When an actor is so closely associated with one particular character as Daniel Radcliffe is with Harry Potter, it is very difficult to watch them play any other role without their iconic character rising inexorably to the surface and obscuring their current performance. After tonight's eye-popping movie watch, however, I think it highly unlikely that I shall ever again view the afore-mentioned Mr Radcliffe in any future role without seeing not only his Hogwarts magician's hat and wand but also a pair of decidedly devilish horns sprouting from his forehead! And the reason why? Because the movie that I watched tonight was – yes, you've guessed it! – Horns.
Directed and co-produced by Alexandre Aja, based upon the 2010 fantasy novel of the same title by Joe Hill (novelist son of Stephen King), set in the USA's Washington State but filmed in British Columbia, Canada, and released in 2013 by Dimension Films, Horns is as twisted as the lead character's eponymous outgrowths – a surreal, way-out-there fantasy/horror movie with lashing of dark humour and touching scenes of tender romance thrown in at no extra cost. Moreover, unlike all too many movies that try to encapsulate a variety of different genres but fail miserably in the undertaking, Horns succeeds admirably with all of them.
The basic plot focuses upon mid-20s Ig (short for Ignatius) Perrish (played by Radcliffe), who stands accused (albeit with no tangible evidence) by almost his entire community of having murdered his lifelong girlfriend Merrin Williams (Juno Temple) following a very public and entirely uncharacteristic falling-out between them at a diner on the night of her death, just before he was about to propose marriage to her. Ig's only supporters are his older brother Terry (Joe Anderson) and Lee (Max Minghella), who has been his best friend ever since childhood and is now acting as his lawyer. Following a candlelit vigil in honour of Merrin, led by her father and attended by many community members but at which Ig dare not show his face, a very drunken Ig desecrates her memorial and beds a waitress.
The next morning Ig wakes up thoroughly ashamed of himself, but that is not the worst of his problems. When he looks in the mirror, he discovers to his shock and horror that a pair of devil horns have sprouted from his forehead! But these are not 'ordinary' horns (if any such horns can ever be deemed ordinary!), because Ig soon finds that anyone he talks to now is compelled to confess to him their innermost, darkest desires and secrets, and also do whatever he tells them to do.
In addition, if Ig makes deliberate physical contact with someone, he can directly see their recent activities. And as if these horn-engineered talents were not sufficiently startling, Ig realises that wherever he goes, snakes inexplicably appear all around him, though they are totally amicable to him, and he finds that he can even communicate with them telepathically to do his bidding (just like a certain boy magician could, if I remember correctly!).
After some hilarious and occasionally hair-raising experiences while learning how these newly-acquired abilities work, Ig suddenly has a lightbulb moment – he can use them to make people confess what they truly know about Merrin's murder and thereby uncover the real culprit. So this is what he does, which leads him down an increasingly dark pathway of discovery, amid revelations that he would sooner not have uncovered, such as his mother actually wanting him to go away and to disown him, with his father saddened only by Merrin's death, not by Ig's plight as her wrongly-accused killer.
Eventually, however, matters reach a truly horrific climax when Ig's horn-given gifts of exposing the truth finally unmask Merrin's real murderer. They also assist in providing him with the true, tragic reason for that explosive, wholly atypical argument with her during what would prove to be their final fateful meeting.
The ultimate confrontation between Ig and
Merrin's killer is totally demonic, albeit for very different reasons! But I
won't give any spoilers, other than to warn those of an ophiophobic tendency
that the murderer's fate will definitely be one of those look-away-now scenes
for them. For although most of the snakes in this scene are CGI-created, they
are disturbingly realistic, and what they do – and where they go – in relation
to their victim is, well...let's just say that the latter gets their comeuppance, in every sense! And if you've ever seen the gory orgiastic denouement of the 1989 horror movie Society, you'll know exactly what I mean by that!
Moving swiftly on, be sure to take note if you can of the registration plates on several vehicles prominently visible in Horns, because each one comprises an abbreviated reference to a passage from the Bible, each plate referencing a different passage, but all of them relevant in some way to events occurring in this film.
Horns is unquestionably one of the strangest but most engrossing movies that I've seen for a very long time, with Radcliffe an absolute tour de force throughout it (Joe Hill, author of the novel on which this movie is based, has also praised him for his performance). And if his brow-borne accessories are not sufficient in themselves to distinguish Daniel R from Harry P, his frequent, emphatic use of the F word in his role as Ig should certainly assist greatly in this distancing – but in view of Ig's traumatic travails on so many different levels, understandably tempers fray as tempus fugit. Interestingly, Shia LaBeouf was first choice to play Ig, but much that I admire his acting, I feel that the casting team made the right choice with Radcliffe.
The horror magazine Scream has described Horns as "Dark, slick, and enormously entertaining", and I entirely agree with that pronouncement on all three counts. So if you'd like to lock horns with a preview of this phantasmagorical film, click here to view an official trailer for it on YouTube.
Finally, as a piece of totally trivial trivia: watching Horns tonight brought to mind an offbeat teenage novel that I'd read quite some time ago, so had all but forgotten about. Written by John Brindley and published in 2000, it was entitled Rhino Boy, and concerned a youth called Ryan who was forever bullying and picking upon others at school, until one day he woke up to discover a huge rhinoceros-like horn growing out of the centre of his brow! Now, suddenly, the behavioural tables had been turned upon him, and Ryan was the youth being picked upon by others for being different. Here's the eyecatching front cover of the paperback edition I'd read:
To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.
No comments:
Post a Comment