Horns

Alexandre Aja, a director well known for his impressive catalogue of horror films including The Hills Have Eyes, directs this darkly comic tale starring Daniel Radcliffe. Based on the novel of the same name by Joe Hill (Stephen King’s son), Horns follows the story of a young man wrongfully accused of the rape and murder of his girlfriend.
Radcliffe plays Ig Perrish, a man who has become the outcast of his community having escaped conviction. In spite of the lack of evidence, both the police and the locals all take it as read that Ig was responsible. When Ig starts to grow what looks like a painful set of horns on his forehead, a manifestation of the evil of which he stands accused, the film takes a paranormal turn. It is soon discovered that these horns allow Ig to reach into the innermost, darkest thoughts of anyone whom he meets. The ability is both a blessing and a curse - a curse because he now discovers that deep down both his mother and father believe him to be a killer; and a blessing, because this new power will give him the edge he needs to unearth the true identity of his childhood sweetheart’s killer.
Though billed as a supernatural black comedy, it is clear there is something more to Aja’s movie. The biblical references to the couple’s prelapsarian, Edenic existence prior to the murder are overt. Told through a series of flashbacks Radcliffe’s relationship with Merrin, played by Juno Temple (The Dark Knight Rises, Atonement) is a sincere and romantic one. Nevertheless, Aja’s scare-credentials are put to good use and by the final chapter, the story transforms into a full blown horror.