Alexandre Aja

‘Horns’ is all over the place

Daniel Radcliffe could not be doing more to dispel his Harry Potter image that so many movie fans still hold onto. From ages 12 to 22 Radcliffe personified the beloved children’s book character, but he’s moving on. He’s played beat icon Allen Ginsberg, he’s played a cynical romanticist, and he’s played a terrorized attorney. Based on the novel by Joe Hill, Horns, is truly the cherry on top of the typecast-busting sundae because no one will be thinking about Potter when they see this.

TIFF 2013: ‘Horns’ is a morbid and miserable supernatural YA love story with R-rated special effects

Based on the Joe Hill novel, Horns is about a young man (Daniel Radcliffe) who sprouts horns after his ex-girlfriend (Juno Temple) is murdered and raped. In the hands of director Alexandre Aja (The Hills Have Eyes), one would hope for a mind-bending horror story about good and evil, with a special emphasis on the latter. Unfortunately, with an underdeveloped adapted screenplay (the first feature from screenwriter Keith Bunin), Horns falls short and at best, may become some decent late-night popcorn fodder with a few quotable-because-they’re-awkward lines and a charred-up Daniel Radcliffe with horns.

6-maniac

‘Maniac’: Technically proficient, morally deficient

The 1980 film Maniac was a Z-grade slasher film, more or less, trying to make a quick buck in the era of Halloween and Friday the 13th. It is not immediately apparent why Alexandre Aja (The Hills Have Eyes, High Tension) would want to produce a remake of it, nor is it immediately apparent what French director Franck Khalfoun is trying to say with that remake. All that is apparent is this: you won’t see another film like Maniac this year, and you will not want to.

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