Review of Horns (2013) by Charles R — 01 Feb 2015

Many moons ago, a french director, by the name of Alexandre Aja, proved to horror fans he could potentially be the next big thing after releasing the tremendously tense and grotesque film Switchblade Romance.

He then gained permission from horror guru Wes Craven to direct the brilliant remake of The Hills Have Eyes, things were looking up. However Aja soon found himself crafting more remakes, each one more diabolical than the next.

So imagine my surprise/fear when I realised that he was responsible for the movie Horns! I had no idea what to expect from this huge melting pot of genres and ideas, however the longer it went on, the more and more I found it to be just as engrossing and violent as fans would hope from the french man.

Ig's life has went straight to shit, his childhood sweetheart found murdered and raped, Ig blamed by the community for her death, even though through some miracle lack of evidence has managed to keep him from jail.

Hitting the bottle and enlisting his life time buddy to act as his lawyer, Ig's world soon changes as he awakens to one day find horns growing out of his head, not only is this a new look but it also gives him the ability to be very persuasive and other powers.

Soon the small town is run amuck as Ig desperately tries to clear him name and unravelling some shocking truths along the way. Its funny, its wild, its gory and importantly engrossing. The longer I watched the film, the higher the rating got.

With a plethora of talented actors on board this only strengthens the brew. Daniel Radcliff is good as our protagonist, even if the script writer isnt the best, David Morse is fantastic, James Remar and Kathleen Quinlan also put in top form performances and Max Minghella does a strong job with his role as Lee, Ig's long time friend and lawyer.

The film is at its best however when it is being bat shit, watching bizarre events unfold around Ig is hilarious and even the violence is self aware and pretty over the top in places. The film looks good, it holds your attention mostly, it has a star studded soundtrack, so whats not to like? Well some plot twists can be seen from a mile off, it doesnt ruin the experience but it does leave for so loud exhales from time to time.

Also a lot of characters arent fleshed out, Horns is of reasonable legnth and I certainly found myself starting to lose patience for it near the end, but some characters are really just there for moving the plot along.

This is a flaw with the writing, It also plays about with far too much flashback, the film flings you backwards and forwards in time, for certain instances that could really have been explained in a characters line, allowing more time for character development and also allowing the game not to be given away within the first 45 minutes.

The effects are also a mixed bag, the practical stuff, as with all Aja's work is brutally intense and outstanding, then there is CGI which for a good 75% of it is just cripplingly bad. I wanted to rate this film higher, but with serious writing issues, predictable plot twists and lack of character, I just cant.

However as a slice of entertainment its works extremely well, also showing that with more attempts like this, Aja could revive his career after all!