When people talk about "The Boy Who Lived" it will no longer refer to "Harry Potter" but instead it will mean Daniel Radcliffe, the boy who lived and survived out of the shadow of Mr. Potter and became a legitimate actor and star beyond his most famous role.
Since leaving Hogwarts he has continually impressed with his film and role choices and Horns is no different.
Here he plays a young man accused of the brutal murder of the woman he loved and becomes the town pariah. The people of the town see him as a devil and one morning he wakes up to find he has literally grown horns which provoke strange responses in the people he meets and decides to use this to solve the murder himself.
The film is based on novel by Joe Hill and if the plot sounds a bit like a Stephen King novel (something strange happens in a small town in middle America which causes evil, magic and murder) then it might be down to Joe Hill being Stephen King's son. Looks like some of that skill has transferred down a generation.
Radcliffe is excellent as the tortured man who has lost the love of his life and desires revenge, fuelled by an on-screen chemistry and bond with Juno Temple that is as strong as his American accent.
The premise for the movie has a lot of potential (the horns provoke people to reveal their innermost desires, secrets and thoughts to Radcliffe, sometimes to great comic effect) and for the first two-thirds of the film it is used effectively however it all gets a bit silly come the final act which is let down by the fact that the identity of the real killer will be obvious to many people from the outset (I even guessed it from a shot in the trailer).
It might not entirely live up to its potential but Horny Potter and the Temple Of Doom provides another showcase for Daniel to prove his career will be more Rad-cliffe than Boring-cliffe.
3 stars
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