Horny Daniel’s a devilish delight
Harry Potter turns to the dark side – well, sort of – in the latest horror from Switchblade Romance and Piranha 3D director Alexandre Aja.
Daniel Radcliffe continues his efforts to move on from his time as the boy wizard by taking the lead role as the wonderfully named Ig Perrish.
Young Ig finds himself growing horns from his temples following the death of girlfriend Merrin ( Juno Temple) and the rest of the story follows his efforts to solve the terrifying mystery.
Keith Bunin, making his big-screen writing debut after work on TV’s In Treatment, adapts Joe “son of Stephen King” Hill’s novel of the same name. However, tonal shifts hamper this weird and wonderful work.
Part black comedy, part revenge thriller and part horror, Horns juggles too many different genres and, while it just about carries the load for most of the near two-hour running time, by the later stages, it becomes too jarring to get your head around.
Sections of the gruesome Hills Have Eyes remake aside, Aja has never really matched the breathtaking carnage of Switchblade Romance in his subsequent work, but he comes frustratingly close here.
From an idyllic, Eden-lite paradise morphing into booze, warped David Bowie and baying mobs opening, Horns looks and sounds great.
A suitably autumnal colour palette creates dream-like forest environments and frames murky morals, and Ig’s new devilish appendages and subsequent supernatural powers are gloriously rendered.
The film works best when small-town “Ignominy” comes to the fore and, more so, when people start acting crazy around Ig and begin divulging their deepest, darkest secrets.
Ig gets to find out the truth about his family and friends and the ironic thing is, he ends up being one of the least crazy characters on show.
Horns gives Radcliffe his meatiest role yet and he rises to the challenge with a committed turn trying to keep his sanity while everything around him goes to hell.
He also puts the snake-communicating skills he picked up in Harry Potter to good use – so those with a fear of the slithery reptiles might want to give this one a miss.
The supporting cast all do fine too. Temple makes for a seductive, fairy-like presence, David Morse is a coiled combination of grief and anger as Merrin’s dad Dale, The Social Network’s Max Minghella (Lee) shines once again and James Remar and Kathleen Quinlan (Ig’s parents) share some deliciously dark scenes with Radcliffe.
Flashbacks – including Stand By Me-like childhood escapades – help to unravel the mystery behind Ig’s past and Merrin’s murder but the pay-off is signposted long before its revelation.
Like a slightly superior version of Jennifer’s Body, Horns is a flawed but fun piece of horror/comedy that brings the fire and brimstone.