The meaning of the film Horns (2014): explanation of the plot & ending. The Horns is based on the book of the same name by Joe Hill. This story includes a love line, friendship, betrayal, mysticism, religion. There is drama and humor here. This is a film adaptation that deserves to be watched. The meaning of the film “Horns” does not lie on the surface, the viewer needs to think about it.
Description of the story
Events unfold in a small town. The protagonist Ig Perrish (played by Daniel Radcliffe), while still a boy, meets the girl Merrin in the church. They have been together since childhood and seem like the perfect couple. One day, Ig is about to propose to his lover. They meet at a cafe, but Merrin reveals that he is leaving town and is turned down. Ig suggests that she cheated on him.
On a note! The actor Shia LaBeouf was originally planned for the role of Ig, but, apparently, the director liked the matured Harry Potter more.
The plot of the film “Horns” flares up after this meeting. After the girl left, Ig got drunk and fell asleep in the car. In the morning the police finds him and reports that the girl was brutally raped and killed. The main suspect in this situation is, of course, Ig.
The whole society is set against him, and even his parents with his brother Terry. And only Lee – an old faithful friend – supports him and believes in his innocence. After the first emotions subsided, Ig begins to feel wild anger. After all, Merrin was very pious, she wore a cross, and yet it did not help her.
The protagonist loses faith, faith in the good, in the just, faith in God. And this is one of the conflicts of this film. A conflict with oneself, with one’s worldview, when all the previous priorities in life shift. It is after this emotional shake-up that the horns appear on the head of Ig – as a symbol of the destroyed faith and the victory of internal demons.
No one was surprised by their appearance, just people in the presence of Ig began to behave very strangely, not hiding their true innermost desires and not being able to resist even the wildest of them. The doctor, who is seeing Ig about the horns, interrupts the session and retires with an assistant for love pleasures. His parents kick him out of the house, telling him straight to the face the whole hard truth that they do not believe in the innocence of their son.
The investigation, which is conducted independently by the protagonist, leads him to … his brother. Terry is revealed to have been Merrin’s pickup that night. Ig uses the power of his truth-cutting horns and learns that Terry, under the influence of alcohol, began to pester Merrin, she broke free and ran away. And in the morning, my brother woke up in the car with a bloody stone in his hand.
So Ig learns that it was his brother who was responsible for the death of the girl. Joe Hill got a surprise ending, didn’t he? But the thing is, it’s not over yet.
On a note! Joe Hill is the son of horror writer Stephen King.
Ending and hidden meaning
Ig notices Merrin’s cross on his friend Lee’s chest. Lee explains that he and the girl dated. Jealousy covers the eyes of the hero and in anger he tears off the cross from his friend’s neck. And lo and behold, left without protection, he falls under the influence of the horns, and the whole truth is immediately revealed.
Lee was in love with Merrin and was jealous of her since childhood. He decided that she broke up with Ig for him. When it turned out that this was not so, in a fit of jealousy, he raped her and hit her on the head with a stone. And then he threw the stone to Terry, and took the chain with him.
The way the Horn movie ended makes it clear that there will be no winners and losers in this tragic story. In the final battle of the two heroes, no one survives. But still, Ig finds peace in the place where his beloved died. This gives the viewer a chance to believe that the lovers will still be reunited in a better life. In one where there is no betrayal and anger, jealousy and lust, where desires and dreams are pure.
Interesting! The license plates of the characters in this film are directly related to what each of them is. And this is also the hidden meaning of the movie Horns:
- 2036LUK – the Yoke number – refers to the Gospel of Luke (“and they can no longer die, for they are equal to the Angels”);
- GEN 138 – Terry’s number – refers to Genesis (“let there be no strife between me and you, and between my shepherds and your shepherds, for we are relatives”);
- 2017EXS – Lee’s number – refers to the Exodus (“do not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his servant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, anything that your neighbor has”).
The meaning of the film “Horns” lies not only in the fact that each of us has good and evil. Everyone has their own masks, someone takes them off once, and someone diligently hides to the last. The director shows the naked souls of people with their dark sides, desires and sins. And what life will become if it is not controlled.
