Horns: Strange As Hell

Horns is a strange film to review.  I feel like everything I have to say about it I already said about the movie Tusk which also features long pointy bone-like things poking from human skin where it doesn't normally belong.  There will always be some sort of strangeness attached to the pitch of a psycho turning a human into a walrus, but Tusk upped that strange factor to a hundred.  The same can be said for Horns.  When you explain that you've got a film with Daniel Radcliffe sprouting Devil horns from his head... there's going to be an aura of strangeness attached to it.  Now, while I wasn't AS weirded out or uncomfortable watching Horns as I was watching Tusk... it was a strange damn film.

Horns, based off of a novel written by Stephen King's son, has been in a bit of distribution purgatory for the last year and a half.  It was finished awhile ago and hasn't been able to be released by a major distribution company until now.  And, even now, it was kind of just dropped into select theaters in time for Halloween without any sort of major advertising for the film.  I'm guessing half of you reading this didn't even know about the movie until now.  To me, it's a very marketable movie... but the outcome... isn't going to be for everyone.

Harry Potter Daniel Radcliffe plays Ig, a young man whose girlfriend has just been murdered and the blame has been pinned solely on him.  One morning he wakes up with devil horns growing out of his forehead and the newfound ability of getting everyone around him to confess their deepest, darkest secrets.  He figures out that he can use this power to a. manipulate people into doing whatever he wants of them and b. finding out who actually killed his beloved. Oh, and Heather Graham has a minor role in the movie.  Seriously... what happened to Heather Graham?  I mean, I know she's not the best actress anyone has ever seen, but she's starting to seem desperate.

The problem here with this story, and I can't speak on behalf of the book seeing as how I haven't read it... is that there's a bit too much mixing of genres going on and not a smooth enough way to transition between all of them.  Horns can easily be marketed as a horror film, though it's not very scary (there is one unexpected jump scare that is great, though).  It could also be marketed as a dark comedy, though the actual comedic moments are a bit too few and far between.  It could be marketed as a fantasy or a drama or a mystery or a thriller.  It weaves through genres so quickly, it never really gets hold of its bearings.

I thought giving the film to horror director Alexandre Aja was a very ingenious idea.  He's actually quite a clever horror director.  He jumped onto the scene with the (mostly) great High Tension that will scare the bejesus out of you for 95% of the film and then completely blow it in the last 5%.  Then, he took the reigns of the Hills Have Eyes remake, which I also thought was very well done.  Finally, he took the reigns for the Piranha 3D remake that was unbelievably outstanding.  Successfully weaving comedy and horror together to make one hell of a film was exactly what I was expecting from Horns.  And while there were great Aja moments in the film, it wasn't as cohesive a movie as it could have been.  Though, I'm guessing the source material was a little harder to film than was expected.

So, to see Horns or to not see Horns?  Well, my first instinct would be for you to look up the trailer on youtube.  If it piques your interest... do it.  I'm not saying I recommend anyone to see it because it's so off-kilter I have no idea which of you will actually enjoy the strangeness that will befall upon you.  But, what I can say is to probably watch it at home.  There's honestly no need to rush out to the theater and pay $167 a ticket when it's already up on Amazon Prime for ten bucks.  If any of you do see it, however, let me know what you thought.  For what it's worth, it's a great conversation film.

B-