Horns (2014) never explicitly explains how Ig (Daniel Radcliffe) gets his horns or what his powers actually are. This supernatural horror film by Alexandre Aja is based on Joe Hill's book of the same name; it follows Ignatius Perrish as he mourns the death of his girlfriend, Merrin (Juno Temple). Throughout the film, he tries to bring her killer to justice, while most of the town believes that he is guilty of her murder—at times, even he is not sure of his own innocence. There are obvious connections to be made between Ig's horns and the religious themes of the film, and it is heavily implied that they have either a divine or a diabolical source—or both. Despite these obvious connections, however, most of their implications are open for interpretation.
As Ig's family and friends seemingly try to help him, he only becomes more and more despondent. He ends up violently disrespecting a vigil for Merrin after a night of heavy drinking, and to his surprise the next morning, he wakes up in bed next to his old friend Glenna (Kelli Garner), with whom he had sex the night before. That's not the only surprise of the day—he has also started to sprout horns from his forehead. They ache at the touch and are growing right before his eyes. At the same time, Glenna begins to behave strangely; she starts gorging herself on a box of donuts and confesses her desire to be fat, telling Ig that she is worthless and that no one finds her sexually attractive unless they're drunk, including him.
Thinking he's cursed, he leaves Glenna with the donuts and goes to his doctor's office to get the horns removed. Everyone there begins to behave just as bizarrely as Glenna, saying and doing things no normal person ever would. This continues to happen with all the townspeople Ig encounters throughout the film, and he soon realizes that it's the horns that are making people say and do these things. He then realizes that the horns give him powers that he can use to find Merrin's real killer. They ultimately help him to do just that, leading him to realize that they may be a blessing in disguise. By the end of the film, however, the exact source of Ig's horns and what his powers actually are remain a mystery.
How Ig Got His Horns & Powers Explained
Ig gets his horns the morning after he vandalizes Merrin's vigil and has sex with Glenna; thus, the film implies that he gets the horns as a punishment for that. However, this seems like a big price to pay for such a small infraction. It would be far more proportional to interpret the horns as a punishment for Merrin's murder, but this interpretation doesn't work either, as Ig is later exonerated of the crime. As a result, there is only one interpretation that even remotely makes any sense—Ig gets his horns as punishment for losing his faith in God.
Ig doesn't only vandalize Merrin's vigil in a moment of drunken weakness, he also curses God and desecrates a statue of a holy figure—most likely the Virgin Mary, arguably the most important Christian figure aside from Jesus himself. A desecration of this magnitude definitely seems worthy of the horns as punishment, which certainly could be the work of either God or the Devil, both of whom are known to punish wayward souls, but for different reasons. When Ig asks Father Mould (Jay Brazeau) to help him get rid of the horns, the priest wants nothing to do with him. He tells Ig that he has fallen from God's grace for murdering Merrin and that he did this to himself when he turned away from God, casting himself into the darkness.
Because Ig definitely didn't kill Merrin, the priest's explanation for the horns doesn't make sense. It does make sense in connection to Ig's act of desecration—by destroying the statue and cursing God, he removes himself from God's grace, an act usually deserving of severe punishment. This connection strongly implies that the horns are a result of Ig's lack of faith; however, it is not clear whether the horns have a diabolical source or a divine one. Given that Merrin's crucifix—the ultimate Christian symbol of God's power—seems to counteract the effects of the horns, even for Ig, it might seem that the horns do come from the Devil.
Additionally, Ig's horns give him powers usually attributed to the Devil, which also implies that the horns come from Hell rather than Heaven: his horns enable him to attract and control snakes (a common symbol of Satan), to convince people to give in to their base desires (commonly known as Satan's primary function), and to see people's prior sins. Although it seems almost certain that Ig got his horns from the Devil, there is some indication that they might also come from God.
The Dual Meaning Behind Ig's Horns
Despite the evidence to the contrary, Ig ultimately decides that his horns are a blessing, not a curse, implying that they come from a divine source. This is further implied by the fact that Ig also uses his powers to fulfill roles usually ascribed to God, such as judging wrongdoers: he judges the waitress (Heather Graham) for her lies, his brother Terry (Joe Anderson) for his cowardice, and ultimately his best friend Lee (Max Minghella) for Merrin's rape and murder. Therefore, despite the seemingly infernal nature of the horns, they do also have a connection to the divine: Ig uses his horns to become a judge of souls, an avenger, and a savior. In these ways, he personifies various attributes of not only the Devil, but also God, which ultimately means the horns are actually both a curse and a blessing, essentially a collaboration between the two powers.
In Judaism and Christianity, horns represent both the strength of God and goodness as well as the strength of God's enemies and evil; they represent the power of the truth as well as the power of falsity. Horns represent the Devil, who is often depicted as a horned creature. In cases like the Shofar in Judaism, horns are used in religious ceremonies and are also a symbol of God's message—as in the horn of Gabriel, who is God's messenger as well as the patron saint of messengers, and whose name means "God is my strength".
This dual nature of Ig's horns might seem like a contradiction and even a flaw in the film's story. However, contradictory relationships between God and the Devil are often found in supernatural horror films that feature religious elements like angels and demons. Compared to common religious understanding, movies like The Prophecy (1995), Constantine (2005), and The Devil's Advocate (1997) take just as many liberties as Horns does in terms of how the rulers of Heaven and Hell conduct their business on Earth—thus making the film's seeming contradiction more of a rule than an exception.