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1566870cookie-checkAntlers Red Band Trailer Avoids Showing The Wendigo By Keeping The Spoilers On A Leash
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2019/12

Antlers Red Band Trailer Avoids Showing The Wendigo By Keeping The Spoilers On A Leash

If you were hoping to get a full-on glimpse of the Wendigo in Scott Cooper’s Antlers, you won’t find it in the red band trailer for the upcoming horror film, Antlers, which is being produced in part by Guillermo del Toro and David S. Goyer, and is based on the short story The Quiet Boy from Nick Antosca.

The latest trailer for the film may be labeled as red band but all it really does is showcase some of the gruesome aftermath of the Wendigo’s feasting sessions and the dismembered remains of some poor sap who couldn’t escape from the mines in time.

What the trailer doesn’t do is spoil all the good parts of the film, namely by avoiding showing the Wendigo in full. We get glimpse here and there and a few moments where the stature of the beast exudes a feeling of solicitude from viewers, but they do a good job of keeping all the spoilers on a leash, something many Hollywood films can’t seem to do well at all.

The trailer sets up the story that a troubled little boy who lives alone is helping feed a monster that lives in the woods.

Apparently something happens (likely the boy is unable to keep finding food) and the Wendigo begins to become more vicious, more feral, more hungry.

The story goes that the boy becomes the target of the Wendigo, again, presumably for not providing food for it.

What we do know is that the boy’s teacher, played by Keri Russell, has her maternal instincts kick in and she begins to worry about the introverted student. Her worries soon turn into fear and then it becomes a fight for survival.

This looks like a well-made, classical horror film; judging by the two trailers that have been released so far.

The main issue is that there’s the added worry of the film possibly being ham-fisted with subversion or some other kind of ridiculous sociopolitical pining that undermines the integrity of the narrative, but hopefully that’s not the case. And since it’s a low-budget flick from Fox Searchlight, perhaps it’s actually going to be made to cater to an audience that wants to see it rather than the phantom audience that never planned on seeing it to begin with?

You can look for Antlers to hit theaters in 2020.

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