After playing the beloved title character in the Harry Potter franchise, Daniel Radcliffe took on some cool and different roles, like Ignatius "Ig" Perrish in the 2013 horror movie Horns. Although the movie wasn't a huge hit with critics, it does tell an interesting story about what happens when a young man realizes that, as the title suggests, he has horns on his head, and he has no idea why.
Horror movie fans and Daniel Radcliffe fans alike will enjoy Horns, which tells a dark story about a young man in a horrifying situation that he doesn't know how to get out of. What happens during Horns and why is it such a good adaptation of the novel by Joe Hill? And is the ending satisfying?
What Is Horns About?
Horns begins with Ignatius "Ig" Perrish learning that his girlfriend Merrin Williams (Juno Temple) has been killed in a brutal way and that everyone believes that he did it. After he spends time with his family, he gets up in the morning and realizes that he has horns. But while he's terrified, shocked, and confused, Ig realizes that people tell him things that they would never dare share with anyone else because of the horns.
Ig is a Daniel Radcliffe character different from Harry Potter and for that reason alone, Horns is a cool movie to check out. But the movie also asks deep questions about appearances, morality, love, and death. Horns follows Ig's journey of trying to find out who killed Merrin. He learns many clues along the way and more bits and pieces of Merrin's life are revealed.
In this underappreciated Daniel Radcliffe movie, the beloved actor's character feels terrible about what happened to his girlfriend and is a sympathetic character. But Horns does have an incredibly dark tone that often suggests that something sinister is happening inside of his mind. This keeps things interesting the whole way through.
What Is Horns Based On?
The 2013 horror movie Horns is based on the 2010 novel of the same name by Joe Hill, one of Stephen King's two sons. The author has published four novels: Heart-Shaped Box in 2007, Horns in 2010, NOS4A2 in 2013, and The Fireman in 2016. While there are some poor movies based on Stephen King's books, Horns is a great adaptation. Since the book explores Ig's thoughts and emotions more, it's the perfect companion. Fans of the book should definitely read the novel and vice versa.
The Horns novel has many similarities to the movie. In both versions of the story, Ig finds out who killed his girlfriend Merrin and learns more about how powerful he becomes when the horns are part of his body. Hill decided to organize the Horns book into five parts, and they each go into more detail than the film adaptation, which is what tends to happen. While Joe Hill and Stephen King co-wrote the short story In The Tall Grass and the Netflix movie is lackluster, the Horns movie follows the book closely enough to please fans.
How Does Horns End?
Horns ends with Ig wearing a cross that belonged to Merrin and then realizing that his horns have gone away. Ig finds out that Merrin wanted to marry him, but because she had cancer, she felt that it would be wrong to continue in such a serious relationship. She lied to him about having another partner. Ig finds out that his good friend Lee Tourneau (Max Minghella) is the one who killed Merrin. Lee attacks Ig's brother Terry (Joe Anderson) and murders his friend Eric Hannity (Michael Adamthwaite).
While some horror movie endings satisfy, Horns is incredibly sad and dark. And while audiences might want to see Ig doing well with hope for the future despite the tragedy that he has endured, that doesn't feel realistic for this type of story. The last scene in Horns is a confrontation between Ig and Lee. Because they were such close friends, this moment is shocking and upsetting. Horns is a good example of a horror movie with an unconventional main character as it's hard to say that any other fictional horror character has been in the same situation as Ig.
At the end of Horns, Ig wants to stop Lee and realizes that removing the cross necklace is the only way to do so. When he takes it off, he becomes a demon that has wings. Ig dies, but not before murdering Lee by making him swallow a snake and hurting him with a horn. This is definitely a violent and gruesome scene, but one that makes sense within the context of the movie. While it would have been nice to see Ig survive since he has been through so much, the ending of Horns proves that Ig has been taken over by something greater than himself. The end of Horns makes it a horror movie about demonic possession and it's definitely memorable.