A friend was telling me about this movie about a wendigo attacking a family and then the family has to deal with the consequences. However, Home Alone wasn’t available to stream so I had to settle for Antlers (2021). It had a similar plot so I don’t think y’all will mind. 

Set in an isolated Oregon town, middle-school teacher Julia (played by Keri Russell) has moved back home to live with her brother, the town sheriff (played by Jesse Plemons). One of the students in her class, Lucas (played by Jeremy T. Thomas), is showing signs of parental abuse. Julia can identify the signs because her own father abused her and her brother when they were children. She keeps pressing things and sets into motion the main conflict of the film. 

I enjoyed most of the elements of the film. The acting was good, the body horror was great, and the amount of lore behind it was sufficient.  

However, there were very little deaths. Probably five, if memory serves. The gore was great, but for a film about a cannibalistic monster in a small town, the body count should’ve been higher. Some of the characters were saved because of plot armor. There was one dude (have no clue what his name was, probably Red Shirt #2) that got gored in the back by the monster’s antlers (shocker am I right), but when one of the main characters did the same thing, he/she (ha, you thought I’d spoil something) only got pierced in the arm.  

I would’ve liked to have seen a higher body count, some more lore about the creature. There wasn’t much involvement from the town either. I thought it would be cool to see the town go into the woods to try to find the beast. Then we could’ve had a scene where the wendigo just goes to town on the town members. But apparently the police did such a good job covering things up because the town just didn’t care.  

Another thing I wanted to have explained was the origin of the first wendigo. There’s one wendigo at the beginning of the film, but we don’t see it at all. The only wendigo we see is the one at the end. And that one had been infected by the original wendigo. And if I’m being totally nitpicky, then I would say that the main character defeated the wendigo really easy.  

“I imagine an evil monster with antlers that stands two times taller than the main character will be tough to kill.”

Actually it’ll be…

Overall, it could’ve been better, but it wasn’t bad. It was just okay. 

31 Days of Horror Rankings (from best to worst):

1. Deadstream (2022) 
2. Willy’s Wonderland (2021)  
3. Grimcutty (2022)
4. Smile (2022)
5. V/H/S/99 (2022)
6. Watcher (2022)   
7. Virus:32 (2022)
8. The Spine of Night (2021)
9. Mad God (2022)
10. Slaxx (2021)
11. She Will (2022)
12. Cannibal Holocaust (1980)
13. Escape Room (2019)
14. We Have Always Lived in the Castle (2018)
15. The Cellar (2022)  
16. The Last Rite (2021)
17. Terrifier 2 (2022)
18. Antlers (2021)
19. Revealer (2022)  
20. Sissy (2022) 
21. Halloween Ends (2022)
22. Dashcam (2022)
23. Mr. Harrigan’s Phone (2022)
24. Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker (1982)
25. The Collingswood Story (2002)
26. Werewolf by Night (2022)
27. Firestarter (2022)
28. The Bunker Game (2022)