Scott Cooper's horror film Antlers centers around the mythology of the wendigo, an evil spirit stemming from the folklore of the First Nations Algonquian tribe. The wendigo has been covered multiple times in the horror genre before, but Cooper and Antlers producer Guillermo del Toro are taking a different approach to telling the story of the wicked creature.
Antlers, which is slated to release in February 2021 after a delay from its initial April 2020 release, tells the story of a malicious and mysterious creature that descends on a small town in Oregon. A teacher (Keri Russell) and her brother (Jesse Plemons), the local sheriff, discover her student's (Jeremy T. Thomas) connection to the creature and aim to protect him. The creature's presence and the boy's relationship with him hold deadly consequences for the town.
That creature is the wendigo. The wendigo is a terrifying presence that feeds on negative energy and human flesh, making it a natural addition to the horror genre. Cooper and del Toro made the conscious decision to tell the story of the wendigo in a way that is respectful to its Native American roots, which in turn helps make Antlers a more authentic horror film.
The Wendigo: Native American Mythology & Creature Explained
The wendigo is a prominent and terrifying fixture in the culture of the First Nations Algonquian tribe. The creature was born out of a myth that, when the English settled in America, they cannibalized all the resources, leading Native Americans to starve. It represents greed and colonialism. The story goes that, because those Native Americans had no resources left to survive, they were forced into cannibalism. The taste for human flesh that developed was what supposedly gave birth to the wendigo.
As del Toro stated in the Antlers Comic-Con@Home panel, the wendigo is a metaphor for "what we do to nature and what we do to each other". Cooper added that the monster was born from three main sources: the terrible way the environment, Native Americans, and those addicted to drugs are treated. The wendigo is summoned to reconcile people's misguided actions, and those actions are typically reconciled by the consumption of human flesh. The more the wendigo eats, the hungrier it gets. So, as it descends on the small town depicted in the 2021 horror movie, it will likely embark on a murderous rampage.
Cooper brought on Native American consultants to ensure he got the mythology and the significance of the wendigo right for Antlers. Among his consultants was Portland State University's Professor Grace L. Dillon, who is the United States' foremost authority on the wendigo. She educated Cooper on the fact that the wendigo is not a myth for the First Nations tribe—they truly believe in the creature.
How The Wendigo Has Been Explored In Horror Movies and TV Shows
Due to its menacing nature, the wendigo has been explored previously in horror movies and TV shows. Notably, the monster was featured in the 2019 remake of Pet Sematary. The movie follows a family who moves to a new home with a nearby cemetery. It's discovered that when deceased pets are buried there, they come back to life—just a little different. Locals believe that the resurrected animals are inherited by the spirit of the wendigo, explaining their unusually cruel demeanor when they return from the dead. The wendigo was also featured in 1999's Ravenous. The film follows Capt. John Boyd as he investigates reports of missing persons at a remote Army outpost. Boyd learns the missing people may have been murdered, and sets out into the wilderness to verify the claims. Before the search party sets out, they are warned of the myth of the wendigo.
The wendigo has also been explored in numerous horror television shows. In Bryan Fuller's NBC show, Hannibal, protagonist Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) sees visions of a stag throughout the series. The stag becomes one of the show's most prominent thematic images. On occasion, Will hallucinates the stag as a half-stag, half-man creature, which bears a striking resemblance to the wendigo. Long-running horror TV show Supernatural covered the mythology of the wendigo in season 1, episode 2, "Wendigo". Brothers Sam and Dean investigate the disappearance of a group of campers in the forest, and learn that the wendigo is to blame. All the previous properties utilized the wendigo as simply a scare tactic. While Antlers absolutely leans into the horrific side of monster, Cooper and del Toro make a point to showcase the external elements that summon the wendigo as well.
The Wendigo Mythos Is Different In Antlers
Cooper took a thoughtful approach to including the wendigo mythology in his film, namely by hiring Native American consultants to ensure his vision aligned with their stories. He talked about his decision to hire them during the film's Comic-Con panel.
"It was really important to me as someone who's white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant, Episcopalian. If I'm going to discuss any Native American folklore, any themes that course through Native American life, I want to have people who know much more about it than I and I want to get it right."
This allowed him to deploy the creature in the most effective and accurate way. The wendigo is more than just a monster that goes bump in the night. As he and del Toro learned from their outside consultants, the wendigo has very specific clues they needed to follow in order to make Antlers the right way. It needed to be ancient, powerful and one with nature. By hitting those cues in the right way, the Antlers team was able to create a monster that can hit audiences in their very cores. The wendigo provides more than just superficial scares, as it is a deeply psychological figure as well. In their Comic-Con panel, del Toro and Cooper discussed how Antlers is infused with family rage and broken characters. The characters were clearly created to align with the cues of the wendigo.
By taking this route, Antlers seems to be avoiding one of horror's most problematic tropes. It's not uncommon for horror movies to utilize the mythology and culture of non-white characters for an easy scare. Cooper, del Toro and the Antlers team went the respectful and informed route by hiring Dillon and Smoke Signals director Chris Eyre. While there's still a while to wait before the movie is released, Antlers promises a frightening and effective psychological horror film that respects its traditional and cultural roots.