Horns
Dimension Films | Release Date: October 31, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
46
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
6
Mixed:
24
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
70
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeOct 31, 2014
Much of what makes Horns so impressive, and such fun to watch, is the film's ability to juggle a variety of genres. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinOct 30, 2014
As things turn irrevocably supernatural, the movie's anything-goes quality ends up deepening instead of torpedoing the narrative, as can sometimes happen in horror flicks. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeJul 14, 2014
A fable-like horror mystery with strong comic and romantic tendencies, Alexandre Aja's Horns draws on source material by cult scribe (and son of Stephen King) Joe Hill to deliver something much more beguiling than the straighter genre fare (High Tension, The Hills Have Eyes) that made his name. Read full review
67
HitfixDrew McWeenyJul 14, 2014
It's like a supernatural version of "Gone Girl," and yet, there is some very, very dark comedy in the film as well, and by keeping it dark instead of letting the humor undercut the severity of the situation, Aja has made what has to be his most commercial film so far. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia PuigOct 30, 2014
Through most of the movie, the former star of the Harry Potter movies sports an impressive set of curling ram-style protuberances that bring to mind a character in "Pan's Labyrinth." Read full review
63
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreOct 28, 2014
I just wish there’d been more to this allegory, something more than Radcliffe’s Ig explaining his protrusions to one and all with “They’re horns. It’s a crazy story.” Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottOct 31, 2014
Aja's film ends up being an fairly satisfying Halloween diversion, using those magical horns to overcome its flaws and transform itself into a decidedly dark, but weirdly sweet, ride. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriOct 31, 2014
There aren’t too many ingenious new concepts in today’s horror and fantasy films, but I’ll be damned if Horns doesn’t come close, at least at first. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottOct 30, 2014
There are so many red herrings and plot twists, such a dense barrage of flashbacks and quick cuts, that you may find yourself as rattled and breathless as Ig himself. And a bit let down at the end, when all the noise, color and energy resolve into a basic whodunit decked out in weak special effects and spiritual swamp gas. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzOct 30, 2014
It's an interesting idea that loses steam as it gains gore. The development of the story is much better than the payoff. It's fun while it lasts. Read full review
58
IndieWireEric KohnJul 14, 2014
Predominantly a failure of tone, Horns has plenty of admirable traits and yet dooms itself from the outset. It's an admirable conceit stuffed into far less subtle material. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyNov 6, 2014
It seems to have been made by people who couldn't decide if their film was a horror flick, a whodunit, or a "Hellboy" knockoff. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleNov 1, 2014
The result is that a story with a couple of good ideas founders for lack of a third or fourth good idea. Still, any picture that features Radcliffe having a nervous breakdown for two hours has something to recommend it. Read full review
50
Portland OregonianJeff BakerNov 1, 2014
An effective, low-budget horror movie is lurking at the edges of Horns but never gets a chance to reveal itself. Read full review
50
Boston GlobePeter KeoughOct 31, 2014
Directed by splat-pack director Alexandre Aja (“Piranha 3D”) with uncharacteristic but still gruesome restraint, adapted from what seems a very busy novel by Joe Hill, Horns resembles an awkward collaboration between Nathaniel Hawthorne, Stephen King, and Rob Zombie. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerOct 31, 2014
Horns is allegorically cluttered, unsure of its tone and outrageous with its snakery in a half-serious supernatural thriller about good, evil and redemption in a garden of Eden. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireOct 31, 2014
Horns would seem like another gamble, and another opportunity to stretch. It’s a supernatural thriller, territory he’s familiar with, but taken to a raunchy, grotesque extreme. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter TraversOct 30, 2014
Horns has style to burn, but there's no there there. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerOct 29, 2014
Horns fumbles with its own powers, too. If its moments of Aja-ian archness blended better with the macabre sincerity that presumably comes from the source material, it might have provided a real autumnal chill. Instead, it’s more ambitious and complex than the horror movies that dutifully clock in to haunt multiplexes around Halloween—without actually being better. Read full review
50
New York PostSara StewartOct 29, 2014
As for the magical-realist horns, they make a nice bad-boy look for Radcliffe and a handy plot device, but are never really explained in a satisfactory way. They have the side effect of making anyone who sees them immediately forget them — which I suspect may be the case with this movie as well. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisOct 29, 2014
The movie works best as a whodunit with a pointed twist. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineEd GonzalezOct 26, 2014
For a story so unconventional, it's executed without director Alexandre Aja's typical commitment to anarchic awe. Read full review
50
The DissolveTasha RobinsonOct 14, 2014
Its attempts to force comedy, tragedy, farce, action, and melodrama into the same story never quite fit. Read full review
50
Film.comCalum MarshJul 14, 2014
[Aja] has outfitted Horns with enough talent that the film is rather easy to admire aesthetically. The problems are more foundational, even conceptual—and they are thus harder to reconcile. Read full review
50
VarietyPeter DebrugeJul 14, 2014
This overly devout adaptation of Joe Hill’s sacrilegious text benefits from the helmer’s twisted sensibility, but suffers from a case of overall silliness. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanOct 30, 2014
Alexandre Aja’s supernatural thriller Horns isn’t an entirely successful movie. But with a committed Daniel Radcliffe in the lead, it’s a consistently intriguing one. Read full review
40
Village VoiceAmy NicholsonOct 28, 2014
Most oppressively, every inch of Horns is choked in religious metaphor that strangles the fun from the film. Aja clutters the movie with golden crosses and Garden of Eden snakes, but doesn't dare wrestle with the theology behind them — this is a snapshot of a steak, not a full meal. Read full review
40
Time Out LondonCath ClarkeOct 28, 2014
In the end Horns is weird without being interesting. Read full review
40
EmpireOlly RichardsOct 27, 2014
Long-shelved, the final product never lives up to the promise of its contemporary-Grimm-brothers conceit. Read full review
40
The GuardianHenry BarnesJul 14, 2014
Horns plays instead like a high concept beer advert – breezily stylish, memorable in its time, but a bit too full of gas. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsOct 30, 2014
A lot of the rougher stuff, depicting Ig's late-inning vengeance, is sadistically misjudged. It's hard to jerk tears a beat or two after gleeful rounds of brutality, even if it happens to, or because of, dear wee Daniel Radcliffe. Read full review
37
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanOct 30, 2014
Heedless of purpose, Horns charges full speed ahead anyway, ramming its high-concept hooey down your throat until the only heat you feel is from indigestion. Read full review
25
ObserverRex ReedOct 29, 2014
Based on an overly imaginative book by Stephen King’s son Joe Hill, it’s a movie that doesn’t exactly unfold as much as hyperventilate. Read full review
20
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternOct 30, 2014
Horns is uncertain in tone — most of its attempts at humor fall flat — and amateurish at best. Read full review
16
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezOct 31, 2014
When Horns thankfully concludes, relief sets in; this hellishly misguided effort concludes with an inferno and sequels are never sprung from the equivalent of a mouthful of ash. Read full review
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