Movie Review: ‘Horns’
The Times critic A. O. Scott reviews “Horns.”
Video by Robin Lindsay on Publish Date October 31, 2014. Photo by Doane Gregory/RADiUS-TWC.In spite of its Halloween opening, “Horns,” directed by Alexandre Aja and adapted by Keith Bunin from a novel by Joe Hill, is not exactly a horror movie. It is nasty and creepy, for sure, with snakes and devils and a horrible murder, but not especially scary in the traditional sense. Gruesome occurrences are more likely to be mined for laughs than for gasps of terror, and the supernatural developments are played out in a mood of metaphysical melodrama.
One morning, a fellow named Ig Perrish, played with overcaffeinated intensity by Daniel Radcliffe, wakes up to discover that a pair of horns have sprouted around his hairline. Like poor Gregor Samsa in Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis,” Ig never really understands why this transformation has taken place, but if the causes are mysterious, the effects are truly bizarre.
People who encounter Ig don’t seem especially bothered by his changed appearance, but they do find themselves compelled to tell him the truth. Specifically, they are eager to confess, without any guilt or shame, their ugly desires and secret sins. He becomes a sponge for all the lust, bigotry and plain meanness in his Washington logging town, and there seems to be a lot to go around.
Not that Ig is altogether innocent, at least in the eyes of his family, friends and fellow citizens. Before the arrival of the horns, he had been branded as evil, accused of the murder of Merrin Williams (Juno Temple), his girlfriend since childhood and the great love of his life. Her death haunts him, and the narrative momentum of “Horns” is supplied by his effort to find Merrin’s killer and clear his name.
Mr. Hill’s book is long, feverish and messy, an unwieldy but never unreadable stew of mean satire, sincere feeling and quasi-religious mumbo-jumbo. Mr. Aja, whose previous films include the grisly French thriller “High Tension” and the toothy exploitation-fest “Piranha 3D,” honors his source in letter and in spirit. There are so many red herrings and plot twists, such a dense barrage of flashbacks and quick cuts, that you may find yourself as rattled and breathless as Ig himself.
And a bit let down at the end, when all the noise, color and energy resolve into a basic whodunit decked out in weak special effects and spiritual swamp gas. But along the way, you can enjoy a garish, eccentric haunted-house tour in the company of some interesting actors, including Max Minghella, Heather Graham, Kelli Garner and David Morse. And you can also appreciate Mr. Aja’s lurid, hysterical visual sensibility — his bright, wet colors and weirdly beautiful compositions — even if you sometimes wish it were employed in a more coherent movie.
“Horns” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). Bloodshed and swearing.
A listing of credits on Friday with a film review of “Horns,” using information from a publicist, misidentified the director of photography. He is Frederick Elmes, not Gregory Crewdson.