10 Recent Horror Movies That Blew Great Concepts
1. Antlers (2021)
Based on the short story The Quiet Boy written by Chanel Zero’s Nick Antosca (who co-wrote the screenplay), and executive produced by Guillermo del Toro, Antlers aims at being a character-driven creature feature which digs into themes of childhood trauma and neglect.
When a teacher (Kerri Russell) suspects that one of her students, a disturbed boy named Lucas (Jeremy T. Thomas) is being abused, she decides to investigate with her sheriff brother (Jesse Plemons). However, they discover that the youngster is harbouring a dark secret in the form a wendigo in his house.
Set within a palpably gloomy atmosphere, and featuring some fantastic creature design and grisly gore, Antlers has a lot going for it. Despite its striking visuals and talented cast, though, this film falls short in its execution.
Between its themes of childhood abuse, greed, and environmentalism, there’s plenty of potential for the script to weave a thoughtful horror outing. But none of these ideas are given the development needed for them to flourish into something more than surface-level metaphors.
As a result, Antlers is unable to build upon its solid foundations in meaningful ways to become anything more than a well-shot - it not particularly deep - monster movie.