The feature adaptation of Joe Hill's Horns makes its grand premiere tomorrow at the Toronto Film Festival. As exciting as that is, particularly for those of us who've been anticipating this movie since last year, which is when production wrapped on the film, we still haven't seen a trailer for the movie yet. On the bright side, the anticipated TIFF debut does shine a spotlight on the film, which will hopefully garner some positive buzz from the festival, and today comes a few new stills from the movie, all three of which show us Daniel Radcliffe as Ig Perrish, a man who finds himself sporting a set of mysterious horns that give him dark powers.
Hill's book centers on Ig, a man who wakes up a year after his girlfriend is brutally murdered to discover he's grown horns. He soon realizes that the horns allow him to draw people's deepest and sometimes darkest secrets and thoughts, whether he wants to or not. EW shared these new photos, the first of which shows us Ig getting examined by the doctor. Yes, other people can see the horns, but there's an interesting twist to that, at least in the book. Whether or not the movie explains how this guy is able to wander around with horns on his head and not draw a lot of stares remains to be seen.
It looks like the horns have grown a bit longer in this next photo, which shows Ig looking less anxious about his affliction than he does in the doctor photo:
And finally, we have this one, which shows us Radcliffe with his co-star Juno Temple, who plays Ig's girlfriend Merrin in the film.
Though the story picks up a year after Merrin's death, Hill spends a fair amount of time bringing us into the history of Merrin and Ig's relationship, which dates back to when they were kids. Understanding their relationship is a big part of the story and one of the things that makes Horns such an emotional novel, in addition to being a great, sometimes-twisted horror story and a truly satisfying read. Hill did a superb job of pacing the story, balancing suspense and mystery, while also setting up the history of the characters as we watch Ig attempt to use his horn-related abilities to uncover the truth about Merrin's death.
If you haven't read Horns yet, it's certainly worth a look, especially if you're a Stephen King fan. Hill is King's son, and on writing, creativity and the evident appreciation for taking the time to develop his characters, the figurative apple doesn't fall far from the tree. It'll be great to see what director Alexandre Aja has done with the adaptation and how Radcliffe does as Ig. In the meantime, we're still waiting for official word on a limited or wide release for Horns after TIFF. But if you are headed to Toronto this week, here's when the film will be showing at the festival:
Friday, September 6 - The Bloor Hot Docs Cinema - 6:00 p.m.
Sunday, September 8 - Scotiabank 4 - 1:00 p.m.
