SDCC 2014: 'Horns' Set To Kill This Halloween
Sophia Ritchie ‘16 / Emertainment Monthly Writer
Aja, Radcliffe, and Hill spoke of it’s exciting potential at a press conference during this year’s San Diego Comic Con.
Daniel, the subject of the story is very dark. Did you have reservations about taking this on? Also, what sort of challenges did you go through preparing for the role?
Daniel Radcliffe: I didn’t have any reservations about the darkness of the movie. Even Harry Potter had quite a lot of darkness in it. And doing things like Equus and Cripple of Inishmaan, I like getting involved in that sort of stuff.
In terms of challenges for the movie, it’s a challenging part. There’s a lot to mine in terms of what he’s gone through prior to the beginning of the film, even then, as he’s going through it. I break down the script in a way that I would approach anything. And then there were, this is a bit more superficial, a lot of fun challenges, like the prosthetics, which is mainly a challenge of just staying still for me.
The film is a fine balance between the darkness of Ig’s new demonic persona and also his attempt to prove his innocence. From each of your three perspectives, having had a different hand in the film, how did you try to balance between those two, or how did you want to upset that balance?
Joe Hill: I think the story is less about a murder mystery, less of a whodunit, and more of a thought problem. What would it be like to know the worst in the people you love? To be faced with their worst secrets, their ugliest secrets, ugliest temptations. What would that do to you? Could you hold onto your decency? Could you still love them? And in the course of the story, Ig suffers a lot from the things he learns about the people around him. He endures a lot of punishment. I do think decency is resilient, and one of the things, even though the film and story take us to some pretty dark places, I do think there is a suggestion there that you can love people even when you know their worst, and maybe not in spite of, but because of their flaws. I think that’s sort of hopeful.
Alexandre Aja: You were talking about the demonic new personality, but in fact, he’s not changing himself. He’s physically transforming into the devil, but he’s still the only character that’s staying himself through the whole movie. It’s the world around him that turns into hell, not himself. And it’s really about that trip through the fire, that’s really interesting for the character.
DR: There is always something more interesting about a part that is multi-faceted and has a dark side and is more true to life. Even in this very heightened world that we’re in in the film, he’s a true-anti hero. He is absolutely good and you should root for him and you should be with him all the way, but that’s not to say he doesn’t do some questionable things. But he questions them. It’s not without consequence. He learns from that, so that he can, in some sense, be redeemed by the end.
JH: One thing you see in a lot of film today is movies and stories that really only take you to one place. That really only do one thing. Horror movies that are only just scary, and action films that are only about buildings exploding. It’s interesting to me that, in the coruse of the novel, Ig experiences a lot emotionally. Grief, rage, despair, delight, magnus, and the film took him to all those places and refused to just stay in one box.
Ig covers this huge emotional landscape in the course of the book, and Dan went to all those places in the course of his performance, and made it look easy. I always think whenever you see an artist do something difficult and make it look effortless, you’re seeing the result of seeing someone who has worked very, very hard, harder than the people around him. I count us very lucky that Dan decided he wanted to take on the part, it’s a big reason why I think the film is successful.
DR: It’s obviously an amazing book, and the adaptation of the book into script was fantastic. I like things that take an idea that everyone can relate to in some way…not necessarily being accused of murdering your girlfriend, but the idea of being an outsider, loneliness, coping with loss, and finding a really original, crazy way to deal with that topic. People want to talk about this film as being fantasy or horror, but I’ve always seen it as magical realism, in the sense that most of the world is very grounded in reality, except for this one very fantastical thing in the middle of it.
It seems like when the truth starts coming out [in the film], the people who are telling the truth seem like they don’t even understand the words they’re saying. How was that discussed that with [the stars] in their scenes?
AA: Really, the effect of the horns is very particular in a way that somehow, you forget about them. And then you have that rush of sharing the worst thoughts you have inside, and in fact, seek the blessing of Ig to say, “Yeah, it’s okay.” It’s this kind of reaction that’s almost like an excitement. That is the note I was giving to the other characters, “You have to share the worst things as an excitement. You’re almost happy to reveal these awful things!”
JH: And then you wanna do more. Confession is good for the soul.
There’s a specific sequence in the movie where Ig embraces the horns. It involves some reporters, it’s the start of a dark comedic turn in the movie. What was the inspiration for that scene specifically?
AA: For me, the book and the movie are so intertwined right now, that I feel that everything in the movie is in the book. That’s not the case for that scene, but when we had that in the script it was such an obvious, great manifestation and moment for [Dan’s] character. Being followed for so many days by the press, to just turn and use the power against them. It was just a really fun moment. And I think that Dan enjoyed it a lot.
JH: Whenever a scene is exciting, it’s always because there’s a little explosion of awesome somewhere in the middle of that scene. That explosion always has to come from character. You can’t stick it in with CGI, it’s not a trick of lighting, you can’t do it with editing. It has to come organically out of character. If you look at the Avengers, and Joss Whedon’s work, when you think about tge great moments, it’s never about someone hitting someone, it’s always about someone saying something. They say something and you go, “Oh my god that’s awesome I didn’t know they would say that but that’s awesome”. And that’s the moment, that’s what you, in any good piece of work, that’s what you look for is a chance for the character to be so fully themselves that the audience gets excited and says, “I love this.”
What kind of director is Alexandre?
DR: I really cannot say enough nice things about Alex, but I’m going to. The story I’ll tell you that just exemplifies why he is so brilliant, is that at the end of the film, after we finished the last shot, myself, the script supervisor, some of the grips and some of the camera guys all stood around for an hour talking about what a pleasure it had been to work for him. And you might get that from actors sometimes, but that’s very rare to hear across the crew. And I think one of the reasons for that is that some directors walk onto set with an attitude that they are the only person with creative input, and they are the only artists on that set. And immediately, if a crew feels that, because a film crew is a group of incredibly talented and technically skilled people, in many different roles. If they know they’re being listened to and collaborated with, rather than just told what to do, it inspires me and them and it made it a pleasure to come to work every day.
DR: Not specifically. I hope in 25 years I have a family. I would have liked to have directed by then, that’s something I really want to do down the line. I just want to keep working, really, I want to keep acting. I still feel like playing a part a very long time builds up a desire to play as many different things as you can, so I’m really enjoying that at the moment.
Daniel, having done eight adaptations of another very famous book series, how different was the adaptation process of Horns?
DR: I wasn’t very close with the adaptation process of either of the films, but I do think…Potter and Lord of the Rings came out at the same time, and a few other famous book to movie transitions, I think have adjusted people to the idea that as wonderful as all books are, as much as we’d like to put everything in, things do have to move and shift slightly.
But I think the tone of the film is absolutely true to the book…about the [film] being so many genres and styles, I do think some filmmakers would have come to that and just gone, “For the sake of ease, I’ll just make it a horror, take out the comedy, take out the romance,” something like that to make it simpler. Alex never shied away from any of that.
AA: That was the most exciting part about making this movie was to respect the emotion I had reading the book. I wanted to be sure we were going through the full spectrum of different genre and tone, and keep them and make them exist together in a very organic way. That was my goal and the challenge of making this movie.
JH: I think the movie’s a lot more fun than the book, actually.
DR: Put that on the poster!
How did you connect to the symbolism of the film?
DR: I’m not a religious person, but I’ve always been fascinated by the mythology and imagery in all religions, because Christianity has got some fantastic stuff in there. When we first met, we had a discussion about theatre roles, and my obsession with the devil as a character in literature and music…and he is traditionally this very charismatic character, so I was very excited to play that.
AA: We dropped as much symbolism that we could in the movie. The book was already [symbolic] with names like Gideon, Ignatius, there’s so much already, and we just wanted to with more, without making a statement.
You played in The Women in Black, are you attracted to supernatural movies?
DR: I like the genre because anything can happen in it. As long as you play by your own rules, you can do whatever you like. It’s not an intentional thing that I’m picking all this dark work, but I do enjoy it. People do talk about Woman in Black and Victor Frankenstein as if they’re one genre, but Woman in Black is the most traditional horror film you can get, and Horns is the least. And Frankenstein, it’s sort of more falls into the kind of adventure category than anything else. So I can’t explain my attraction to dark material, but I don’t think it’s going to end soon.
Joe, you’re a very visual writer. What about Alex’s personal aesthetic made this such a great combination?
JH: I agree that Alexandre made a work of tremendous beauty. I said a couple of times, I don’t feel like he just directed a film, he painted one. I remember being on the set for one day, and they were shooting a scene…and everything is chaos, but sort of beautiful chaos. And Alex is everywhere, he’s behind the camera, he’s talking to the actors, and there’s a feeling that nothing is controlled. And then suddenly he says action, and there’s this tremendous quiet. And I noticed that there were two hills, and the sun was in a perfect notch between the two hills, flooding the scene with this creamy beautiful light. And I thought, “Wait a minute, did he plan that? Did he know the sun was gonna be there? No! He couldn’t!” But I talked to him later and he said he did!
Every novelist I’ve ever met says that what they really wanna do is direct. I think it takes a particular visual talent, and also an ability to take a beating, because there’s a lot of people who will question your choices. To do anything good, you have to have the courage of your convictions. And Alex brought his beautiful eye, his beautiful sensibility, and his courage to the film, and that was much to our benefit. It turned out really well largely because he insisted it had to be good.
Daniel, we’ve heard a lot from you over the years about what music you use to get into certain headspace for certain characters. What got you there for this role?
DR: I do always make sort of playlists for characters…There was a song actually in the movie by a band called the Shivers, called “Lonely Road.” A lot of Metallica and Megadeth. Some Radiohead…There was a lot, and I think it actually stretched onto two discs, by the end of it.
If you were able to go around the hall, the exhibit floor, SDCC as a fan, what would you be dressed as?
DR: About a half an hour ago I did exactly that, as Spider-Man.
Horns is slated for a Halloween 2014 release.