With Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark still in theaters, Guillermo del Toro is treating us to another literary horror adaptation containing one or two creepy illustrations. This one is called Antlers, an adaptation of Nick Antosca’s short story “The Quiet Boy,” and Fox Searchlight just released its atmospheric first teaser.
The clip opens on a foggy small-town as a young boy reads out loud from his short story about three bears living together, Little Bear, Big Bear, and Baby Bear. This spooky voiceover is the only dialog in the entire teaser, and as the story progresses, it strays further and further away from its Goldilocks-esque premise until we get the faint outlines of a true story about unexplained illnesses, child neglect, and (possibly) cannibalism. Meanwhile, the footage is stuffed with blink-and-you’ll-miss-it flashes of some terrifying imagery: trails of blood, globules of rotten flesh, tiny skulls, rooms full of amulets, red caves, the boy setting down a takeout box in the pitch-dark with only a headlamp for light, his teacher piecing together his torn-up self-portrait depicting himself in a monster’s mouth, implied Wendigo activity.
Here’s the official synopsis from Fox Searchlight’s YouTube channel:
In ANTLERS, a small-town Oregon teacher (Keri Russell) and her brother (Jesse Plemons), the local sheriff, discover that a young student (Jeremy T. Thomas) is harboring a dangerous secret with frightening consequences.
Bloody Disgusting reports the film will come out next year.