Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘Horns’

Written by Scott Edwards 

​With our legal system being set up using due process, it is true that everybody is innocent until proven guilty. But that does not happen with the media, at all. The media is supposed to report the truth of what is happening in the world, but there is some higher up power that tells them exactly what to report, how to report it and what questions need to be asked. If the media has a shred of evidence that someone is guilty, they will make sure that all of the world knows it and will not stop reporting it that way until they are proved wrong by the court system.

Ig Perrish is being hounded by the reporters that are camped out in his yard. With his girlfriend being found dead under their woodsy hideout, Ig is the primary suspect and there is no doubt in anybody’s mind that he is guilty. Ig is sick and tired of being accused as he knows he is innocent, and he believes that everybody has lost their minds. Hearing that the lab that housed all of the evidence for the case has burned down, Ig knows that there will not be any way to prove his innocence in the eyes of the public.

Being consoled by his childhood friend Glenna at the bar, Ig cannot find a way to relieve himself of the guilt of leaving his girlfriend alone the night she was murdered but has an easy time finding the bottom of a liquor bottle. Sitting in the tree house where he and Merrin fell in love while a vigil is held below, Ig denounces his trust in God and smashes everything around the memorial that resembles a holy figure. Being stopped by Glenna, Ig is so drunk that he goes home with her, but when he wakes up, he finds that his life is changing for what he believes is the worse.

As two horns are spouting out of his head, Ig starts to hear things from people he does not know, the kind of things that he does not want to hear. Listening to peoples deepest, darkest, inner thoughts, Ig is not only the monster of his town, but the confessionary as well. Asking for advice from his priest, Ig is called a devil and with his horns, he is starting to feel the same way. But his good friend and public defender, Lee, does not see the horns and seems to be immune of wanting to spill his personal thoughts to Ig and although it seems very strange, Ig knows that his friend will have his back. But the rest of the town will not stop tormenting Ig as he is trying to find answers about what happened to Merrin and he finds that he has the power of suggestion as well. Making people do things that they would not normally do for the promise of some sort of reward, Ig is on the hunt for the person that killed his girlfriend and will stop at nothing until they are brought to justice.

Let’s call it a murder mystery with a supernatural twist, two fantastic elements joined into one good story. From the pages of the Joe Hill novel, this disturbed love story has enough twists and turns to keep you guessing as to who the murderer really is, along with what is really behind the horns on Ig’s head. I enjoyed the reason for the horns that the priest gives, but that does not explain it all and what it has done to Ig’s character in full. A good story and a great cast with a surprise of an actor that I did not even expect to see in a smaller film. I will openly admit that I am not a fan of flashbacks in movies or television, I think it is over used and most of the time it is not essential to the story, but this movie does it justice as you get to find out every account of everyone’s past, including a golf pro that made me laugh. Stay Scared!

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