Friday, September 6, 2013

Six Films with HORNS



Daniel Radcliffe is looking pretty good sporting that set of horns in this still from HORNS. He certainly knows how to dress to make them look their best.

And this picture has inspired us to come up with some other fine horns in cinema history. (Thanks to Sasha James and Leslie Hatton for their suggestions).

Pan's Labyrinth / El laberinto del fauno (2006) directed by Guillermo del Toro

In Pan's Labyrinth a young girl is led into a secret underworld where a faun asks her undertake three tasks to prove her worthiness. Aside from magic and wonder and the appeal of the The Faun's nice sheep-like horns and forehead swirls, Ofelia might well want to escape the Spanish Civil War raging above and her cruel father. I would surely trust the Faun with my baby brother over a captain in Franco's secret police.

The forehead spirals really make the look.

Red Dragon (2002) directed by Brett Ratner.

As far as adaptations of Thomas Harris' novel Red Dragon go, I prefer Michael Mann's 1989 Manhunter. But we are talking horns here and one of the things the Red Dragon has is a fine pair of horns in the form of a tattoo on Hannibal Lector's pen-pal, Francis Dolarhyde. (Dolarhyde's back is played by Ralph Fiennes' back).

Nice ink.

Legend (1985) directed by Ridley Scott.

Tim Curry plays Darkness, a diabolical red satyr with a massive rack in this dark fantasy. Darkness is understandably lonely, trapped underground and unable to stand the light. Unfortunately, his solution is kidnapping a young woman, Lili, and telling her about his plans to kill unicorns, which is too bad because Darkness has some moves (or at least his magic dress does). I guess he thought it worked out for Hades. It's possible that his neck-straining rack is compensating for some low self-esteem.

Seriously, look at the size of his rack.

The Devil's Rain (1975) directed by Robert Fuest

Like me, I am certain that William Shatner is the first name you think of when you hear the words, "Satanic Cult." But he's not the only one. Robert Fuest's The Devil's Rain has an amazing cast including Shatner, Ida Lupino, Eddie Albert, Tom Skerritt, Keenan Wynn, John Travolta and a special appearance by Anton LaVey. It also stars Ernest Borgnine as Cult Leader, Jonathan Corbis, aka, the Devil Himself. And the Devil has a sweet pair of horns to go with his cute ears and goat's beard. Don't let Corbis know I called his ears and beard cute, though.

Anton LaVey tries not to find Corbis' ears endearing.


The Crimson Cult / Curse of the Crimson Altar / Curse of the Crimson Cult (1968) directed by Vernon Sewell

A young man moves into a house and is haunted by nightmares of horrifying rituals and the pressure to sell his soul. He, however, far less interesting than the scenes of Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee discussing the history of the house and the constant bother of black magic in the parlor. And he is far less interesting than Barbara Steele's amazing Witch Queen outfit, green skin, feathers, golden horns and all.

The whole film should be Barbara Steele, Boris Karloff & Christopher Lee


The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (1958) directed by Nathan H. Juran

Okay, this Harryhausen fantasy classic has many fine and admirable creatures, but the one I'm interested in is the fantastic cyclops. Sinbad never faced a cyclops you say? That was Odysseus you say? To that, I say--Cyclops! Sure, has just one horn, but who needs two horns? This cyclops is comfortable enough with himself. He doesn't need more.

Who needs two horns?


Let's see how Daniel Radcliffe's rack measures up in Horns!




HORNS Screening Times:
Friday, Sept 6th, 6:00 PM THE BLOOR HOT DOCS CINEMA
Sunday, Sept 8th, 1:00 PM SCOTIABANK 4

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