Joe Hill is responsible for two of my favorite books of the last ten years: Heart-Shaped Box and 20th Century Ghosts. Unfortunately, neither one of those has been optioned for a feature film adaptation yet.

What we get is his (ironically) less morally ambiguous sophomore novel Horns coming to theaters. Despite being a story about a man who grows horns that force people to reveal their darkest secrets to him, Horns is a linear tale of good and even.

The poor man cursed with horns, Ig, is a good guy. His girlfriend was raped and murdered and everyone in the town thinks he’s responsible; he’s not. He’s just the most obvious suspect because of his relationship. Ig spends the rest of the novel meandering through a series of encounters with increasingly reprehensible people as he tries to hunt down the real killer.

Horns just didn’t do it for me as a novel. I understand what Hill was going for but kept wanting more. It’s so restrained even in the most outrageous confessions that I found myself losing interest.

Film could be an entirely different story. A bizarre concept meshed with a standard good versus evil procedural could really come alive onscreen.

Alejandro Aja (High (Haute) Tensions, The Hills Have Eyes remake) will direct Daniel Radcliffe as Ig. Entertainment Weekly got the first set photo of the character and it looks great. He’s very different from how I imagined him–Ig is described as having slender horns popping out of his head, where these are thick and curling back into his hair–but the horns really pop thanks to the wardrobe.

What do you think? Sound off with your thoughts below. Love to hear from you.