I did not do my homework because I fed my father with carrion – a review of the film “Antlers”

As the first trailers mainly consisted of snippets of interactions with the monster and dialogues outlining its mythical origins, I expected the movie to lay out the accents a bit differently. I counted on a more detailed and unhurried exploration of the beliefs of the Indians of today’s Canada and the northern states of the USA, from which the wendigo originates, especially since it is not a creature presented in pop culture, neither very often, nor particularly coherently. However, it turned out a bit differently, and the whole work is much more of a drama than you might initially think. So, without further ado …

A mythological pad, not a solid foundation

I will deal with the issue of drawing from myths at the beginning, because this is probably the only aspect of the film that actually disappointed me. As I mentioned, the trailers gave me a taste for this topic, and unfortunately it was neglected. These few sentences from the trailer turn out to be almost everything the heroes learn about the origin and way of working of the wendigo. Since I have been interested in mythologies for years, I am always interested in transforming their elements into new works. Unfortunately, Antlers offers the recipient an empty shell here.

The appearance and behavior of the creature are presented fairly faithfully to the descriptions present in folklore – he thus resembles a sick, emaciated man with animal movements, who, despite partially retaining his mind and the original character of a cursed person, easily succumbs to the murderous anger dictated by the unsatisfied hunger of human flesh. Also its later form, more grotesque and endowed with the title antlers, fits in with certain variants of the mythological representations of this creature.

However, consistency issues arise in the way it is introduced into the plot. The film itself informs us through the mouths of the protagonists that the curse affects people who are particularly greedy or those who have voluntarily taken an act of cannibalism. However, none of these things seem to be true of Frank Weaver, the poor and uneconomical drug dealer. Nevertheless, he is attacked by a wendigo in the first scenes, and the curse inexplicably spreads to him.

The following fragments trying to explain this plot of the plot also do not help much. We know that young Lucas has some idea of ​​what he faces when a book on the subject of evil spirits is found with him, but how it came into his possession and what he actually learned from it is not revealed to us. Likewise, no one bothers to explain why the previous wendigo sat meekly in his nest, trapped by the ritual pouches of the natives, but his next incarnation in Frank had no problem with overcoming this barrier.

Less literal demons, but just as terrible

Threads that could be called moral ones turned out to be a less publicized, but extremely important part of Antlers . The pair of protagonists here are the secretive, withdrawn elementary school student, Lucas, and his teacher, Julia. As it soon turns out, the two are linked by traumatic experiences of growing up in dysfunctional families, which prompts the woman to become personally involved in the student’s problems and make a series of attempts to reach out to him to help him. These parts of the movie are quite moving and gloomy, mainly because they are so real.

It is very telling that the suffering of both of them is not visible at first glance. Julia is already an adult, long time “collected” woman who has worked through her problems and faced her own fears, for example by returning to her hometown and childhood home, where she was once injured. Although she seems strong and responsible from the side, and at the same time feels ready to help others, the fragility of this state can be felt in her conversations with her brother, not to mention more blunt portrayal of the violence that haunts her in flashbacks to this day. Likewise, Lucas, although sitting up to his ears in a terrible situation when the story opens, is physically exhausted and emotionally barely making ends meet, he seems to be an ordinary boy on the side. at most a little shy and hounded by a class bully. Only a mature person with a traumatic past is able to see through this illusion of normality and perceive disturbing signals. As the Anglo-Saxons say:it takes one to know one.

A fantasy story showing real problems

As the action unfolds, we learn more and more, and here Antlers again offer very accurate – and sad – observations about the reality of people brought up in an atmosphere of violence. One specific strength of this picture is its focus on long-term psychological damage that affects the victims even when the abuse is no longer taking place. The viewer is not shown the shocking scenes of abuse (with the exception of one flashback already mentioned), but their aftermath, so instead of experiencing a violent outburst of strong emotions, one has the impression of being slowly “soaked up” with grim terror and helpless compassion, which I think is much more takes over and provokes reflection.

Therefore, it is not difficult to observe the attitudes and mechanisms in the heroes, which in fact also often occur in people in such a position. Lucas is secretive and distrustful of adults, even sincerely kind ones like Julia, and he also feels responsible for his family, which shows the characteristics of a child who has grown up too quickly to protect his younger siblings and support an emotionally immature, dysfunctional parent. Connected with this is also a strong, toxic loyalty to relatives, which prompts the boy to sacrifice himself too far for the sake of his father and brother, and to deny the seriousness and irreversibility of certain events. It is also often characteristic of this type of relationship, because an unstable but dominant person persuades others to

Julia also turns out to be implementing a slightly different pattern, in which she was strong enough to break out of the “system” described above, which allowed her to stand on her feet. However, this move became an act of betrayal and abandonment for her brother, as he remained in the family home without his sister’s support and continued to experience violence there. Although we observe the situation between them in the perspective of many years from these events, it can be noticed that they do not trust each other and have deep sorrow for each other. At the same time, the film allows itself a clever trick, in which we get to know parts of the story only through Julia’s eyes, and at some point Paul comes out with the sentence: “You have no idea what he was doing to me.” It is interesting because the further plot does not decide whether it was only an excuse of the man, intended to justify his earlier failure to help his sister,

Good photos, average CGI

From the visual side, the Antlers looks pretty good. Most of the shots are rather dark or cold steel, which of course emphasizes the overwhelming and lonely atmosphere of the film. As a result, the provincial town does not seem cozy, but rather inhospitable and barren, while the beautiful Canadian nature takes on even more raw, mysterious and primeval character, which perfectly harmonizes with the mythological theme.

The wendigo fragments are a bit worse. The early scenes with dirty, skinny Frank are fine, the effects only slightly lessened with his later, more “advanced” form. The moment of transformation to a certain stage is shockingly artificial, and the later sequences with the participation of the beast are also not the top of graphic art, although at least this fact is masked by the rapid camera transitions and economical lighting. Well, it could have been better, but it’s not tragic either!

A bit scary, a bit sad

To sum up, Antlers is a largely successful, subtle story about personal tragedies, invisible pain and internal conflicts that torment the psyche of those who suffer at the hands of their loved ones. While the mythical creature on the screen kills fast and bloody, the stinging wounds of the soul do it just as effectively, but quietly and slowly. And although after leaving the cinema we will almost certainly not come across a wendigo in a dark alley, we may meet another person there. One whose traumas, past or present, we know nothing about. And perhaps this memory is the message of this film.