“Horns” hit theaters this Halloween weekend.
The Radius-TWC release is based on the book written by Joe Hill, son of the award winning author, Stephen King. It stars Daniel Radcliffe, Juno Temple, and Max Minghella. It is a film perfect for the Halloween season, complete with references to the underworld and devilish appearances. The film is more of a supernatural thriller than horror film. Daniel Radcliffe, who plays Iggy, the main character, searches to uncover the truth of his girlfriend, Merrin’s, rape and murder. Assisted by the protrusions from his skull, he embarks on a journey to piece together the untold tales of the series of unfortunate events that occurred. The story is similar to a Shakespearean tragedy about star crossed lovers and their decisions. Iggy spends the duration of the film trying to uncover the truth about not only the death of his beloved, but also the truth behind her actions. He then goes on a quest to exact revenge on the perpetrators of this horrible tragedy. However, be cautious if you have a weak stomach, accompanying the search for the truth are gory splatters and explosions, which are up close and personal. The language of this movie is especially graphic and colorful with crude humor that the R-rated audience will enjoy.
Examiner.com was on the red carpet for the Los Angeles premiere of the film at ArcLight Hollywood, which was hosted by Pax by Ploom and featured a fun after-party at Wood & Vine. Read what author Joe Hill had to say about seeing his book come to life.
What was it like seeing your writing come to life?
Joe Hill: I mean I feel like every writer says the same thing about this. You carry a story around in your head for 2 or 3 years and it only exists in your imagination and then one day they’re making a film out of it, and you’re wandering around the set seeing all these places that only existed in your mind. It’s a dizzying, exciting, thrilling, bewildering experience. It was very cool.
Did you develop the characters with the actors?
Joe Hill: I just think that actors can be so brave and so crazy, you know they commit to doing these things emotionally in front of cameras that most of us can’t bear to even do in front of our loved ones. They show a level of emotion and heart and vulnerability … and I just think that’s so incredible. Especially Dan Radcliffe and Juno Temple, they do such brave exciting and wonderful things here.
As an author, what was it like seeing bits and pieces of the book cut from the final film?
Joe Hill: You know I didn’t really worry about that too much. If a movie tries to be too faithful to a book, too exactingly faithful, you wind up with something that is dead on the screen. The book was the book and I told my version of the story. This is Alexandre Aja’s version of this story. So he has to make it dance. You know he has to make live it on the screen, that means he has to make choices about what will play visually and what material won’t. And I think he made good choices right up and down the line.
-Vivian Chen
