I have not watched The Americans, because I have weird middle-child resentment toward The Americans for pulling focus from Justified and I don’t care if that’s unrational, Justified was wonderful but the minute The Americans showed up everyone was like, Oh look at this drama that’s all about a specific time and place that has conflicted antiheroes and complicated lawmen, never mind that Justified was already doing that and also it predicted Trump’s America, which makes Justified super weird to watch now, but whatever, it’s fine. I’m sure The Americans is good or whatever, Duana’s probably right but also Justified Is Good, Too. The best thing about The Americans, as far as I’m concerned, is that it relaunched Keri Russell as a star. I love Keri Russell. #FelicitysHaircutWasCuteThough
Post-The Americans, Russell has been making movies, most notably Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. But she has also made a movie called Antlers, from producer Guillermo Del Toro—hot take: sometimes Del Toro is better as a producer—and director Scott Cooper. You know who’s had a weird career? Scott Cooper. Dude’s first movie was country music family drama Crazy Heart. Then he made Out of the Furnace, Black Mass, and Hostiles. Scott Cooper was like, “Did you think I was going to make heartwarming dramas about the power of redemption? LOL sorry, here’s a million gruesome death scenes.” He took a hard left turn at the first available exit.
Antlers is based on a short story by Nick Antosca, a Shirley Jackson Award winner who was also the showrunner for The Act. The trailer for Antlers is full of primordial forests, mysterious figures, and quick cuts of monsters. There is also a scared little boy, and Keri Russell, his concerned teacher. The whole thing has a kind of dark fairytale vibe. I also get a little bit of a Blair Witch feeling, but that’s mostly down to the forest and the weird totems hung in the trees. That is literally the only scary thing in The Blair Witch Project. Antlers looks like it is probably going to be upsetting, but Del Toro has already scored once this year producing a horror flick for someone else, and I am down for anything Scott Cooper is doing, especially if that is a creepy atmospheric horror fantasy starring Keri Russell.
