Mediocre Movie Club Movie Reviews

Horns

2/11/2015

C
2.00

This movie is chock-full of symbolism and I love it. - Ashli
I wanted them to stay dark comedy and not go the route they ultimately went. - Riley
It's a movie that wants to be dwelt on, but the more you dwell on it, the more you pick apart the structural issues and lose the message of perceived evil it's trying to convey - Phil

Initial Review by Ashli

I'm sure it's pretty obvious that the main reason I chose this movie is my love of Harry Potter. Plus I think Daniel Radcliffe seems like a pretty rad, normal dude in real life. I enjoy watching him take on other projects besides Harry Potter. His American accent in this film though? Awful. And super distracting. I think Radcliffe is always a great actor, and I admire is willingness to take on parts in all kinds of films ("What If" last year was a romantic hipster comedy type and "The Woman in Black" a few years ago was a decent horror movie).

This movie really plays with the perception of what's real and what isn't. Are the horns actually there? Some people can see them, some can't. And those who can seem none too concerned. The movie also has a "Gone Girl"-esque quality to it...I spent most of the movie wondering whether or not he actually killed Merrin. I wanted to believe he didn't, but the evidence (and the horns on his head) seemed to be piling up against him.

This movie is chock full of symbolism, and I loved it. Everything from the snakes that carry out Igg's dirty work, to the placement of fire in the forefront of certain scenes to the name of the diner with the batshit waitress ("Eve's" with an apple logo). And obviously the wings he sprouts at the end (which were kind of ridiculous). All a juxtaposition of good and evil. Heaven and hell. And who expected Heather Graham to pop up in this sort of movie? Oh and Dexter's dad too!

I guess what kind of irked me the whole time is why did Igg get the horns when Lee was the one who actually killed her? Igg was made out to be the devil the entire time even when he was innocent, and throughout the film he slowly is transformed into the devil because of the horns. He starts using his power to commit terrible acts (torturing his brother, etc). And why did Merrin's cross protect Lee from seeing the horns and inevitably end of saving Igg (for a hot minute)? Is this another sort of symbolism in which Merrin is the God/Christ-like figure who sacrificed herself? The quote "Love made devils of us both" stuck out at the end as kind of an explanation for everything that went on...in the end both Lee and Igg were transformed into monsters because of love- Lee through his unrequited love of Merrin and Igg through his willingness to do anything and everything to clear his name and bring justice to Merrin.

The twists sprinkled throughout were unexpected and elevated the movie from a "typical" horror/thriller. I didn't see it coming that she had terminal cancer and was pushing him away on purpose to save him. I didn't see it coming that Lee was actually the killer, and Lee had me convinced that Merrin was actually in love with him when that wasn't the case at all.

They lost me at the end when he sprouted wings and turned into the devil...got wayyyy too hoky. They should have saved the money they used on that crappy CGI. Ok maybe they lost me when he came out of the burning car alive. I think the movie could have ended about 30 minutes before it actually did, it got a little long winded/far fetched at the end (I mean I guess the whole thing is pretty far fetched...he did sprout horns). Oh and the guy getting his head blown off with the shotgun? Awesome. But pretty B horror movie kind of stuff that lowers the quality of the film overall.

All in all...I'm going C+ on this one. Had some unexpected twists, good acting by Radcliffe. Definitely not your typical horror movie (is this a horror movie? thriller? I'm not sure what to call it...)

24 Comments

Sean

2/11/2015 04:28:12 am

Prior to the pick, Horns was not on my radar. Upon selection I watched the trailer and thought, probably won’t be high cinema, won’t likely take down many MMC awards next year but looks entertaining enough. I watched about it in 2 nights and somehow managed to split it up pretty perfectly in that after the first night I was enjoying an entertaining while not necessarily laugh out loud dark comedy where people expose their dark inner feelings and Ig gives them permission to do bad things. Act 2 was the descent. Ig embraces those dark powers as a means not to prove his innocence but to enact his revenge. I supposed the way Ig evolved comes from the saying perception is reality. He was a good kid hopelessly in love trying to clear his name and find out why this happened to him who allowed himself to be corrupted by the evil that others perceived him as. Ultimately Merrin’s cross offered him a protection from that evil that he needed to retreat back into in order to beat Lee. Unfortunately/fortunately this led to his demise/reunion with Merrin.

There was a throw away moment when Ig first grew the Horns that I had basically forgotten until I read Phil’s review about how the movie breaks its own rules. I think it may have been the doctor who said of course he can see the horns but when he turns away for a moment he forget they’re there. Ok, so that’s how the movie explains why nobody remembers their interactions with Ig but it doesn’t explain why those actions don’t have any consequences. Also, it did make me think as Phil questioned why Terry had the change of heart, his guilt didn’t overcome him until Ig tried to get him to kill himself, he shouldn’t have continued to feel guilty and want to help. I’ll give them a pass on Merrin’s dad though, I’m going to say he’s protected by the umbrella of Merrin’s supernatural love that keeps him seeing things more clearly.

On Merrin, now, Fuck her! The movie plays what she did as this marvelous selfless act to ease the burden of Ig’s life. Of course she couldn’t know what was immediately about to happen with her rape and murder and the ruination of the lives of everyone she cares about in town but it’s completely selfish and a dick move to knowingly break someone’s heart under the guise of protecting them from not having to deal with her fatal cancer. People young and old die of cancer all the time, even if her plan worked perfectly and she moved away and died quietly Ig’s going to be a basket case- there are 4 possible love life outcomes for Ig under her plan.
1-he’s totally fine well adjusted and meets an even better girl for him and lives happily ever after-0%
2- he crawls into a shell marries the whore bartender and everyone talks behind his back about the time she gave them a rimjob back in college and he’s never happy- 35%-
3-he has a series of terrible relationships and 1 night stands contracting all sorts of nasty STDs before blowing his brains out 35%
4- it takes a few years but he finally gets back to normal meets a girl seems all is well until he learns Merrin died goes back reads the note and realizes he doesn’t love this girl like he loved Merrin and his life is ruined again 30%
So yea, dick move Merrin. I liked you better when you were enjoying K Fried C.

I wanted them to stay dark comedy and not go the route they ultimately went. In the end, entertaining enough, probably wont win any Mediocrities I thought it was going to be the dark version of Warm Bodies but it fell way short of that. Solid C seems right.

Phil

2/11/2015 04:29:15 am

Dammit Riley, you posted before me and mentioned my review! YOU'RE DESTROYING THE ILLUSION!!!!!

sean

2/11/2015 04:32:17 am

very sorry Phil, if only I could figure out how to delete my comment and repost after you

2/11/2015 04:34:35 am

it will probably disqualify my review from any review of the year consideration at next years Mediocrities

2/11/2015 04:38:03 am

We both posted at exactly 9:28... I blame my slow connection at work.

Turd Ferguson

2/11/2015 06:31:08 am

Bitterly moving Phil's review down further.

2/11/2015 06:42:32 am

What the hell is Burt Reynolds doing posting on our movie blog? This is a banner day, and I'm very excited to bring him from "lurker" to "contributor." I think I just won 2015 MMC member of the year and it's not even Presidents' Day.

2/11/2015 04:28:30 am

“Horns” is a very strange movie in that it wants the viewer to think about its message and ideas later while being presented in a way that wants to be forgettable. There’s a solid message here about the views of others toward a person they have deemed as “evil,” and some of that stuff was well done. This in mind, the movie can go one of two ways to communicate that message: symbolic or supernatural. I think they went the safer route of supernatural (higher floor-lower ceiling), but going supernatural forces some conventions that Horns simply spits at. In the end, we wind up with a movie that is both frustrating and entertaining to a degree.

I do like the concept of the movie – a man is ostracized by the court of public opinion so much that he becomes the physical manifestation of popular option. I’m in so far, but then “Horns” completely falls on its face in setting the rules for its supernatural universe. The horns seem to have the same unifying theme at least where the person admits their darkest thoughts to Ig, and it is ultimately up to him to give the person permission to act upon them. The early part of the movie exploits this too much. When you have your main character saying what is going to happen (like Ig did in the scene with his dad), that’s a problem. The horns uniformly affect everyone the same way except for Lee and Merrin’s father Dale. Lee is explained, but Dale never is. The first meeting between them I have no issue with, but the second meeting where Ig receives Merrin’s cross, Dale is cordial. Why? We’ve established that we are in a supernatural world and not a symbolic world by now – Dale should have continued being a prick in this world. This I would let slide if it was the only slip up.

However, the climax of the movie is contingent on Lee & Meatbag not remembering their interactions with Ig. This is never established and very much ignored based on convenience, as it also seemed like Terry remembered his confrontations with Ig. How is this possible? And how did Lee know enough to come up with the suicide story if he didn’t even remember seeing Ig that day?

At this point, I’m going to cite the great philosopher Adam Carolla with regards to these items: “You can have a person like your movie, and you can have a person hate your movie, but you can’t leave a person confused by your movie.” This isn’t something like “Holy Motors” that seems to be confusing for the sake of confusion; this is a movie that sets rules for its universe and routinely breaks them to further the plot. All in all, it’s sloppy design. It feels as if there’s a scene or two missing that helps create a cohesive picture. I don’t know if those scenes were cut or if director Alexandre Aja just didn’t care to include it for the sake of entertainment.

From said entertainment perspective, I thought Horns was pretty well done. Despite having a big reveal that wasn’t hard to miss, Horns did an ok job at being entertaining. I thought Daniel Radcliffe was good despite a pretty subpar American accent. A handful of the scenes where Ig allowed people to submit to their desires were solid – who didn’t expect Brick Tamland to show up with a trident during the reporter fight – but most of those scenes actually angered me as I look back on it.

And that’s ultimately my point with Horns. It’s a movie that wants to be dwelt on, but the more you dwell on it, the more you pick apart the structural issues and lose the message about perceived evil it’s trying to convey. It’s a message I’m not even going to dissect because the movie ultimately went the supernatural route, leading it to completely undermine itself – amazing how similar it feels to “The One I Love” in that respect. This is a movie that I could ultimately hack away at and talk myself down to a pretty low grade, but I thought the performances were good, the cinematography was good, and I was entertained throughout.

+ Cool concept
+ Entertaining throughout
- Breaks rules of its world
- Many individual scenes fall apart upon further inspection

Grade: C-

Shane

2/16/2015 03:55:54 pm

I thought the scenes of him making or encouraging people to do those things were fantastic. Though I found the drug one a bit much.

Agreed that it was easy to figure out Lee did it. I actually thought that everyone who saw the horns though he did it. And Lee couldn't see the horns meant that he knew Ig couldn't have done it. I like that explanation even more.

Bobby

2/16/2015 04:38:27 pm

Except, his brother saw the horns, and he knew Ig didn't do it... so that bit would have to change.

2/17/2015 11:06:06 am

Good call. I forgot about that part.

Bryan

2/12/2015 05:40:49 am

3 reviews and we're all falling into the same boat. I'll jump in and sink it!

I loved, loved, loved the first half of this movie. I generally watch our movies while spinning and I spent an hour on the bike with this one before I had to take a break. I was hooked and I had bike butt.

The murder mystery love story with well done flashbacks created intrigue. Did he kill her? Why are the horns showing? Why do they only show for certain people? What are they made of? Has his skull also changed its biological makeup to hold them on so well?

The only downfalls through the first half-ish were the stereotypes at the bar and the token wealthy house on the shore.

I want a remote that records my feelings through a movie like political debates. Every 5 minutes I push +,-, or =. This movie would look like this...

+++=++=++++-+=+++====--------------=-----=+=------

Heather Graham's character wasn't well thought out, the cancer thing was a let down, and the morphing was the final dagger.

I was hoping Ig would come back from the flaming car deformed, but alive. The 100% healthy was lame.

There was suspense, a mostly good story, and good characters for the most part. B-

The scene that I remember most is Ig torturing his brother. That got me thinking about the quantity of drugs we see in movies. Maybe I'm sheltered Hoosier/Illinoisan, but it seems like entirely too many people in movies are doing drugs. I don't care about common drugs - alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco. But how do so many people have LSD, cocaine, etc? This seems to be a huge disconnect from actual society to me.

2/12/2015 05:48:55 am

My thoughts on that scene were how did Terry survive. But it's a sheltered thing. They're not hard to come by if you are interested in obtaining them.

2/12/2015 08:28:32 am

He was in the hospital. Can people really hallucinate in the way that he did?

2/12/2015 10:36:59 am

I'd say Terry's hallucinations were more a product of Ig's demonic powers, I haven't done any hallucinagens but yes but probably not instantaneously.

2/12/2015 12:42:38 pm

They can kick in fairly quickly. I will not disclose my sources, but let's just call the knowledge "second-hand."

2/16/2015 04:00:14 pm

He's a musician. Drugs and musicians just go together. And a drug like salvia kicks in within a minute, giving you the most realistic hallucinations. You have to have a spotter for that one because you will flip out and fight dragons and shit.

Speaking of drugs, my first encounter with cocaine was while bartending. I have a pretty cool regular who was friends with my pretty cool manager. But on weekend nights, they would both become intolerable assholes who just wanted the music super loud. One night, I openly complained to a fellow bartender, wondering how those two could be such raging idiots sometimes. He looked at me bemused, like I was a child, and said, "Never been around cocaine much, eh?" Message!

Jon

2/12/2015 02:12:43 pm

I'm willing to give Horns credit for its premise. Any comment on the furor around dead white girls is welcome. Fuck you, Nancy Grace. I'm willing to give credit for the effects work, which I thought was fine. Alexander Aja gets credit for some inventive shots and scenes, like the opening Eden morphing into Ig's world literally turned upside down, or the title first showing up in a cigarette lighter. Positive stuff, over.

The writing is top to bottom awful. You've all been poking holes in the plot, but I didn't care enough to really parse it because the characterization is so, so awful. Ig is a martyr and Merrin is a saint. Everyone else is a caricature with one fatal flaw. Keith Bunin's script is a solid brick of garbage.

Starting with Ig, his narration is prime telling and not showing. His internal monologue is likely a remnant from the book, and Aja and Bunin have clearly forgotten what medium they're working in. Nothing in the narration is necessary, as it's all conveyed by what's happening. When it's not simple A to B, it's unquestioned self-pity. He talks about being punished. Dude, your girlfriend has been raped and murdered, get some perspective. Towards the end, after Lee has confessed, he blandly philosphizes about there being no right thing. Where does bringing a rapist/murderer to justice land on the right things spectrum? It's aggressively bad, an ADR'd extra bringing down the complicated work in front of the camera. His relationship to other characters, horns or no, is also designed to make him seem persecuted. His parents' disdain of him isn't based on anything. He declines his parents' money so he can go with public defender Lee. Heather Graham's witness character is aggressively The Worst. The film's on Ig's side when he curses God for not protecting Merrin, the argument of simplistic atheists that so angers me. I shouldn't have to have all these narrative tricks forcing me to sympathize with the protagonist.

At least Ig gets to have an inner life. Merrin is pure wish fulfillment, a nothing character designed to titillate, be raped, and die. She doesn't have thoughts unrelated to Ig. She only exists as something for male characters to jerk off to, with the exception of her protective father, so she's either a sex object or something to be jealously guarded. People describe her first and foremost as beautiful. Of course she's dressed in white for her death. Her cancer reveal isn't about her and what she needs for however long her remaining life is; it's about keeping Ig from feeling too bad. The writing around her is by far the worst part of Horns.

Those are the two main things I hated, but there's plenty of smaller details that gnawed at me. The soundtrack is a second runner-up to characterization and narration, another thing that's over-obvious or unearned. Sorry, no movie gets to use Where Is My Mind after Fight Club. The song is too closely intertwined with the film to ever work anywhere else. Marilyn Manson over the reporter fight made me roll my eyes to the point where I have a reasonable sense of what the bottom of my brain looks like. We've established that the narration is terrible; the dialogue is at least functional, but barely better. Everything is stiff and direct, with no flair or recognizable naturalism. Some of Aja's direction worked for me. Other scenes, particularly the drug trip, didn't bring anything new to the table, while some cuts were painfully on the nose. The kids cast in the flashback were all shitty actors, and the final death was comically over the top for a movie that featured a graphic rape.

I was continuously agitated and/or angered by Horns. If a movie pisses me off, we're starting in D territory with a C ceiling. For a movie to get to C's, it needs to have very strong positives (Interstellar, Prometheus). Horns's premise is its best asset, but it's so bungled as to be nonexistent. Going with a straight D, making this my worst movie of 2014.

Drew

2/13/2015 05:19:27 am

I do not have much to add as it would be a combination of Phil and Jon. With that in mind, I will simply state what I liked and then what I did not.

I liked the very premise of Horns. It was a good idea but not all good ideas turn into a tangible good - e.g. communism. As Bryan stated, the first part was pretty decent. I enjoyed the dark humor that was brought out due to Ig's horns and thought it clever that it used it to his advantage to find information and tempt others to do something. It was flat out great when the media gets into an impromptu battle royale; really good. That, however, ends my liking of the film.

What I did not like about the film outweighs what I liked. Horns involvement of the snakes was silly. While he does interesting things when they are first introduced, the "fight" scene with Lee and Ig reminded me of the "fight" scene in Only God Forgives; just awful.

What was more annoying than the fight? When, to the surprise of no one, Ig survives the car driving into the lake. Talk about predictable. Would the film end with Lee literally getting away with murder? While I am at it, did it take anyone else about twenty minutes into the story to figure out Lee killed Merrin? Just checking.

Not to belabor the point but the CGI did not help. I checked out once the wings burst out and Ig turns into a demon.

This was not a great film but Radcliffe is a good actor. He carried the film and did the best he could. He deserves some credit for that.

When I started losing touch, the film started to sink into the "D" territory. Then I remembered Merrin had some sideboob scenes and was hot....I have a thing for red heads. Merrin saves Horns.

Grade: C-

2/14/2015 08:37:50 am

Well, I had pretty high hopes for Horns after seeing the trailer for the first time a while ago. Then I sort of forgot about it ever coming out until Ashli picked it. I was excited to watch, and Netflix assumed I'd like to to the tune of 4.5 stars are so...

The premise is great... as we all seem to agree. There was a story to be told here, and I wanted to be drawn in. It started off strong in setting things up and getting the audience's attention. I didn't hate the writing or dialogue like some others... and while it wasn't strong by any means, it was more than tolerable for what we had here. The major problem for me comes with never truly finishing or explaining the story.

Maybe Horns is telling us that the media and public opinion makes devils out of even the innocent... and Ig had to use that to find out who was really guilty. And then he had to chose between his own humanity and the demon inside when it came time for revenge. Fine... none of that needs to be explained. But what I feel does need to be given is something as to why Ig is transformed in the first place. Why does the devil choose him? There are surely plenty of innocent people around the world who are seen otherwise.. are we to believe they all become demons and Ig was just the most interesting one to tell the story? Hell, explain it away in a simple scene while he's drowning... some sort of prayer or momentary death, even if it's a throwaway line to tell us where all of this comes from. Why does Merrin's cross hold such power? Or did they say all of that, and I missed it some how?

Most of the acting was fine for me... especially Radcliffe. I thought he did an excellent job with the tone of each scene.. especially the dark humor. Shia LaBouf was apparently supposed to play the part of Ig... I wonder how that would have gone. I'm not sure the movie would have changed much... but we probably wouldn't have watched it with out the Ashli's Harry Potter connection! The only role that felt out of place was Heather Graham... but thinking about it now, she really was exactly what that part was supposed to be.

This clearly didn't have a major budget, so I didn't expect anything extraordinary in the CGI department. For me, at least, nothing stood out as overly distracting or completely bad... but I'll admit i wasn't at all looking for it. In general, the scenes looked good, especially those in the woods and around the treehouse. The flashbacks were well done as well.

As stated, the ending was a cluster of what the fucks and just didn't get it done. It felt incomplete and more of a spectacle than a conclusion or explanation for anything.

I feel like the premise and Radcliff had the makings for an A range movie... but it certainly fell shore. That said, I still enjoyed watching it and think I liked more than I hated. I've teetered between C+ and B-, but being a few days removed from watching... I'm left with a slightly positive feeling about Horns... even with it's shortcomings. I may pick up the book sometime and see if Joe Hill is anywhere near the level of his father... and maybe at least I'll get a little more info on what's going on and even a better finish to the story. B-

2/17/2015 02:47:05 am

I hear the book gives you exactly what you've asked for while Ig is drowning

2/20/2015 03:27:53 pm

This has to be a website quote, "I liked more than I hated it."

2/16/2015 03:45:16 pm

I remember when my high school friends and I rented From Dusk Til Dawn. It looked pretty bad ass. We actually camped out that night and had an extension cord to our tent. The only thing we knew was that Salma Hayeck did a striptease and that was enough for us. As I watched, I loved the grittyness of the movie. I'm a sucker for violent crime movies with flawed characters. So things were going great and then the vampires started showing up and I was dumbfounded. What the fuck just happened? The movie was so good and then it just got dumb beyond belief. Looking back, I actually enjoy From Dusk Til Dawn knowing what it is. It's a great example of a slightly above average movie because I think it intended to be a bit campy. The violence in the end matched the beginning, just with some awesome vampire fight scenes instead of a purely gritty crime movie. It at least stayed somewhat consistent.

That brings us to Horns. Similar to From Dusk Til Dawn, this movie had a great start, but a ridiculous finish. Unlike From Dusk Til Dawn, Horns just changed horses mid-stream and the change didn't make any sense.

The first 75% of this movie was pretty good. The characters were pretty interesting and the mystery was intriguing. We knew Radcliffe's character didn't do it, but the tension came in finding out if he would go down for the crime and completely lose his humanity in the process. The concept of the horns and him making people do the most base things they were thinking was hilarious and enjoyable. This was more fun than I had.

And most of the main characters nail their roles, even if Radcliffe needs to work on his American accent. I thought Joe Anderson did pretty solid as Radcliffe's brother. David Morse, though, was a bit wasted in his poorly written role as Merrin's father.

So what the hell happened? Well, the movie just made plot changes that made no godamn sense. I don't need everything explained, but some structure is needed. Like why did he become that devil thing? The horns alone didn't bother me because they were a metaphor type thing, but the demon thing was ridiculous. And then the violence in the final scene was just ridiculous. For most of the movie, they treat death as something serious. The murder of Merrin is really tough to sit through. But then for the final scene, they just get campy and violent and the change is out of nowhere. The guy's head being blown off is just dumb and excessive. The snake slithering through Lee's body? Why? Why do that. It's purely torture porn at that point.

What a disappointment. This movie never had a shot at being beyond a B+, but it really suffered at the end.

C+

2/20/2015 03:29:12 pm

I haven't seen From Dusk til Dawn.

This " This movie never had a shot at being beyond a B+" is wrong IMO. This movie had A- or A for the first 30/45 minutes. I was hooked! The story line was original and engaging.

Horns

C
2.00

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Horns

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C
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