"I'll love you for the rest of my life," Ig Parish (Daniel Radcliffe) tells his doomed one true love, Merrin Williams (Juno Temple)
"Just love me for the rest of mine." she responds.
We get to know Iggy and Merrin from the moment they meet (in church, as a tween Merrin signals Ig in Morse by reflecting the sun off her cross necklace), to the first time they make love (in a little treehouse they found in the woods, all their own, she dances to Bowie in a silky, see-through dress), to the moment she broke up with him hours before her mysterious rape / murder at the foot of that very same treehouse.
Ig was blackout drunk and doesn't remember the night she died. All he knows is that he didn't do it. Then one morning he wakes up with devilish horns growing out of his forehead, with the uncanny ability to make people act out and confess their innermost sins.
The rest of his town believes Iggy killed Merrin. What they don't know is that he's prepared to go through hell to prove his innocence, and maybe exact a little vengeance on the side.
"Horns," based off Joe Hill's 2010 novel of the same name, has two sides. The first is a darkly comedic character piece. Ig is unimpressive, an average guy who has an above-average girlfriend. Her death sends him into a drunken stupor. Even his own family doesn't even believe his innocence. "Merrin was the best thing about you," his Dad tells him, when faced with the Horns' power. Radcliffe does a fantastic job playing Ig. He's wounded, hurt, raw, low. As Ig learns to use the power of the horns, he starts to enjoy it, and comes to realize he can give people what they want.
The scenes where he does, in fact, give the townspeople what they want are the highlight of the film. A doctor who wants to steal drugs; a barkeep who wants to burn his bar; reporters willing to murder each other for an exclusive. Iggy's sometimes-passive descent into darkness is a joy to watch.
While the comedy and central character are golden, everything else about "Horns" is a bit half-baked. Merrin, the center of the story, rarely becomes more than the beautiful girl beloved by everyone. Her depth is largely due to Temple's performance. Terry (Joe Anderson), Iggy's much more successful brother, and Lee (Max Minghella), are the only two characters in the story with motive, but feel underdeveloped. Because of this, the murder mystery at the heart of the story never really takes off. The plot puts Iggy in interesting interactions with other characters but never allows those other characters to shine. It doesn't flesh them out, make them real. At times, this makes the rest of the story feel silly. Aside from the death of Merrin, the human cost becomes nebulous, certain plot twists a little on the cartoonish side.
Full disclosure: I'm a fan of the novel, and it was hard to watch the movie without little bits of "Oh, why did they choose this?" running through my head. But I'm not a purist; I enjoy a good adaptation as long as it hits the key rule: Capture the spirit. "Horns," the novel, contained a lot more human horror. One character in particular was utterly despicable, in a very relatable and human way. He's less so in the movie, a shadow of his former self. It was in his utter inhumanity that we saw the larger shape of the story, the central "Devil" or "Angel" metaphor in Iggy's arc. What makes someone a "Devil?" Is a "Devil" really evil, or is that just our bias towards Judeo-Christian mythologies? The film doesn't raise those questions.
On its own, "Horns" is a pretty decent movie with some standout performances and great comedy, but a strangely flat story. If you're a fan of Radcliffe or Temple, the movie is worth the price of admission just to see them. If you're a fan of the book, be forewarned that the film is a different beast all its own, with changes for better and for worse.
"Horns" is available now on Video On Demand and iTunes. It hits theaters on October 31.