Horns

Horns is a great creative trip that combine hardly combinable genre positions with ease, while even managing to make fun of their sacred clichés (the priest’s advice, gay cops). Alexandre Aja is not just a great horror director, but also a lover of dramatic stories with a romantic dimension who can skillfully juggle our favorite pulp genres. And this is his freshly original and hard to imitate wet dream, in which, by the way, Stephen King will also find something to make him happy. (03/30/2015)

I never saw Horns during its premiere, and I was disappointed about that. The idea of exposing a person to brutal social pressure and mental suffering to such an extent that they are unable to bear it in a rational way and unwillingly transform into a supernatural being from another (dark) world was already masterfully portrayed by Bulgakov in "The Master and Margarita." In my opinion, such a concept has great potential, but the director and screenwriter managed to completely squander it through their hard work. In many comments, Daniel Radcliffe's involvement in the main role is discussed. Although his performance is not Oscar-worthy, it didn't bother me, and his presence eventually became one of the few positives that can be said about Horns. Horns could have been many things, ranging from dark fantasy to a horror comedy (let's remember how excellently The Witches of Eastwick turned out). Instead, Alexandre Aja created a didactic morality tale full of sentiment, permeated with religious symbolism, and using the most clichéd genre tropes. I could partially forgive him for that if he hadn't been so literal and pathetic, and if he had been more sophisticated and imaginative. This is a disappointment. Overall impression: 25%. (07/12/2021)

I burned the movie right after finishing the book that I was excited about, and I did well, as my enthusiasm for Horns multiplied. The plot is of course greatly truncated, simplified and adapted to the possibilities of film, which was inevitable, but Aja dealt with it excellently and managed to extract from the book everything necessary, added a lot of new material to it, and cooked us a delicious treat that proudly stands alongside the amazing book adaptation and has a lot to offer. The basic building blocks of Aja's previous films were mainly brutality and spectacular gore effects. There are few of them here, but when they do come, they are worth it. Even the CGI effects are very successful and do not overshadow, on the contrary, they are well incorporated into appropriate situations. When I noticed that Merrin is played by the blonde Juno Temple, I assumed that I wouldn't get that enchanting redhead as described in the book, but fortunately they dyed her red and she became exactly the beautiful Merrin as I imagined her. I don't blame Ig at all – falling in love with her at first sight is easy. I was a little disappointed that Lee's truly twisted, corrupted, and fake character was not shown better and more detailed, as it was in the book. I was looking forward to scenes of him torturing his dying mother for months, but unfortunately the creators decided to skip this part. They also shortened and simplified scenes from childhood. But that's just the way it is, the film's duration is not endless and cuts had to be made somewhere. Anyway, I am overwhelmingly enthusiastic. The film contains everything that was needed, even a scene with a snake crawling down the throat. This is how a great book adaptation into a movie should look like. Aja is a master! (05/20/2018)

Horns fails in most respects on issues of story structure, and the film also prompts questions even over such otherwise insignificant details as "What's it about again?" The fault is not with Aja – who does what he can and, above all, what he knows how to do (which is why the highlights of the film are always associated with trashy violence handled in a first-class way). However, in my groping through the screenwriting incoherence and indeed the omnipresent idiocy, I became convinced that the cause of the failure was none other than – colleague Joe Hill forgive me – colleague Joe Hill. He can change his name until he passes out, but even if he were Creole he still couldn't deny his inspiration in Father King. In particular, the setting of the story in a small town with multiple supporting characters, the childhood relationships carried into adulthood, and the satanic rebellion against a commune redolent with the church is straight out of King's opuses Needful Things and It. That being said, Aja, with the consistency of a fifteen-year-old pervert, dutifully waits the entire story for those scenes where you throw your feet back on the table, a mischievous grin appears on your face, your hand dives back into your chips or down the neckline of your companion, and you tell yourself that such a demented perversion hasn't actually come around for quite a while and you're happy. (10/19/2014)

Very decent. Daniel Radcliffe's career is assured, here he only confirms his acting qualities. It's funny, entertaining, original and very clever. The ending is very spectacular, a perfect shot of a stick and a breathtaking scene with snakes, which is already a cult classic for me. It could have been shorter, but I still had a decent time. 75% (10/05/2014)