Horns

This was made from a novel by Joe Hill, which is the name Stephen King’s oldest son writes under. Just thought I’d get that out of the way at the beginning. I respect him for not playing the “son-of” card until he had already established himself.

If the last twenty minutes or so were rewritten, this could have been a good scary movie. Daniel Radcliffe is in a living hell. His girlfriend has been murdered, and the entire little Northwest town believes he did it. TV trucks are actually following him around. Then one morning he wakes up and finds small horns growing from his head. Not everyone can see them, though, and none of those who do see them find anything strange about them. But they have a dramatic effect on people. They immediately start telling him their darkest fantasies, and acting on them. He can manipulate them. There is a very funny scene where he tells the hyena pack of reporters that he will give one of them an exclusive interview: the winner of a knock-down, no rules fistfight. They immediately start going at it like rabid dogs, which, when you think about “journalists” like that, they already resemble.

This is all developed very well. Not only does he find that his mother and father believe he is a murderer, but most of his so-called friends do, too, except for those who actually have something to hide about the killing.

And then there are those twenty minutes I mentioned earlier. It’s amazing how a stupid script can destroy such careful preparation almost instantly. One moment it had me, and the next it just lost it. Lee and I managed to pinpoint the very scene where it all went awry, descending into the jaw-droppingly stupid. Do not waste your time on this one. It’s very sad.