Summer of Netflix Day 18 - Horns

Alexa: So. This movie is effing weird. Like, really effing weird. That doesn’t have to be a bad thing. The concept behind Horns is an intriguing one, a refreshingly original and twisted take on the murder mystery. Ig (Daniel Radcliffe) is a mess after his beloved girlfriend Merrin (Juno Temple) is found dead, and the whole town thinks he killed her. One morning he wakes up to find a pair of horns has sprouted from his forehead, and whenever the same townspeople who question his innocence are in his presence, they confess their darkest secrets. His newfound gift (or curse?) might be the key to finding the real killer. Radcliffe does an admirable job of shedding his Harry Potter persona, and Max Minghella and David Morse are compelling supporting players. But overall the script is stale and the directing uneven (maybe it’s the Pacific Northwest setting, but some of the shots and transitions feel, for lack of a better adjective, a bit Twilight-y). So while Horns shows promise, it never quite lives up to its potential.

Jason: I remember seeing production photos of this one while it was still in post. The image of DanRad, sporting a set of gnarly demon horns, with a huge snake draped over his shoulders was surprisingly chilling! It was a lovely departure from seeing “the Boy Who Lived” wave his magic wand around. Dan’s first venture into film after the HP series, The Woman in Black, was a campy, and lack-luster supernatural horror flick that really didn’t own up to its potential. He didn’t quite seem to fall into that role. Also, he was playing a young man with a 3-year-old son. It was just too soon after Harry Potter to see him as an adult. This movie takes a step back and sticks him in that awkward stage of “out of college, but not yet into life”. This is a good space for him to be in. I still can’t see him as a grown up. Not yet, Harry. Not yet.

In regards to the story, I found it fascinating! It wasn’t really horror, it wasn’t really a psychological thriller. It was more of a murder mystery with a strong supernatural influence. There were a few scenes that became quite uncomfortable to watch. The one where his father is confessing his sins to him was disturbing! Overall, I found this movie intriguing. It kept me guessing about what would happen next. And it left a lot of questions unanswered. I’m not going to say the acting or directing were stellar, but they held up enough to make this an enjoyable movie.

Chris: I liked this movie even if it ditches the dark comedy aspect by the third act once Ig let’s his brother O.D. and then it goes into full drama/revenge movie mode. And the heart of it, is the relationship between Ig and Merrin, which teeters on the audience being beaten over the head with it but it is important to the overall story so I’ll allow it.

Everything that I’ve read about the movie is that it’s “loosely based” on the novel version of the story so it doesn’t sound like it was overly too concerned to strictly sticking to the book, which is fine. You can have a good movie that doesn’t stay religious to the book it’s based on and end up with two different yet good in their own right stories. Or even shows like Broadchurch/Gracepoint where Gracepoint was essentially the same show with the same main character with slight differences at the end. Both equally good in their own rights. And then there’s the Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter where both the movie and the book written by the same person but the stories varied quite a bit and resulted in a good book and a terrible movie.

But back to Horns, I wanna say the movie jumped the shark a bit towards the end but then again, the entire movie is ridiculous and absurd to the point where that probably wouldn’t be a fair statement.

Joel: Horns wasn’t a great movie. It wasn’t bad by any means, definitely worth a watch if you haven’t gotten around to seeing it, but more a “catch it on Netflix” (which incidently, is exactly what we’re doing) in a way that means you won’t remember too much of it three weeks after you’ve seen it. But it’s hard to pin down exactly where the movie falls short. Radcliffe does a great job in the lead role and is backed up by an impressive supporting cast. The storyline is intriguing to say the least. Being able to use supernatural powers to get people to confess their darkest secrets, is interesting to say the very least. I guess the problem is the movie doesn’t feel quite even, there are several flashbacks in the movie from flashing back to the night of the murder, to flashing back all the way to when the characters were kids. These flashbacks sometimes last several minutes, taking up huge swaths of the movie but also coming in at strange points in the narrative. Maybe it’s just a personal preference, but I would have liked to see more of Ig using the supernatural powers that he now had to focus on solving the mystery or in some cases helping out people who are scared to make the jump to get what they truly want. The movie hints at that, but doesn’t really jump headlong into it.

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