‘Antlers’ Director Scott Cooper Answers if There Will be a Sequel
Antlers is one of the year’s most anticipated horror movies. It suffered coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic-related delays, similar to many other 2020 movies. However, Searchlight Pictures held onto the movie to go exclusively to movie theaters. Antlers is coming out just in time for the Halloween holiday.
Its conclusion left many audiences wondering if there will be another sequel to the wendigo horror movie. Antlers director and co-writer Scott Cooper recently addressed whether the story will continue in a possible Antlers 2.
‘Antlers’ introduces the wendigo mythology
Cooper’s horror movie Antlers is an adaptation of Nick Antosca’s short story titled “The Quiet Boy.” Julia Meadows (Keri Russell) is a middle-school teacher in a small Oregonian town. Her brother, Paul (Jesse Plemons), is the town sheriff. They become increasingly concerned for a young outcast in Julia’s class named Lucas Weaver (Jeremy T. Thomas). However, nothing can prepare them for what’s to come.
Lucas is secretly hiding a sinister entity in his house and caring for it. This creature is also known as a wendigo, which belongs to Native American folklore. The wendigo remains in the shadows for the majority of the movie. However, Cooper does ultimately reveal the wendigo.
Will there be an ‘Antlers’ sequel?
Cooper attended the Antlers world premiere and took part in a post-screening Q&A. He spoke with a moderator, but primarily took questions from the audience. One attendee asked Cooper if he intends on making a sequel to the wendigo horror flick. Cooper explained that this isn’t the first time that he’s been asked this question.
“It’s funny because, through a lot of the international press that I’ve been doing, people have asked me the same thing, ‘Is there going to be a sequel?’” Cooper said. “And I haven’t really quite thought of it, but I certainly wanted to leave it with an ambiguous ending, but what I didn’t know when I made it was that cough would even take on a different resonance…Guess that depends on always how well a film does.”
Cooper clearly didn’t have a sequel necessarily planned when making Antlers. However, that doesn’t mean that an Antlers 2 will never happen. But, it does currently sound unlikely.
Critics are mixed on Scott Cooper’s latest horror movie
Antlers opened to mixed reviews. Critics praised the movie’s sense of atmosphere and Russell’s central performance. However, they criticized its ability to balance its genre elements and its pacing. Horror movie fans have expressed excitement for the movie’s release for quite some time now. Producer Guillermo del Toro’s name on the project is certainly a big boost. Antlers is now playing exclusively in theaters.
The box office will be an important indicator of the movie’s success. Horror movies tend to frontload their box office sums. Perhaps Searchlight Pictures will be interested in bringing Cooper back for a sequel if it does well enough. However, Antlers works as a self-contained movie if the story ends here. Hopefully, there will be more wendigo film adaptations in the future.
