Julia Meadows (Keri Russell) has returned to her small home town in Oregon to live with her brother, Sheriff Paul Meadows (Jesse Plemons) following the death of their father. Working at the local school she becomes concerned about the welfare of one of her young students. Lucas (Jeremy T. Thomas) is withdrawn and drawing disturbing images that seem to represent his home life and suggest a malevolent spirit may have inserted itself into his life. 

Antlers is a horror film that succeeds in lots of areas that provide a dark and ominous tone throughout. The story is framed within a small town decimated by coal mine closures. This has resulted in the proliferation of meth labs in the remnants of those mines and a feeling that if kids are at school then that is enough. Julia and Paul are learning to trust each other again following living with an abusive father, something that Julia ran from as soon as she could. Whilst Lucas is a quiet boy who is socially apart from the other children makeing us worry for what he is living through. There is also some allusions to myths and legends littered throughout the story that hint at the evils lurking within the town. 

My only issue was that whilst all of the above is expertly achieved in isolation it never feels like it manages to tie those things together for a satisfying pay off. This holds it back from being a great horror movie rather than the effective one that it is. 

What it does well is very good though. The story reminded me in the early stages of H. P. Lovecraft’s Color Out Of Space. The effects work is excellent, the character work for our three leads is subtle and effective and the performances are great. Especially from the young Jeremy T. Thomas who is scarily good at portraying the damaged Lucas.