Daniel Radcliffe stars in an adaptation of Joe Hill’s novel Horns.Doane Gregory
In which Daniel Radcliffe grows a pair. And in which an adaptation of the fanciful Joe Hill novel 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.
As Eve might say, how do you like them apples? Horns, shot in drizzly British Columbia, has a pleasingly moist look to it, and horror-meister Alexandre Aja has film-boy fun by doing such things as having a highway sign with Bedford Falls on it. But the flashback-loving narrative, about a young man (Harry Potter's Radcliffe, all growed up) attempting to clear himself of the allegation that he murdered his girlfriend, is inexplicable.
Radcliffe's Ignatius (Ig) Perrish sprouts protuberances on each side of his forehead, which prompts people in his presence to admit their deeply tucked evils.
The honesty instigates all sorts of (purposely) hilarious scenes and uncomfortable ugly confessions. The talented Radcliffe acts the hell out of his role, perhaps exorcizing some demons of his own as he ventures in his post-Potter world. And while he's watchable as an adult, the campy-fun but pointless Horns is not something upon which he'll want to hang his hat.
Brad Wheeler