), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Film images from TMDB. This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.