The forthcoming horror movie Antlers brings out several of the popular tropes in horror movies: a small town, a boy with a secret, a supernatural creature that lurks at the edges of the screen and that seems to have deep roots in the area. What’s more, it also appears that the boy and his father are working together to keep the supernatural creature fed.
For those that like any one or all of those features in combination, there are quite a few other horror movies out there that offer some of the same pleasures.
Jug Face (2013) - Stream On AMC+
For those that enjoy the small town aspect of the story in Antlers, Jug Face, a rather obscure horror movie from the 2010s, offers more of the same. It revolves around a remote group of villagers who worship a mysterious creature and often sacrifice a member of the village to its hunger.
The movie is tense and atmospheric as it focuses on the darker side of human nature, and the lengths to which people will go in both their religious devotion and their desire to survive in the face of implacable evil.
The Pale Door (2020) - Stream On Shudder
The Pale Door combines the conventions of the western and the horror movie and, like Antlers, it involves family dynamics and the horrors that people are willing to perpetrate on one another.
The movie succeeds in large part because it manages to bring out the very things that made the western genre so violent, and it teases out the ways in which the past impinges on the future, creating a cycle of violence that’s difficult to escape.
Pet Semetary (2019) - Stream On Paramount+
Stephen King has seen a flourishing of adaptations of his work in recent years, including Pet Semetary, the second movie that’s been made of the book. Like Antlers, this movie has at its center the creature known as the Wendigo, which in this case is responsible for the reanimation of the dead--both animal and human--that gives the movie so much of its horrific poignancy.
And, like all good horror movies, it also has a broader message, this time about whether one should accept the fact of death’s permanence or do anything to subvert it.
The Witch (2015) - Stream On Showtime
Part of what makes a movie like Antlers so chilling is that the evil creature spends so much time lurking out of the frame. That’s the dynamic that also makes The Witch such a fascinating and unique horror movie since for the most part, the evil doesn’t appear on screen but instead seems to take root in the colonists who have been banished from their town.
And, like Antlers, The Witch also dives deep into the myths that permeate the American unconscious.
Jeepers Creepers (2001) - Rent On Vudu
As with so many other horror movies, there are at least two people in Antlers who believe that something sinister is going on, and a similar plot develops in Jeepers Creepers when a brother and sister encounter a sinister monster in the Florida countryside.
The creature in this movie is one of the more disturbing to emerge from the horror movies of the early 2000s and, in a narrative stroke that remains one of its best features, the title character actually kills one of the movie’s heroes, taking his eyes for its own.
Annihilation (2018) - Stream On FX Now
Antlers means to unsettle as much as it frightens. For those that enjoy that particular type of horror, Annihilation is an ideal viewing experience. It focuses on a group of scientists who go into a mysterious area called The Shimmer, where an alien presence has created a fundamental instability in the DNA of all creatures in the area.
It’s a movie that poses all sorts of troubling questions--including about the nature of identity itself.
It (2017) - Stream On HBO Max
Stephen King excels at telling stories about small towns that are afflicted with a supernatural evil of great antiquity, and that’s on ample display in It. The title creature is one of the most disturbing beings to have emerged out of a horror movie, and the fact that it appears most often as a sinister clown allows it to tap into some of very deep-rooted fears (for both the audience and the characters).
The film's skillful blending of small town life and horror tropes makes it an ideal choice for fans of Antlers.
Children of the Corn (1984) - Stream On Hulu
Children of the Corn is yet another of the better Stephen King adaptations, even though the movie is more optimistic than the book. It’s a good choice for those who enjoy the sinister child aspect of Antlers since the children of the title are convinced that they are worshiping an ancient creature that requires the sacrifice of the adults in their midst.
It’s a chilling movie, and a reminder of how powerful religious belief can be (especially in horror movies).
The Fog (1980) - Stream On Amazon Prime
Small towns with sinister histories make great settings for a variety of horror movies (including Antlers, which takes place in a small town in Oregon), and that includes The Fog, the classic horror movie about a seaside town that’s attacked by the ghosts, both literal and figurative, of its past.
It remains a chilling ghost story, especially since the vengeful ghosts have every reason for wanting to avenge themselves on the descendants of those that were responsible for their death.
The Wicker Man (1973) - Stream On AMC+
Horror movies often rely on the journey of discovery, in which a character learns more and more about some sinister evil that they didn’t know existed, and that will be a key part of the appeal of Antlers.
It’s also the central narrative of The Wicker Man, in which a policeman investigates the disappearance of a young girl in an isolated island village, only to realize that he has stumbled into a cult that believes in human sacrifice in order to guarantee the harvest. This movie retains its power to shock and unsettle, making it one of the best folk horror movies.