If you’re looking for something truly bizarre this week at the movies, it’s hard to top Horns. It’s a film that attempts to combine demons, angels, Biblical allusions, teen romance/angst alongside doses of dark satire and bloody violence. As one might expect, it’s an overstuffed jumble of a flick that combines so many elements it has real difficulty keeping everything straight. Still, it’s an interesting mess that does work in fits and starts. For all its many flaws, it never ceases to be strangely fascinating.
Ig (Daniel Radcliffe) is an angry young man accused of brutally murdering his girlfriend Merrin (Juno Temple) after a public row. Panic sets in when he begins to grow devilish horns out of his head. The strange thing is, few locals him pay much attention to the physical transformation. Instead, they begin to confess their dark and malevolent impulses to him. Ig isn’t sure if this is punishment for a crime he can’t remember committing, but he decides to use his newfound powers to determine what really happened the night Merrin died.
Along the way, incredibly bizarre events take place. The movie veers from blunt gags that display characters indulging in their socially unacceptable desires all the way to brutal visions of a graphic murder. Director Alexandre Aja (High Tension, The Hills Have Eyes, Piranha 3D) knows his way around chills, gore and gallows humor. On a technical level all of it is well-handled, but some of the gags come across as too over-the-top given the seriousness of the main plot. Overall, there’s just too many ideas to properly juggle, resulting in dramatic tonal shifts.
In particular, the Twilight-esque romantic interludes really don’t feel like they belong. However, what does work are the many confessionals that Ig manages to elicit (sometimes unintentionally) from those around him. Particularly effective are those with the family members involved (including James Remar, Kathleen Quinlan, David Morse and Joe Anderson). Ig is considered a screw-up to many and hearing these character’s unfiltered feelings about him result in some hurtful comments and dramatic tension. These scenes are the movie’s strongest by far.
As mentioned previously, there are a lot of threads and the film itself is far too long. It travels on unexpected tangents into the past, exploring not only the childhood relationship between Ig and Merrin, but also his young friends and acquaintances. Admittedly, some of this is necessary to explain motivations, but it’s too much and the pacing becomes shaggy. On the positive side, viewers will rarely have any clue of where the story might be headed next.
Thankfully, the mystery itself is interesting enough to keep one’s interest. While Radcliffe’s character isn’t the nicest guy in the world, but he manages to make Ig relatable enough to follow for the duration. The flick also looks absolutely gorgeous thanks to cinematographer Frederick Elmees (Blue Velvet, Hulk, A Late Quartet). Between the mountainous locales and vibrant red and neon colors, the photography pops off of the screen and makes the film look far more lavish and expensive than it likely was.
In the end, this is a real misfit of a movie. Yet the bold outlandishness of it all kept me engaged. It’s an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink type of film that will leave many scratching their heads, but it isn’t boring for a moment. As a reviewer, I’d rather be picking my jaw up off of the floor than see a film simply go through the motions. It may not always get its point across sharply, but at least the sheer audacity of Horns sticks with you.