Fox Searchlight has released the first trailer and poster for the Guillermo del Toro-produced horror film, Antlers. Following his multiple Oscars wins for The Shape of Water last year (including, the prize for Best Picture), del Toro set an overall deal with Fox to develop sci-fi, horror, and/or fantasy films as a writer, producer, and/or director. The first movie under the deal is Antlers, which del Toro produced with Crazy Heart and Hostiles filmmaker Scott Cooper making his horror directing debut from a script cowritten by Channel Zero creator Nick Antosca.

An adaptation of Antosca's short story "The Quiet Boy", Antlers takes place in a small Oregon town where a teacher, Julia Meadows (Keri Russell), and her brother Paul (Jesse Plemons), the local sheriff, discover Julia's student Lucas Weaver (Jeremy T. Thomas) is hiding what the film's synopsis describes as "a dangerous secret with frightening consequences". The movie began shooting late last year and is slated to reach theaters in early 2020, making now a fitting time for its marketing to get up and running.

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The teaser trailer for Antlers is now online, ahead of its premiere on the big screen with Fox Searchlight's new horror-comedy, Ready or Not, in theaters starting tonight. You can check it out below, followed by the movie's newly unveiled poster.

Antlers movie poster

Interestingly, the Antlers trailer plays out as a cross between del Toro and Cooper's storytelling sensibilities. The footage has the self-reflexive fairy tale atmosphere of a del Toro film - with Lucas reading a story about three bears that's clearly about his own disturbing living situation - but also the stark and grounded dramatic elements of Cooper's previous work. Antosca's influence and fondness for weaving slow-unraveling mysteries is also noticeable here, and suggests the movie will take its time in revealing the freaky truth about just what, exactly, is going on with Lucas in his home life. It has the makings of an intriguing supernatural horror parable (one that may touch on issues like child abuse), all in all.

Antlers is also just one of several exciting horror films scheduled to open in 2020, along with the sequels to hits like A Quiet Place and Halloween (2018), in addition to the Jordan Peele-produced Candyman "spiritual sequel". The horror genre has become a place for original ideas and concepts to flourish of late, so it's comforting to know it won't just be sequels coming out next year, either (though, admittedly, Antlers itself is a loose adaptation). And following this month's acclaimed Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark movie, del Toro fans can take solace in knowing they won't have to wait too long for another one of his spooky projects - even one he only produced - to arrive on the scene.

NEXT: 2019 Fall Movie Preview

Source: Fox Searchlight