Horns

Director: Alexandre Aja
Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Juno Temple
Length: 120 min
Country: UK

At this moment in time it’s hard to fully appreciate Daniel Radcliffe’s work: his diversity of roles, or even (and perhaps most surprisingly) his rap-game. However, he can’t save director Alexandra Aja’s horror/psychological drama/dark comedy/gross out comedy/youngadult romance/murder mystery (can you see the makings of an identity crisis here?) film Horns from not only failing to grab the bull by the proverbial… but from missing it entirely.

Ig (Radcliffe) is in with love Merrin (Juno Temple), and that’s going perfectly well until we’re subsequently shown the furore of a town united in its hatred, due to accusations that one night he got blackout drunk, raped, and murdered her. Even the local newspaper prints pictures of Ig’s face, pondering the question, “Is this the face of the devil?” Suddenly, wouldn’t you know it – Ig sprouts two horns from the top of his head. Talk about foreshadowing. The important aspect of this, however, is that horns compel the townsfolk to reveal their inner-most thoughts and desires. Armed with this newfound ability, Ig sets out to find the truth behind his beloved’s death, clear his name, and cause hell for whoever really killed her.

The main problem with the film is that it’s patently obvious that it doesn’t know what it wants to be. In the end we’re left with a sprawling mess of ideas, and the genre shift is only worsened by the constant flashbacks, some of which wouldn’t be out of place in The Goonies. What seems to be trying hardest to escape is a psychologically challenging dark comedy, and on one level, the spate of truth-telling stemming from the horns is playing oddly on similar ideas to Liar Liar, albeit in reverse and with neither the wit nor the charm. The central idea behind the jokes here seems to be a Freudian notion that all our innermost thoughts are sick and perverted. However, the problem is that all of these are on the wrong side of puerility to match the bizarre, dark world created around them; meaning there’s just too many jokes where crude statements about drugs, dicks, or homosexuality act in lieu of a punchline.

The central idea behind the jokes here seems to be a Freudian notion that all our innermost thoughts are sick and perverted. However, the problem is that all of these are on the wrong side of puerility to match the bizarre, dark world created around them; meaning there’s just too many jokes where crude statements about drugs, dicks, or homosexuality act in lieu of a punchline.

Obviously, one of the key reasons to watch this film is to see the continuation of Radcliffe’s attempts to distance himself from his own “he who must not be named”. Admittedly there’s a scene featuring some snakes that might still spawn the odd parseltongue joke, but his performance in the rest of the film suggests that they should come from an ever increasing minority. Sporting a patchy beard, and trying his hand at an American accent, this challenging role definitely provokes an interesting comparison with his role in recent rom-com What If? in which he
was closer to his comfort zone, channelling his off-screen ‘charming Brit’ persona. In this role, though, he’s really putting himself out
there, and there are some moments where he’s allowed to throw down some convincingly raw emotion; it’s probably just a bit too much to ask from him to hold it all together when so much is going on. Top marks for effort, though.

Even though it should lie in the dark humour, the film’s actually at its best when it springs into a ‘whodunnit’. Small town; girl dies mysteriously; weird residents; supernatural elements– sounds familiar, right? The protagonist is even carrying ‘twin peaks’ around on his head and it does invoke the spirit of David Lynch’s televisual masterpiece to some extent, but in the end the identity of the killer’s all a bit too obvious, and it’s revealed far too early given the film’s lengthy running time.

Overlong, too meandering in direction, and an over-reliance on special effects – and that’s just the horns themselves. It speaks volumes
about the content when the best thing to come from the film is a Blackalicious cover spawned on the press tour.

Image Source: Lionsgate