“Horns” would seem like another gamble, and another opportunity to stretch. It’s a supernatural thriller, territory he’s familiar with, but taken to a raunchy, grotesque extreme. But director Alexandre Aja, whose background is mostly in straight-up horror (“High Tension,” “The Hills Have Eyes”), has trouble navigating the shifts between broad humor and intense scares. At the same time, some of the most entertaining moments come in the form of wildly graphic violence, reminiscent of Aja’s hilariously campy “Piranha 3D,” but there’s so much else happening here that those images almost feel like they belong in another movie. There are some clever ideas in the script from Keith Bunin, based on the novel by Joe Hill, but they get mixed up in some awkward tonal juggling.
Radcliffe stars as Ignatius Perris, a young man who’s wrongfully suspected in the gruesome killing of his childhood sweetheart, the ethereally beautiful Merrin (Juno Temple, who–like Radcliffe–is effectively suppressing her English accent). Merrin is found with her head bashed in, lying at the foot of the tree house that was her hideaway with Ig, in the forest of a bleakly scenic Washington logging town. Nothing he says or does to clear his name works; with narrative glimmers of “Gone Girl” (but precious little of the subtlety), all evidence points to him. And the fact that the hard-drinking Ig can’t remember exactly what happened because he was hammered that night doesn’t help his cause.
So he bitterly chooses to accept the role of villain, and in a twisted take on the wish fulfillment of “Freaky Friday,” wakes up one morning to find that horns–actual, literal horns–have sprouted from his forehead. They hurt, as you would imagine, but they also bring another unexpected side effect: They cause everyone around him, from his family to his friends to complete strangers, to confess long-held secrets and desires. The only one who doesn’t see the horns (and still acts normally around him) is his longtime best friend, Lee (Max Minghella), who also happens to be the public defender assigned to represent him.
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