Why Daniel Radcliffe's New Movie Has People Walking Out Of Theaters

Everyone’s favorite boy wizard has been getting a ton of work lately. While Emma Watson and Rupert Grint have been doing pretty well in regards to film projects, Daniel Radcliffe’s resume is quickly overpowering the other two. Of course, not all of Mr. Potter’s film ventures have been successes, and now his most recent credit is causing quite the controversy. 

Daniel Radcliffe’s latest film project, titled Swiss Army Man, recently premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, to less than favorable response. In fact, Variety is reporting that a mass of audience members walked out of the sold-out theater once the film was screening. Why? Well, the movie is chock full of farts. That’s right, farts. 

Swiss Army Man revolves around a lost traveler played by Youth actor Paul Dano. During his journey, he finds himself on a beach where a corpse, played by Daniel Radcliffe himself, washes ashore. That corpse becomes his traveling companion, and it continually passes gas throughout the 90 minute bizarre romp.

Obviously in a strange genre of its own, the indie also contains a long sequence where Daniel Radcliffe’s character maintains and erection, as well as a homoerotic kiss between the two stars. So it seems the main plot of Swiss Army Man revolves around flatulence, necrophilia, and masturbation. Not exactly a crowd pleaser.

The Sundance Film Festival is known for having some of the most highbrow films that the entertainment world has to offer. An indie audience seems like an appropriate place as any to feature a film which includes a farting former wizard. However, the fact that so many audience members walked out of this premiere might be speaking volumes to the quality of the film. While everyone loves a good fart joke, perhaps Swiss Army Man fails to actually make the transition from crude to humorous. The film is also being billed as somewhat of a drama, though it’s surely hard for an audience to find emotional honesty in such a ridiculous and raunchy concept. 

While there is not much footage for Swiss Army Man currently available, that first screening is resulting in some reviews. The few print reviews have been fairly mixed, although the film currently holds a mere 5.4 out of 10 on its imdb page.

This wouldn’t be the first time that Daniel Radcliffe chose to participate in an acting project that didn’t quite work out. We recently saw him in Victor Frankenstein, which was an overall box office bomb. He was also recently seen in a similarly strange movie, Horns, which got mixed to poor reviews. The Harry Potter actor has been seemingly taking very unique projects, peppering in bits of stage work between his movies.

We’ll keep you updated on Swiss Army Man as it continues to be shown, although with strong reactions like this I doubt we’ll be seeing it in wide release anytime soon.