Horns

I loved 'Horns', It isn't yet another recycled movie to keep you entertained while you eat your popcorn, what it is is completely different from anything you've seen before. The film has no specific genre, it's a jumble of ideas. And I like that.

The acting is fantastic all round, At the start it was strange hearing Daniel Radcliffe speaking in an American accent but he does it brilliantly and his performance all the way through is just brilliant. There isn't a single character in the film who isn't 100% believable and vital to the story.

Visually, the film is also terrific. I could watch the whole thing on mute and still enjoy it hugely.

As many people have said before this definitely is not a film for everyone. It's a 'Love it' or 'Hate it' film and I can understand why many people are gathering at the 'Hate it' end of the spectrum, although, in my opinion, those people are wrong. I'd love it if more filmmakers took risks like this instead of playing it safe by recycling previous tired-out ideas.

I strongly recommend you give this film a go.

In a small town, Ig Perrish (Daniel Radcliffe) is accused by the inhabitants of killing his sweetheart Merrin Williams (Juno Temple). Even his parents believe that he is guilty and only his childhood friend and lawyer Lee Tourneau (Max Minghella) believes Ig is telling the truth. Out of blue, Ig sees horns sprouting on his forehead, but soon he finds that the horns are a blessing since people confess their sins and inner dark desires to him. Ig uses the horns to discover who the killer of his beloved girlfriend is.

"Horns" is a weird and mesmerizing movie that entwines several genres. The plot is unique and anything can happen in this original story. The conclusion could be better but does not totally disappoint. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Amaldiçoado" ("Cursed")

Note: On 06 July 2023, I saw this film again.

The first word I said after the watch was 'unbelievable'. That means the movie is not bad, but how come I missed it for this long. This is the best dark-fantasy movie I have seen recently. But earlier, I thought it would be like the movie 'Tusk' which made me a little uncomfortable to watch. So in the end, what's the difference between the tusk and/or the horn. Both come in a pair and animals have it to defend themselves from the threat. When I watched that movie, I lost interest in this. Yep, it is a silly reason and now I feel bad for that.

This movie dominated by the British cast, especially for having Daniel Radcliffe and Juno Temple I thought it was British film, actually it was not. It was a Canadian-US jointly produced, adapted from a book of the same name and directed by 'Mirror' director. The story was so good, not genuine, though explored the theme very well. For every few minutes later, the narration was taking a turn and that made the plot to get lot tighter before heading for the concluding part.

Maybe this the best movie of Radcliffe that I've seen after his goodbye to 'Harry Potter' movie series. I don't think he's a chocolate boy type, but this kind of movie suits him well. I think he should get muscles for more movie like this, but his height is another negative factor. The film was entirely shot in Canada, the photography was great, music as well as performances. Even those settings like woods, tree house feels kind of wet English and Scottish atmosphere that fits for a devilish mythical charactered movie like this. I regret for reviewing it so delayedly, but anyway I did it and over it, so I hope you watch it very soon as well if you haven't seen it yet.

7/10

The titles says it all. The first half of the movie was great, the second half was less good and the last 15 minutes were terribly bad, so bad actually that it if you'd watch it with friends it could be entertaining again. Thus, I'm torn with my rating. If they'd made the second half of the movie as good as the first half, it would've been easily a 8. However, with that ending, I get why people rated it a 5 or 6.

I'm a sucker for originality and for movies that try do something different. I get sick and tired of seeing the same thing over and over again and wish more filmmakers would take a chance instead doing the same old things. "Horns" is probably one of the most original movies I have ever seen and I loved that about it. It combines so many different movie genres into one fun, crazy, heart felt story that unfortunately is not going to be for everyone.

Right off the bat I could tell I was going to enjoy this. It starts off as what looks to be your run of the mill thriller flick then quickly spirals into some incredibly out there. Once the Horns are introduced things just take a shift into the bizarre, and I loved that. There are some truly hilarious and insane scenes. The film does a nice job of being cleverly light and rather dark at the same time.

The acting was excellent. Daniel Ratcliffe does a great job of being American, it was weird to hear him without the accent at first but he does such a good job that I eventually completely forgot that he was even British. The rest of the supporting cast did a great job, all the characters were extremely interesting and well written so that may have had something to do with it.

Overall I really enjoyed this. It definitely isn't for everybody and has a pretty long run time of 2 hours so I could see people getting bored with it if it isn't exactly there thing. But if you want to see something that you haven't seen before, something that tries to be original but not too overly artsy, something with heart then I suggest giving this a try.

8/10