Horns, based on the novel by Joe Hill, is a unique idea for a horror movie and, with the kind of cast it has headlining it, should work. Unfortunately, French horror director Alexandre Aja and writer Keith Bunin can't keep it from running out of gas too soon.
Daniel Radliffe stars as Ig Perrish, a kid who already felt like an outsider in his small town in Washington State. He meets Merrin (Juno Temple) and they fall in love. When Merrin is killed though, he's public enemy No. 1. After spending a night getting drunk, he wakes up growing horns. When he learns that these horns force people to tell him how they really feel about things, he decides to use this power to find the real killer.
The film's strength is the acting. Radcliffe, who has been working like a mad man to prove that he's not just Harry Potter, gives a versatile performance, moving from comedy to drama far more easily than the script does. His supporting cast – which includes Max Minghella, Joe Anderson, Juno Temple, Kelli Garner and Heather Graham – give the film some added color.
Unlike other bad movies where there's a performance that sticks out as awful, no one does a terrible job in Horns. They each understand the role they're given. It's not their fault that the writing turned out so bad.
Aja and Bunin just can't keep up the film's premise for two full hours. After it reaches the 90-minute mark, I found myself asking every five minutes, “Is this when it is going to end?” Overall, the film's first hour is actually pretty good and the humor doesn't seem completely out of place. But when snakes start following Ig, Aja struggles to keep the film's scenes together.
Horns premiered at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, but wasn't released to theaters until this past October. Obviously, Radius-TWC thought a little more highly of it than they should have. The Blu-ray is out this week and features just one piece of bonus material – an 18-minute fluff piece on the making of the film.
There's a good idea for a straight dramatic revenge/horror film in Horns, but a needless desire to inject humor and glossy romance muddle up the final product.