Scary ‘Antlers’ has a lot of subjects on its mind
Also worth seeing: six-part series on Colin Kaepernick
If you like scary movies, prepare for the legit nightmare maker “Antlers,” coming to theaters Friday. Another worthwhile release — though not as good — is Edgar Wright’s noirish “Last Night in Soho.”
And over on Netflix, the six-part series “Colin in Black and White” debuts and it’s a talker.
Here’s our roundup.
“ANTLERS” >> One of America’s best modern chroniclers of the old and new West — Scott Cooper — joins forces with producer Guillermo del Toro for his entry into the supernatural genre. And oh how he delivers, crafting an intense, atmospheric folk tale that fillets the nerves from the ominous start to the violent finale.
Keri Russell reminds us of just how versatile an actor she is, wearing a heavy cloak of despair and strength as the emotionally wary Julia, a recovering alcoholic and teacher who returns to her small Oregon hometown that’s in the throes of an opioid epidemic. It’s hardly a harmonious homecoming as she stays with her sheriff brother (Jesse Plemons) in the same ranch home where her father had violated her as a child.
While teaching in the classroom, Julia spots something that’s not quite right with a shy, bullied, feral-like middle-school-aged kid (Jeremy T. Thomas, in a tough but vulnerable performance).
“Antlers” works on multiple levels. It’s not only an intelligently constructed creature feature with a genuinely freaky-looking monster at its center, but also a hard-hitting look at the opioid epidemic and an angry critique on America’s disrespect of Indigenous people and their land. Foremost, though, it aims to scare the hell out of you, and it does just that.
DETAILS >> \*\*\*/* out of 4; in theaters Friday.
“LAST NIGHT IN SOHO” >> Edgar Wright’s time-traveling noir takes hold at the start but starts to fall apart when he introduces weak horror tropes. But even 75% of a great Wright effort makes for an entertaining time at the movies, and “Soho” does have its thrills.
The inventive director of “Baby Driver” and “Shaun of the Dead” plays around in the Hitchcock, DePalma and Lynch toybox for a trippy tale about shy country lass Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie), who makes a beeline for the big city of London so she can enter a fashion school.
After being humiliated by a terrible roommate, she finds cheap-enough digs in an rundown apartment building managed by