One of the more hotly anticipated movies that will make its splashy
premiere at the Toronto International
Film Festival (for us, at least) is Alexandre
Aja‘s “Horns,” an
adaption of the silly, surreal, scary-as-hell novel by Joe Hill (a.k.a., Stephen King‘s
son). Now a trio of new photos from the film has debuted (courtesy of Entertainment Weekly), featuring the Boy Who
Lived Daniel Radcliffe rocking some
pretty devilish nubs.
The film, premiering tonight, features Radcliffe as a young man who, a
year before, was suspected of his girlfriend’s vicious murder. One day he wakes
up to discover horns protruding from his forehead. As his supernatural odyssey
wears on, the horns become larger and more … powerful … as he starts to feel the
power of the devil himself. There’s a great scene where the character is
covered by a blanket of slithering snakes (since he grew his horns they seem to
follow his orders); we really hope that moment is in the movie.
It’ll be interesting to see if Aja, whose gore-soaked oeuvre includes
“High Tension,” the “Hills Have Eyes” remake, and
“Piranha 3D,” can handle
some of the story’s dreamier elements (like the flashbacks between Radcliffe
and Juno Temple as the murdered
girlfriend) or if he’ll focus primarily on the supernatural horror and
detective story elements. The film has a strong supporting cast in James Remar, Kelli Garner, Joe Anderson,
and Max Minghella, and Hill’s novel
was pretty unforgettable. Hopefully Aja, who is one of the smartest and most
subversive directors working in the horror genre, can make an adaptation that’s
just as haunting and bizarre.