Things get very unpleasant very quickly in the latest trailer for Antlers, the dark and dirty-looking horror film from director Scott Cooper and producer Guillermo del Toro. This is the type of trailer that’s low on plot but big on atmosphere, full of slimy, gross stuff that is bound to make you all kinds of uncomfortable. Check out the Antlers trailer below.

Antlers Trailer

One thing this new Antlers trailer makes clear: this is not going to be a happy-go-lucky movie. Everything here looks designed to creep you out and make you repulsed. We’re talking lots and lots of dead animals, dark and filthy locations, and some sort of body-horror monstrosity lurking in all of those shadows. I suppose you could accuse this sort of thing of being overly manipulative, as if there was a focus group where the filmmakers said: “Tell us about the nastiest stuff you can think of!”, and then they put it in the movie. But that’s showbiz, baby.

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.” The movie also stars Graham Greene, Scott Haze, Rory Cochrane, and Amy Madigan, with a script from C. Henry Chaisson & Nick Antosca and Scott Cooper. It’s an adaptation of Nick Antosca’s creepy short story The Quiet Boy, which you can read right here if you dare.

It’s a shame we’re not getting Antlers until next spring, because this looks like the perfect movie for Halloween season, aka now. Scott Cooper’s career has been hit or miss, but he has some quality titles under his belt, including the bleak, underrated anti-Western Hostiles. Cooper isn’t a horror director, but that was part of the appeal in hiring him for the job, according to producer Guillermo del Toro.

“[Guillermo] said I’ve obviously never seen you direct a horror film, but there’s a lot of horrific moments in your movies, so I’m more interested in someone who doesn’t work in that genre to step into it,” Cooper said. “Which is I guess a bit like [William] Friedkin in a sense, having not directing in that genre before he took on The Exorcist…[Guillermo is] fantastic and so supportive and wildly imaginative, so it’s really been a great collaboration.”

Antlers opens April 17, 2020.