Horns Movie Review: Harry Potter Was Never Like This!

DANIEL RADCLIFFE continues to reinvent his career to veer away from his Harry Potter image. In “Horns”, he plays someone who smokes, drinks, swears and later grows horns on his head. He’s the second movie character to have horns this year, the first one being “Maleficent”.
In “Horns”, he plays Ignatius Perrish or Ig, a guy in love with Merrin Williams (Juno Temple) since childhood. On the night he proposes to her, she dumps him. In tears, he leaves her in a diner and goes to a bar to get drunk. The bartender, Glenna (Kelli Garner), who has long had a crush on him, takes him drunk to her home for a one night stand.

He learns later that Merrin has been raped and killed. Everyone thinks he’s the one who did it. Then two gnarled horns sprout on his head (move over, Hellboy.) People see his horns, but they seem to quickly forget about it. He soon learns that he has acquired the power to make people in their small town open themselves up to him and reveal their deep dark secrets and desires. This results into some funny sequences, with even the town priest and his own mom confessing to him.

Ig also got the power to make people do his will, like in a funny scene where he makes media people wanting to interview him fight each other. The film is also a murder mystery, so he likewise gets to use his power to discover who the real killer is. His music producer dad, tells him to get a top lawyer but he chooses an old friend, Lee (Max Minghella), because Lee believes that he is really innocent.
Flashback scenes reveal his past relationship with Merrin dating back to childhood. Only one person is not affected by Ig’s power and this leads to a flashback about a happening involving a dare that mutilated its victim and eventually leads to the identity of the killer.

The film has some good plot twists, impressive special effects and it does carry a valid message about truth, love and the power of forgiving. In all fairness to Daniel, he’s quite splendid as the tormented hero who brings sympathy and understanding to his complex role. He is even devilishly good looking with his horns. Harry Potter was never like this. He is ably supported by Kathleen Quinlan and James Remar as his doubting parents, Joe Anderson as his older brother, Heather Graham as a waitress who knows what happened to Merrin and David Morse as Merrin’s grieving dad.

The film, based on a novel by Joe Hill (son of Stephen King) and helmed by French director Alexander Aja (best known for gory flicks like “Piranha”, “Hills Have Eyes” remake, “High Tension”), uses some satanic symbols like serpents and the familiar pitchfork that give the film its humorous kick.