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[#Horror #reTweet] #Horns (2014)
Horns (2014)
By Scott Shoyer
Now, this is one I went into almost completely ignorant of the movie and its content. All I know was that it starred Daniel “What movie character is he famous for again?” Radcliffe, and that it was about
abotu a guy who grew horns. Something in my mind associated this with being some sort of variation on MY DEMON LOVER (1987), a horror romcom about a guy who becomes a demon when aroused, a movie that gathered dust on the shelves of the videostore where I worked 25 years or so ago. Horror and romcom is a poor combination, with very, very few successful examples. Less than one, in fact, and if you can name some, you might be up for a No-Prize.
Also, it’s Daniel Radcliffe. No harm to the guy, I’m sure he’s nice and all, but he normally wouldn’t really make me get out of my chair to go see what he’s doing. Personally, I wouldn’t have been surprised if he retired from acting after doing all those Harry Potter films, and went to college to study something. He’ll never shake the role, no matter what he does. Look at Shirley Temple – she served as US Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia, and served on the board of directors for Disney, the Bank of America, UNESCO and the National Wildlife Federation. But what do you remember from the tributes paid to her when she died this year? Footage of her as a six year old tap dancing with a black stereotype.
So, I wasn’t exactly going out of my way to see HORNS. I had intended to see DRACULA UNTOLD, because I heard it was amazingly bad, and I’m not ashamed to admit that I like nothing more than to skewer and dissect a bad movie for the edification and entertainment of Anythinghorror’s loyal readership. Still, anything would beat watching another fucking Adam Sandler movie; that Yahoo must take Percocet before starting every movie he does now. Besides, if I’m writing this, I’m not ironing. I do not like ironing.
The first surprise was discovering it was directed by Alexandre Aja, the Frenchman who first rose to fame with 2003’s HAUTE TENSION, and later the 2006 remake of THE HILLS HAVE EYES and the enjoyable PIRANHA 3D (2010).
The second surprise was that this was based on a novel of the same name by Joe Hill, son of Stephen King, and whose comic book series Locke and Key I enjoyed reading. Of course, having a decent director and source material does not automatically guarantee a good movie.
The movie opens in an idyllic forest setting, with Ignatius “Ig” Perrish (Radcliffe) lying with his long-time girlfriend Merrin Williams (Juno Temple, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES), doing all the cute, romantic banter that couples do that always disgusts you when it’s not you doing it). The camera then pans down through the earth, emerging on an upside-down image of Ig, his face stubbled and his clothes dishevelled, lying alone in a room, surrounded by empty whiskey bottles.
And as he rises and stumbles to the window, looking out at all the reporters and the protestors holding up signs saying MURDERER! And GO TO HELL! you realise that the upside-down shot reflected Ig’s world.
We learn that it has been some months since that opening scene, that Merrin was brutally raped and murdered, and that though the police could not hold him due to lack of evidence, they and everyone else in the New Hampshire logging town where he lives, believe he’s responsible for her death. Only his parents (James Remar and Kathleen Quinlan), his brother Terry (Joe Anderson, THE CRAZIES) and his best friend Lee (Max Minghella, THE DARKEST HOUR) support him. But it’s not enough to keep the anguish, anger and confusion at bay. Sneaking over to the collection of tributes and candles set up by people at the site of Merrin’s murder, Ig breaks the religious statues and pisses on the candles, stopped only by the intervention of waitress Glenna (Kelli Garner, THE AVIATOR). Ig curses God for letting Merrin, a deeply religious girl, die the way she did. Glenna takes Ig home, where they have (offscreen) sex.
In the morning, however, Ig wakes up with more than just a hangover – he has two lump-like protrusions on either side of his head. Glenna notices them but doesn’t seem all that concerned or surprised, more focused on eating a half-dozen donuts and confessing how much she likes sex even if she and her partners have to be drunk to do it.
Ig’s confusion grows as the protrusions break the skin, revealing small horns. At the doctor’s office, another patient he doesn’t even know confesses to him that she’d love to kick her screaming toddler across the room, even as the child confesses that she’d love to set her mother on fire, and that the receptionist would love nothing more than to throw them both the fuck out of the office.
The strange behaviour continues as the doctor, equally blasé about the horns, confesses to using medicines as recreational drugs, and halfway through attempting to perform surgery to remove the horns, ends up fucking his nurse in the chair beside Ig. As the horns continue to grow, Ig finds that when he touches people, he can psychically dredge up their deepest, darkest memories, and that he can influence them (such as using the pestering reporters’ selfish ambitions to beat each other up, tempting them with the promise of an exclusive interview to the last one standing). He develops an affinity for snakes, and picks up a pitchfork, and begins using his newfound powers to discover who really killed Merrin – assuming that it wasn’t really him all along.
Maybe it was the fact that I was expecting something much lighter and frothier than what I got, but I found HORNS quite a watchable film. Radcliffe’s American accent sounded convincing, as did his overall performance (and he’d more palatable than the movie’s original intended lead, Shia LaBeouf). He has a definite chemistry with Temple, and they work well together.
But it’s the overall acting chops on display from everyone concerned that sells it. Once you look back the Biblical references laid on thick and fast, there are some powerful, mature emotions, as well as the idea that learning everyone’s inner feelings would be a curse, not a blessing: in a gut-wrenching scene, his mother reveals that, much as she still loves him, she wishes he’d just go away so she could feel happy again, and his father, despite his support, believes Ig’s the killer, and that he could never connect with Ig the way he does with Ig’s brother Terry. The encounters Ig has with Merrin’s grieving father (David Morse, 16 BLOCKS) are also effective and revealing. There are also flashbacks to the principal cast as youngsters, and these work as well in establishing their adult relationships and personalities. In a way, the overall acting is better than a movie about a guy who grows horns deserves.
There are also unexpected twists in the latter half, as Ig embraces his demonic powers, using them for vengeance on those who have made the hell in which he now inhabits, but without actually becoming demonic (while the wrath he asserts over the person who lied for a chance at fame is satisfactorily sadistic, in other instances he does nothing more than help them come out of the closet).
If there are any flaws, it’s in the ending, which seems rushed and changes in tone, turning violent and bloody. There’s also the obligatory voiceover from Radcliffe explaining everything that you’ve already seen with your eyes if you’re intelligent – this, like the violent ending, suggests last-minute changes by the studio. Fuck you, studio.
HORNS is not a great film by all means (the marketing folks don’t seem to know how to sell this film, as I’ve seen posters making it look like a comedy, a BEAUTY AND THE BEAST-style romantic adventure, and an all-out horror, and it’s none of these), but has its strengths, and I still preferred watching it to watching an Adam Sandler film. Or ironing. Or watching Adam Sandler ironing. The trailer is below.
Deggsy’s Summary:
Director: Alexandre Aja
Plot: 5 out of 5 stars
Gore: 3 out of 10 skulls
Zombie Mayhem: 0 out of 5 brains
Reviewed by Deggsy. Yes, got through this whole article without doing a joke about feeling horny. You’re welcome.
Filed under: Deggsy’s Corner, Movie Reviews, New Horror Releases, New Posting
October 9, 2014 at 03:12PM
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