Horns

I was excited for this flick. I thought it looked like it could be a fun, crazy supernatural whodunnit kind of story. So, I went in with some fairly high hopes. Did the film live up to them? Well...not exactly.

It's well acted (Radcliffe gives a solid performance when he's actually focusing on acting and not on his accent) and incredibly well shot. I could not get over how gorgeous some of the cinematography is. However, there are a few things that bog it down considerably for me. The voice-over narration feels very forced in there and I thought that some of the exposition dialogue really killed lots of the more dramatic moments. It also suffers from very uneven pacing and the story flows is too jumbled at times.

Overall, I recommend it. It's a fine flick that you won't regret watching at least once, but it ultimately didn't do much for me.

Daniel Radcliffe has come a long way since his stint as a wizard, and "Horns" is a great vehicle for him to continue to grow as an actor and expand his presence to those in the audience who gave the little Potter-head a miss.

Joe Hill, son of Stephen King, has crafted a tale here I can honestly say as far as I know, has never been done, and that's always a good start. The concept is fun, full of surprises, and never dulls.

The problem I am finding with great premises is that it's very hard to fully utilise them, to drain them for everything they are worth, and that is where Horns loses ratings; it could have pushed the boundaries in the fun department just a little bit more, but then, in hindsight, doing that risks spoiling some of the darker elements littered throughout the narrative.

It is a violent film at times, but if you can grow some horns and stomach a few graphic scenes, then you may enjoy it.

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 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.

'Horns (2013)' is more a mystery than anything else and there thankfully is a nice, self-contained little story at the heart of the piece, one that doesn't really focus on the eponymous horns so much as use their abilities to see the story through to its end (in terms of both theme and plot). The eventual, albeit disappointing, reveal isn't necessarily obvious, either, as the film spends a lot of time successfully muddying the waters when it comes to whether or not our 'hero' might actually deserve the spiky things growing from his skull. While it's usually entertaining and not afraid to also be properly dark, the flick does have its fair share of quite severe tonal issues and a third act that doesn't really live up to what it could've been - bolstered by that disappointing reveal I mentioned earlier. This ultimately makes for an experience that's enjoyable but flawed, sometimes frustratingly so. 6/10