Daniel Radcliffe to star in Horns for director Alexandre Aja

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

In his biggest departure from the Harry Potter character since he performed in EQUUS on stage, Daniel Radcliffe will star in the horror-thriller HORNS for director Alexandre Aja.

Plot: Merrin Williams is dead, slaughtered under inexplicable circumstances, leaving her beloved boyfriend Ignatius Perrish as the only suspect. On the first anniversary of Merrin’s murder, Ig spends the night drunk and doing awful things. When he wakes the next morning he has a thunderous hangover . . . and horns growing from his temples. Ig possesses a terrible new power to go with his terrible new look—a macabre gift he intends to use to find the monster who killed his lover. Being good and praying for the best got him nowhere. Now it’s time for revenge . . .It’s time the devil had his due. . . .

HORNS was written by Joe Hill, son of Stephen King. After Hill’s excellent debut novel HEART-SHAPED BOX (also in development), I was excited for this one. I read it in just over six hours and loved every minute of it. It is definitely a revenge fantasy but shares a lot of similarities with King’s novels like STAND BY ME and IT. Radcliffe did not fully convince me that he can act outside of JK Rowling’s universe with his turn in THE WOMAN IN BLACK. HORNS will require a much more visceral performance. The Ig character literally transforms from a good guy to a devil.

Director Aja sees HORNS as a character driven metaphysical and emotional fable with the structural bones of a mystery/revenge thriller. He says, “After reading Joe Hill’s cult book, I couldn’t resist temptation to dive into the devilish underworld and reinvent a universal myth. ‘Horns’ is a wild ride of sin and crime, with a love story in its heart.”

No other casting was announced, but production is slated to begin this fall. Alexandre Aja and screenwriter Keith Bunin (IN TREATMENT) have their work cut out for them. This is going to be a very interesting project to watch.