Horns - A little bit messy, but original and worth it

First of all let me say that I am not a fan of Daniel Radcliffe.  I was never into the Harry Potter films and, although he did well enough in ‘Woman in Black’ I didn’t like the film much.  Plus I saw him on a UK chat show a few years ago and found him generally obnoxious.  However, I do basically watch any old horror movie, so, even though he was in it, I thought I’d give it a go.  And – amazingly – I’m glad I did!

It’s actually a little longer than your average ninety minute horror yarn and it tells the tale of ‘Ig’ (or rather Daniel Radcliffe sporting quite a convincing American accent) – a young man whose girlfriend is murdered, leaving him the prime suspect in a small town.  Although there’s no hard evidence to link him to the crime, the general consensus is that he’s guilty.  As if that wasn’t bad enough for the young ex-wizard, he develops horns on his head that only certain people can see.  And these horns turn out to be more than just cosmetic enhancements – they start bestowing strange powers upon him.

Like I said, ‘Horns’ is a little longer than the normal horror film.  This means that it’s padded out with flashbacks from Ig’s childhood, showing what went on before (and, after you’ve watched the whole film, you’ll probably spot the clues as to what’s happened).  The bouncing back and forth in time does sometimes feel a little disjointed and you may just want to find out what’s happening next, rather than see what’s already gone.  But all the performances are good, making sure they’re all a quirky bunch and the bits where the horns lead Ig astray are darkly funny.

The best part of ‘Horns’ is that it’s actually quite original.  I haven’t really seen a film like it before.  So, even though it was a little messy (might have benefited from about 10-15 minutes being cut) I found it was actually worth it just for the novelty value.  Don’t expect all the questions to be answered.  The film relies on a certain amount of ‘religious knowledge’ to fill in some of the blanks.  You don’t have to believe in any religion to appreciate this film, but you have to accept that if you’re going to enjoy it then you’re going to have to be okay with religion for storytelling purposes.

I’m still not a fan of Radcliffe, but I did enjoy his performance and would continue to watch him again – in the right vehicle (like this one).

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that