ANTLERS (2021) Ending Explained

hey what's up everybody and welcome to found flicks on this inning explained we're looking at antlers where a small town teacher and her brother the local sheriff discover a young student is harboring a dangerous secret that could have frightening and deadly consequences so this is one that i was looking forward to for a long time but it was an unfortunate victim of delays coming out over a year after it was initially supposed to based on the trailer this seemed like it was going to be a really gory and scary experience but it admittedly wasn't as strictly horror as i thought in a sense this was a bit of a disappointment but it also i'm sure is based on having to wait so long to finally see it it would have been difficult to live up to that buildup of hype now don't get me wrong it's not bad it's actually really good it's just a little different than i anticipated it's much more about personal trauma and how we carry it with us throughout our lives that's much more of the focus over the horror side of things that does end up feeling a bit underwhelming it does have some excellent moments of gore and the windigo looks awesome the bit that we do see him but this is again really more about our characters struggles and it makes things feel a bit more down overall it's just kind of sad more than anything regardless it's exceptionally well crafted and is able to subtly cover a lot of different themes with the story being told so we'll be covering all of that as well as looking at the windigo itself and just how it works along with explaining the ending and answering some lingering questions that we're left with we begin with a croaking voice that fills us in on a potential reason behind the windigos resurgence mother earth has been pillaged and that violation has awakened the malevolent spirit seeking the frail and the depraved in the small oregon town that our story is set we see an example of mother nature being purged an old mind that appears to have been shut down for some time a young boy aiden wanders around banging on some pipes and stops when hearing a distant odd screech he rushes back to a truck just as his father comes out frank is one pretty greasy looking dude and orders his boy to stay in the truck this place is no good for kids he re-enters the tunnels donning a gas mask hearing a low growl inside he descends further into the bowels of the mine coming to what looks like a drug making setup with his buddy terry there's more screeching which they find odd as the place isn't supposed to be open for another few weeks it bellows again and it's definitely an otherworldly sound but frank assumes that it must be an animal he makes his bud tag along to check it out and they enter another tunnel with many bags hanging from the ceiling most likely a ward of some kind designed for protection seeing little particles that resemble embers in the air a creature's shadow emerges and it proceeds to tear terry to shreds while frank fires at it blindly moments later aidan approaches the door seeing those embers are out here now too he shouts into the void for his daddy and steps inside vanishing into the darkness three weeks after the mine attack we meet downtrodden teacher julia who has recently moved back to town after many years she leads the class in a discussion on storytelling it's a way to explain people's worlds and cultures so that they can pass these customs and beliefs along to the next generation you know my whole thing if there's a school scene like this in a movie it's pretty important always about the themes and this is no different for oregon specifically we have the indigenous native american people they started these in the area and of course a windigo is one of their own myths she asked the class to give an example of a story and only one girl in the class appears interested in participating at all this must be a regular occurrence as julia scans the room for someone else to answer but only gets silent head shakes of no in response that also includes another boy lucas who appears a bit malnourished and dirty busy scribbling something in a sketchbook another ginger boy in the class has nabbed lucas's sock monkey and pretends to hump it looking quite amused with himself after class lucas retrieves his backpack and while the monkey is back the kid reminds him that he violated the toy he stomps through the desolate town and i'd wager that the town was once thriving but everything changed when the mine shut down and now it's mostly in shambles as a result he happens upon a skunk near the mine and grabs a rock intending to kill it he makes it home carrying the animal and approaches a door with two haphazardly installed locks he places an ear to listen and sighs deeply before opening it up even though it's not made clear just yet frank is his dad and aiden his brother so after what happened at the mine they somehow wound up locked up in the house and the delicious skunk meat must be for them ah what we do for family right he's not the only one in town suffering from trauma as we catch up with julia at a corner store and she can't help but have her attention drawn to these sweet booze on display it's never really more than hinted at but the implication is that she had a drinking problem and is currently struggling to remain sober however she keeps her nerve and just grabs some gum avoiding the alcoholic allure a report on the radio gives us more background on the mind's reopening thanks to the government rolling back environmental regulations in order to revive the coal industry they're going to be reopening several small town mines the hope is that it will stave off what is being described as a crisis of energy of course that's not good for the planet for a multitude of reasons probably why it's all pissed off julia comes to a piano that triggers a memory from her past seeing a shadowy figure looming upstairs there's a flash to her as a kid hiding and a guy starts coming down the stairs towards her it must be that her father was abusive and this is why she left her home in the first place all those years ago being back has started to cause those repressed memories to start trickling back in whether she wants them or not her brother slash the sheriff paul comes home from work asking how school was she shrugs that it was about the same him suggesting to give it some time they'll warm up to her but she doesn't think it's about that and the whole setup of blase uninterested kids is a bit of a disappointment to her coming to some family photos on the wall including her father she can't even bear to look at them taking more down and putting them face down in a pile establishing a kind of trauma bond with her and the boy he is looking at his own family photo and just like julia's dad frank must not have been the best father either seeing he has folded him out of the shot if that wasn't bad enough it sounds like his dear old pops is turning into some kind of a monster a grammarly voice calls out boy and starts violently pounding on the door to get out good thing you got those locks on there geez we see that the relationship between the siblings seems perhaps a bit strained paul complains of julia moving his stuff around and she responds she just wanted some more space and promises she'll move out as soon as she can he clarifies he didn't say anything about that and divulges why he's a little on edge which again illustrates just how bad things are in town he's off to evict another family where they get a whopping 15 minutes to pack up all their belongings and leave hopefully they at least have a car which he says many of them don't well that is pretty painful and thankless work she bemoans that she hardly recognizes this place anymore him telling her well a lot can change in 20 years sarcastically referring to it as our own little piece of paradise back in class julia again calls on lucas to read a story knowing that he's been working on something and it helps us piece together a little more about a situation it's the tale of three bears big little and baby bear big bear used to take care of the little bears but got sick and lost his job one day little bear came home and the others were different big bear's sickness had gotten worse he'd become angrier and meaner because they had no food but at least they still had each other based on that we can interpret that his family are the three bears of course frank must have lost his job and with no food on the table was forced to turn to making drugs that's kind of the whole problem in this little town then with the attack they were simply already at the house when he came home that day and even then he could tell that they had changed after school the bully and his pals grab their bags where they're given a prank surprise lucas has filled the monkey's head with [ __ ] which the ginger boy is not a fan of he retaliates by slamming his head on a window trying to force the poo into his mouth after getting him checked out by the nurse julia looks into the boy's student profile and decides to give his house a ring the phone goes off in a dark space hearing more footsteps and banging on the door accompanied by primal grunts through a crack in the door we catch a peek at frank's current state his eyes dark and definitely is changing into something else heading home lucas is looking sullen as usual and when julia sees him decides to follow after again illustrating the state of the town we see there's a lengthy line outside of a rehab center that is located right next door to an ice cream shop well it's kind of strange lucas stares longingly inside as julia steps up asking him to join her she does some clever lines of interrogation to get more info out of the boy starting with asking about his brother lucas informs her he's at home with your mom she asks but he corrects that his mom is dead she tells him that they have that in common she lost her mom when she was 12. the same age the boy is now she inquires more about aiden does he go to our school and lucas tells her not anymore he's always with my dad she attempts to ask more questions but he puts a stop to it before answering urging her to not follow him this time he does his usual track by the mind this time finding a massacred raccoon yeah meanwhile julia drives to his house and it seems strangely quiet and unlived in she gently knocks but gets no answer finding the door unlocked luckily before stepping inside she hears frank grunting and pounding at the door and she wisely decides to get out of here in a hurry she later pieces together a ripped up drawing she found of lucas's assembling a scene of a monster with large fangs with a scared kid in his mouth she gets startled by paul wondering what the [ __ ] that is she changes the subject to their own familial drama offering that he has every right to resent her and doesn't blame him if he does she continues that he couldn't have understood then but she couldn't stay at the house any longer but it wasn't easy for her leaving her younger brother she spent her entire life trying to deal with the fact that she left him as well as resolving her own issues he warmly responds well he's been praying his entire life that she'd come back he's just happy to have her home lucas prepares his festering flesh feasts for his family bringing them servings on a tray he slides it towards the darkness and there's a sudden savage grunt followed by frank emerging from the shadows and gobbling down the meat he retreats and aiden steps out still looking relatively normal compared to his dad and even lucas appears to be giving him leftover real food you know instead of raw meat chunks an important distinction there it's like he knows his dad is already too far gone to save but maybe he can still save his little bro more growls send him scampering back downstairs where after locking up this time he places a similar ward from the mine on the door but how do you know about that with julia more troubling memories start bubbling up while she's tinkling the ivories a dark figure looms closer and closer behind her and he cops a feel putting a hand under her shirt a young girl's voice pleads no daddy you're hurting me oh yikes well now we get the full depth of what she was experiencing as a child at her father's hand all kinds of abuse it appears weirdly we then see him naked in bed holding a teddy bear and shaking and i am not sure what that's about once more paul scares the hell out of her back to reality she pretends that all is well but admits not really and brings up frank to him he sounds like quite a deadbeat learning that paul has cited and revived him more times than he can possibly count due to drug overdoses she tells him this is his kid's drawing that she found he thinks that all things considered it makes sense see there's a kind of metaphorical layer to this in particular with the monster his dad is becoming also representing the abuse the family has suffered from his actions a real life monster as it were this is also why julia feels an increasing bond with the boy because she can relate due to her own trauma trauma pals naturally in light of all this she doesn't understand why he's not in jail but paul presents the impossibility of the situation if he hauls frank off to prison there will be no one left to take care of the boys and apparently a court deemed that guy fit enough to be their guardian she brings up her concerns after visiting the house in particular the very strange sounds that she heard and he chides her for doing that you can't just do that lucas is scribbling away in the dark as aiden approaches the door complaining of being hungry so wanting to do everything that he can for his family he cobbles together a makeshift trap to catch more animals he's drawn away by the sound of a branch snapping and stumbles across another man warren out hunting who has made a grisly discovery the flayed and torn apart part of a body that of frank's drug bro terry lucas can't help but shiver in terror considering what could have done that especially with what's been going on at home julia digs through lucas's desk and finds out just how he knew so much about the creature as well as how to set traps with books on each subject yeah take advantage of your local library kids you can learn all kinds of stuff like trapping animals and about supernatural stuff too it's got the whole gamut she shows off the sketchbook full of disturbing and blood-filled drawings to the principal and tries to plead her case that all of this means the boy must be being abused the principal cools her jets a bit but does agree that it is disturbing and we learn another troubling side to the small town the principle shrugging well at least he's still here lots of students are homeschooled the actual reason being that their parents are all cooking drugs they actually use some of the kids to move product or it might be because they're worried of anyone smelling the drugs on their clothes so just leave them at home making them even more disadvantaged by not getting a real education wow it is pretty messed up around here in small town oregon beautiful though outside she runs into warren telling paul about the body and he fills her in they apparently found a part of a body in the woods the wording troubles are what do you mean part you know the other half was found by their meth lab dang that dude got torah but as paul suggests it's probably just a bear or cougar or something i mean what else could it be certainly not a supernatural mythological creature that'd be crazy lucas visits with his brother where frank has been telling him some disturbing things like god is dead hearing him writhing and groaning in the shadows after the doting big brother he reminds him of what mama told him they were born under a lucky star he's brought him a treat and he begins to scarf them down but then aiden starts to cough and ratch painfully followed by a black liquid seeping from his eyes and mouth wow looks like no matter how hard he tries there is no way to stop him transforming of course lucas is not about to give up hope yet an autopsy is done on the body and the technician is concerned as it doesn't look like any kind of animal attacks that he's ever seen but what's even more troubling is that the teeth marks appear to be human paw can only chuckle in disbelief but the guy knows what he saw as hard to believe as it might be you gotta always have that skeptic character you know and i guess it would be ridiculous if as soon as he saw the body he was like when to go case closed after the talk with julia the principal decides after all to pay the warren homestead a visit as before the door is unlocked and as soon as she enters she's bombarded with a powerful cinch she comes to the extra locked door shouting for frank to no response so she pushes onward and unlocks the door stepping into the blackness where the smell is even more overwhelming she finds aiden sitting there looking all innocent minus the creepy dark black veins now running all over his body frank appears and flings her away seeing that his chest is glowing hot as though on fire remember the ember things at the beginning yeah they must come from the source of the creature's power its glowing heart he brutally attacks her biting off her finger before going right for the face and now that frank's had his first taste of human flesh his full metamorphosis commences his limbs snap backwards and becomes stretched out and elongated a black mass begins to crawl out of his mouth shedding frank's human body like a shell meanwhile paul and the boys investigate the mine where fortunately they have warren along with them who knows what's going on they come to the bags and he explains that they're wards but for what he doesn't know they find a piece of an antler paul assuming it's a buck but warren doesn't think so it's not like any he's ever seen before these signs are enough for him to warn them to not go any further paul's radio crackles in but has bad reception only hearing something about a missing person lucas walks home alone on the trade tracks until he hears frank's distinct screeching coming from the woods he begins to follow after but encounters the ginger bully kid who's here for some serious payback this time there's no one around to help him but that isn't quite true as a figure appears up in the trees when to go frank leaps down and rips the kid to shreds luke is still hearing his pain shrieks while running away but also importantly he did not try to hurt lucas there's still some part of his dad in there even if he was an a-hole before maybe the change was good for him he at least won't hurt his family now that he's turned into a monster follow the whereabouts of aiden after they escaped are currently unknown at home lucas is horrified to see the door wide open in the room he follows a streak of blood on the floor leading out the window but yeah again still don't know what happened to aiden the impact of what's going on finally starts coming to the surface with ellen's husband having filed a missing persons report on her julia is shocked having just seen her yesterday they return to the house where lucas is busy cleaning up all the evidence paul along with his deputy swing by the house finally agreeing with his sis that something ain't right here but they decide to wait and get a warrant before progressing further already by the next day the bully kid's mom has declared him missing too and julia thinks that it all must be related paul lets her down that there is not much else they can do right now while they're still waiting on the warrant she's not gonna let that slow her down and decides to go back to the house by herself she doesn't even have to go inside as she discovers ellen's car under a tarp out front that's enough to bring the cops in finding ellen's mutilated corpse in the house there's also frank's husk of his former human body noting that it's burnt and flayed as though something burst out of him they assume that it must be frank and based on how he's looking is you know most likely dead with no one else left it's up to the siblings to tend with lucas and they take him to the hospital the doctor informs him that he's dehydrated and malnourished but warns that things go much deeper than that he says that he's a very damaged boy there are signs of a legit psychiatric crisis here as well as clear-cut abuse but don't worry he's got some good drugs to help him deal with some of that stuff then there's the question of what they're going to do with him and paul already knows what julia is thinking but he puts his foot down callously relating their own past to his troubled upbringing you can't put our past on him she loses it on paul bringing up just a few examples of what their dad did she's so pinned up with her own trauma that she doesn't consider that he might have gone through something similar paul muttering you have no idea what he did to me yeah probably wasn't good guy was a pizza [ __ ] were then filled in on what happened exactly after the mine attack dad is in his room not looking well his kid's there pounding at the door wanting to know what's wrong he's the one that installs the extra locks and spills to the boys that he's sick ordering them that no matter what do not open that door inevitably aiden too becomes unwell which lucas tells his dad about seeing how much he's already changed he grabs his son and drags him into the room with him the pounding starts soon after which breaks lucas screaming in anguish yeah that is a pretty crappy deal kid having to watch your family turn into monsters and nothing to do about it based on what we've seen we have to assume that the thing that turns you is getting hurt by the windigo it has to get into your bloodstream in some way and this leads to your unfortunate fate of transformation but it's actually when tasting human meat that it becomes completed they detail more of this when the duo seek out answers from warren they show him lucas's art and he's surprised to learn that he's not a native and retrieves a book of folklore showing off a page dedicated to the windigo the name translates to a diabolical wickedness that devours mankind according to legend during a harsh winter a lost hunter was forced to cannibalism to survive after feasting on the flesh he became crazed and transformed into an amorphous spirit that can take many forms it then roamed the forest in search of victims yet its hunger was never satisfied that's a big thing with when to go lore by indulging in the forbidden flesh the consequence is not only being turned into a monster but also being consumed by a hunger that will never be satisfied paul stops him dismissing this all as just a myth warren scoffing back perhaps for you but for us it is a cautionary tale the point seems to be here is tying back into that whole storytelling concept julia was describing in class earlier stories are how we preserve our cultures and traditions over time but many like those of the indigenous people have been lost over the years which also explains why they've never even heard of a windigo before maybe they don't watch that many horror movies that could be true too he further details it can only be killed once they're done feasting as this makes him temporarily weaker but you still have to extinguish its beating heart to take it out for good at which point the spirit will search for a new host he gravely lays it out that the ancestral spirits will never die they were here long before us and will be here long after us the problem is now they are angry hearkening back to that opening note it's due to mankind destroying the earth that has brought forth this evil spirit paul gets a call about another body id'd as the bully kids at the scene he begs the guy to tell him it was a train or something that would make sense but the guy is like nope that kid was eaten in half i don't know what to tell you but he continues trying to believe there's gotta be a logical explanation for all this while julie is in for the whole hog at this point come on what about the husk and where's aiden she asks for a ride to the hospital where they sign lucas out walking hand in hand as a new weird de facto family unit again he's got nothing else at this point but hey at least they care don't let them slip through the cracks of a broken society back at her place now it's time for julia to answer some questions about another connection that she shares with lucas her father also died when asked how she only says he did it to himself it wasn't that long ago and she wasn't here when he passed he's confused hearing this asking didn't you love your father she doesn't respond but her feelings are clear she moved back to be with her brother she grew up here and missed him that's why she returned it had nothing to do with her dad she tries to get him to understand that his father is dead but lucas knows better he's not dead that was my old sick and mean dad now it's my new dad he knows that he's with aiden but is worried that he doesn't understand what's going on and he needs his big bro's help he's just gotta feed him and he'll have to love him hearing this julia's all uh what and he knows that his dad will come for him and take him to the mines to be with his brother right on cue the shrieking is hurt somewhere nearby giving her a jolt and lucas knows that daddy's here dan radios into paul thinking that he sees something in the shed and paul flips on the cherries speeding on his way there julia quickly grabs lucas but forgets her phone missing a call from her brother she peeks out the window instructing lucas to stay quiet dan sees some movement under a pile of clothes in a crate and tells paul that he's found a kid about to say more the windigo's massive antlers gore him from behind paul shows up soon after and seeing paul going towards the death shed lucas seizes the opportunity to bolt just as paul sees aiden his dad returns antler butting him into the wall and the two children flee paul sinks up the wall listening intently for any sounds there's some raspy breathing and the antlers bust right through the walls impaling him through the shoulder it drags him back and forth trying to get him loose and paul fights back with a shovel until he gets freed the creature angrily bashes at the remaining wall smashing into bits julia steps outside finding things strangely quiet for the moment she makes to her brother still alive but definitely wounded she knows where they're headed to the mines he tells her weekly to not go she's adamant that she's going him muttering well you're not leaving without me she makes it to the mind shuddering when hearing the antlered man growling julia comes to the wards knowing that she's getting close to the creature's lair that along with the powerful stench of death that lingers in the air painting the light around the dark there's various bits of gore and flesh strewn about the ground lucas and aiden pop out hiding behind some equipment and the boy cautions her to go back catching a glimpse of frank's long claws he's in the middle of feeding and stops turning up to face her disturbingly with frank's face still dangling on its own like a disgusting skin mask it rises to its full impressive stature and julia opens fire which only pisses it off even more grabbing a pulse she stabs at it to no avail a few times and then really goes for it jamming that thing right up in there good it's at least weakened at this point with both panting and exasperation surprisingly it's lucas that fells his dad with a stab in the back but remember he's still gotta remove the heart she struggles to flip the creature over and rips open a hole in his chest she reaches in and retrieves its glowing heart covered in a dark growth it's apparently hot to the touch which makes sense with the whole fire thing and she drops the organ now just a dead dark blob on the ground although as warren mentioned the spirit will immediately set out in search of a new host and it goes right over to aiden he starts to insanely screech his entire chest covered in blackness and his eyes roll back in his head julian knows what must be done but lucas steps in still hoping he's gonna be okay he's just sick she gets real with him telling him that it's too late and wants lucas to understand this he finally accepts it giving a small nod julia telling him to look away the antlers start to poke out of his mouth and julie embraces aiden telling him sorry and gets to stabbing lucas covers his ears to drown out the horrible shrieking noises well there you go took care of that whole windigo thing right now as we see in our final scene some time later the siblings are still looking after lucas paul asking what she's going to do with him and she feels they have no choice but to keep him paul expresses concerns it's like having a tiger cub you know what he'll grow into and poses an even bigger question can you kill something you love she doesn't answer but it's pretty obvious what she's thinking calling lucas over and wiping something from his mouth hmm is that some of that telltale black goo i'm not sure honestly the way they imply things work is a windigo has to actually attack you or really get into your bloodstream in some way for the transformation to happen we never saw this happen with lucas and also frank never attacked his kids but paul seems somehow convinced the boy is gonna grow into something dangerous perhaps he means it in regards to all the trauma that he's been through which will be hard for him to truly ever move on from and could wind up having lifelong effects just as we've seen with julia it's been going on for decades while we're not too sure on the matter regarding lucas paul's fate is much clearer he was clearly impaled by the antlers and suddenly has a violent coughing fit spitting up black goo that also pours from his eyes we know for sure in his case that the change is inevitable and the spirit of the windigo will certainly transfer to him as its next host this could also be what he's implying with the kill something you love thing that one day she would have to kill him or risk him turning into the beast to me it seems the grander idea they're going for here is that no matter what you never give up on someone you love we saw that consistently with lucas he never gave up on his brother conversely with julia she did leave paul which weighed heavily on her for many years i feel like at this point she's learned a lesson to not turn her back on him ever again no matter what and that is the entire intention of her character's journey you can't leave even if things get hard you know there is one more character whose fate i am unsure of in the end the original when to go the first time i watched this i assumed they must have killed it in the beginning but then there's the whole you gotta remove its heart thing that frank would have had no idea about they don't ever find another wind to go body in the mines either just part of the antlers it also seems to have gotten out of the mines since they find that other part of terry in the woods guess those wards didn't work so well after all so what happened they just attacked them and ran off somewhere it's still out there eating other people or what how long was that thing down there before frank found it i don't know it's one admittedly small aspect of the story that i'm just kind of really confused on how things play out here he just attacks him disappears and then he's never mentioned again just strange maybe saving it for antlers too that brings us to the conclusion of this explained video on antlers and don't forget before we go you can send me requests for any movies or tv shows you'd like to see me explain by sending them my way on any of my social media accounts at foundflix what did you guys think of antlers and its ending do you have any other lingering questions about what happens leave your thoughts down in the comments below make sure to like subscribe and follow thanks for watching found flicks see you next

Channel: FoundFlix

Views: 1,290,555

Keywords: antlers, antlers movie, antlers ending explained, ending explained, ending, explained, explanation, meaning, wendigo, clip, trailer, final scene, end scene, background, monster, monster explained, new horror, antlers 2021, foundflix ending explained, foundflix

Id: O5YDgj3CQeE

Length: 28min 8sec (1688 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 30 2021