Originally scheduled to reach theatres April 17, 2020, but delayed due to the pandemic, director Scott Cooper and producer Guillermo del Toro’s horror-thriller Antlers is now set to receive a wide theatrical release on October 29th – but before we reach that date, Searchlight Pictures is giving the film is global festival rollout (via Variety). Antlers will have its world premiere as the October 11th Closing Night selection of the 2021 Beyond Fest, presented in partnership with the American Cinematheque. Also part of the rollout is a Fantastic Fest Presents Special Screening with Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas in San Francisco and Austin on October 11th; the International Premiere at the 54th Sitges International Film Festival (Festival Internacional de Cinema Fantastic de Catalunya) on October 13th; a special Drive-In Screening at the 57th Chicago International Film Festival on October 15th; and a screening on the Closing Night of the 12th Annual Telluride Horror Show, October 17th.
So if you’re going to be attending any of those, you’ll get to see Antlers well ahead of the general audience.
Based on Nick Antosca’s short story The Quiet Boy, the film was scripted by Antosca and C. Henry Chaisson, with revisions by Cooper. Here’s the synopsis:
In an isolated Oregon town, a middle-school teacher (Keri Russell) and her sheriff brother (Jesse Plemons) become embroiled with her enigmatic student (Jeremy T. Thomas) whose dark secrets lead to terrifying encounters with a legendary ancestral creature who came before them.
Russell, Plemons, and Thomas are joined in the cast by Graham Greene, Amy Madigan, Scott Haze, and Rory Cochrane.
J. Miles Dale and David S. Goyer produced Antlers with del Toro. Smoke Signals director Chris Eyre served as a consultant.
Cooper had this to say about the festival rollout:
I made Antlers as a communal theatrical experience for cinema lovers. I can’t think of a more apt series of screenings to launch our film before audiences across the globe – audiences whom I hope share an appreciation for horror films with a different perspective on our everyday fears and ancestral mythology.”
Beyond Fest founder Christian Parkes says Antlers features “intense scares, a spectacular creature, riveting storytelling, accomplished performances, and the thrilling vision of Scott Cooper at the helm”.