Horns
I kind of feel sorry for Daniel Radcliffe. Since he’s been 11, he’s always been the boy wizard, the boy who lived - the Harry Potter. Pushing aside the fact that he is loaded for the rest of his life, living off the royalties of false glasses and a made up scar, he’ll also always be known as Potter no matter how far away from the role he goes. And he’s had to grow up knowing fame in all its glory and heinousness, having to develop his talents from pubescent child to adult under lots of scrutiny. That’s a pretty unfair life to live. After all, most artists have the work of their teens hidden away, probably in a six foot grave, locked in a box and guarded by a three-headed dog. Heck, I found my entire folder of hormonal teen poetry and nearly locked myself away from the embarrassment.
Anyway, credit where it’s due, Radcliffe has develop marvellous into a formidable actor who, ok, sometimes may feel awkward to watch but has proven time, and time again, that he is a fantastic, unique talent.
None more so than last year’s horror fantasy flick Horns.
Based on a book by Joe Hill, Horns revolves around Ig Parrish, a young man whose beloved Merrin is found raped and murdered by an unknown suspect. Being the last person she spoke too, and even then it was a hefty fight, Ig is scorned by his small lakeside town and blamed for the killing. One day, after getting drunk and pissing on her memorial (honestly, he was aiming at God and religion soo…), he wakes up with horns and the ability to get people to reveal their darkest, angriest secrets. Unable to turn back from his transformation, Ig uses his new skill to hunt down the actual killing, absolve his name, and find who really killed Merrin.
Why is it Bad?
Very much like the book, the narrative is heinously sloppy. Mainly because it cannot figure out what type of story it is trying to tell. Is this a fantastical horror told in the modern era or is this a thriller but with some horny bits in the middle? Shipping and shaping through the past too doesn’t offer anymore coherence and it’s rather ham-handed in delivery. Also, much like the book, it slaps you over the head with the themes such as heaven, hell, and a devil that walks the Earth. Eventually, you get sick of the story and want to use Ig’s horns to force some sort of conclusion here as it warily strings itss plot together.
Why is it Good?
Daniel Radcliffe as the devil is a truly entertaining watch and the boy turned man beast is a fiery watch indeed. Wrapping his tongue seamlessly around the American dialect, Radcliffe is also able to convey all the emotion of Ig including despair, anger, cockiness, and then accepts his new stance as pariah and wields his new power with trembling assured rage. Radcliffe captures this astonishingly well. Also, watching all these people fight and crumbling to their shadowy desires that spew from their words like poison. It’s a glorious watch in these moments.
The thing about Horns is that it is enthralling from start to finish. Part of that is because it relies on the “whodunit” elements that, unlike the book, are revealed later on to keep you guessing. There is also some whopping special effects to keep you occupied and undercovers humanities sickness in a trippy whirlwind kind of way. Horns may not be a perfect film, but like the book, it has a soul that is battling for its righteousness.