Horns (2014) - Alexandre Aja

Iggy Perrish has always been deeply in love with his girlfriend, Merrin, completely intent on spending the rest of his life with her.  After Merrin is brutally raped and murdered, Iggy becomes the number one suspect, with the whole small town convinced he is responsible for Merrin's death.  Binging his sorrow in booze, Iggy awakens one day to find horns growing out of his own head, soon realizing that they give him the power to make people confess their most selfish and malicious thoughts to Iggy.  Using his newfound power, Iggy sets out to discover the truth behind Merrin's death, leading him down the path to vengeance.  Alexandre Aja's Horns is a supernaturallyfueled horror, mystery film that isn't quite capable of wrangling in all its interesting thematic intentions.  Horns is a film that shows a lot of promise, most notably using its supernatural premise to make statements about humanity as a whole.  One of the more interesting themes the film raises is the self-righteous and sensationalistic society we have become, with every member of this small town viewing Iggy as the devil himself.  Once Iggy gets his horns, the film shows the ugliness of so many different individuals, reminding us that all people have some form of skeleton in their closet.  Horns is a film that shows judgemental nature of people, showing the hypocracy of so many individuals who are simply trying to feel better about themselves.  Unfortnately this theme isn't explored to its fullest, but Horns still manages to bring some form of social commentary to the surface.  The narrative itself is full of a good amount of twists and turns but Horns struggles at times to interweave its supernatural elements with its mystery/crime storyline.  Iggy is a tragic character who has lost the love of his life but Aja spends very little time massaging the more tragic romantic elements of the film.  Alexandre Aja's Horns is a unique supernatural horror/mystery full of interesting ideals, but it unfortunately the tragic romance aspect of the story is never explored, leading to fascinating film that misses the mark of being something truly special. 

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