Horns
2013 · Directed by Alexandre Aja
Original language: English
- drama
- fantasy
- thriller
The story
In the aftermath of his girlfriend's mysterious death, a young man awakens to strange horns sprouting from his temples.
What it’s like
Warm, saturated autumn colour and a damp, wooded small-town palette give way to sickly greens and stark, washed-out daylight once the story turns dark. Aja's camera stays close and restless: handheld drifts through rain-soaked streets, sudden zooms into faces, and long, lingering shots of a grieving man's bedroom and a tangled pine forest. Sound design leans on heavy rain, crunching leaves and a brooding, mournful score that swells into darkly playful pop-rock cues. The mood is bruised and wry, a blend of grief-soaked melancholy and mischievous black humour, paced in fits and starts that suit a late-night watch or a moody weekend alone. Violence is present but not constant: scattered moments of bloody, cruel confrontation and a few sharp, unsettling scenes, with some sexual content and profanity, and frequent dark suggestion more than gore. The arc follows a heartbroken young man slowly learning how much darkness he is willing to own. It suits viewers who want a fantasy-thriller with grief at its core and a sly, sardonic streak rather than a gentle or comforting watch.
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