Harry Potter no more, young British star Daniel Radcliffe is having a hell of a Toronto International Film Festival, starring determinedly in three very diverse features: he’s a hopeless romantic in “The F Word” opposite Zoe Kazan, a college-aged Allen Ginsberg in “Kill Your Darlings,” and a mourning lover confronting his very literal demons in Alexandre Aja’s “Horns.” We got to sit down with Radcliffe and his comely costar Juno Temple to talk about “Horns,” which is still looking for distribution.
In “Horns,” a devilish fairy tale set in the Edenic wilds of the Pacific Northwest, Radcliffe stars as Ig Perrish, accused of the brutal murder of his lifelong love, Merrin (a red-headed Juno Temple). Despite his protestations of innocence, his small town has mostly shunned him, aside from the we-love-you-anyway support of his parents (James Remar and Kathleen Quinlan), brother Terry (Joe Anderson), and best friend and lawyer Lee (Max Minghella). One day Ig wakes up with horns growing out of his head and finds that he’s now equipped with similarly devilish powers that go along with his new look.
Based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Joe Hill (a.k.a Stephen King’s son), “Horns” is a unique horror flick about the devil inside us all, and the film, adapted by one of the genre’s true prankster geniuses (Alexandre Aja of “Piranha 3D” infamy), carries forth the same nutzo spirit of the book, which is equal parts love story, murder mystery, and supernatural, metaphysical nightmare.
We sat down with Radcliffe and Temple at TIFF to discuss their on-screen love story, where they find metaphorical refuge, and the importance of embracing one’s own personal demons.