Ahead of it's DVD release from Kaleidoscope Home Entertainment in March 2010, Australian hot potato THE HORSEMAN is getting a limited UK theatrical release on 30 October 2009 ...
The film opens in spectacularly angry fashion with overall-clad Christian (Peter Marshall) bursting into an unfortunate's house armed with his pest control equipment and a crowbar. Christian smacks the fuck out of the skinny cameraman before him, and then trashes his collection of porn videotapes before getting a few names from his victim and storming out of the house, setting fire to it behind him.
Then he calmly changes his attire and saunters off in his white van, stopping at a cafe for a steak. It's here that Christian meets teenage traveller Alice (Caroline Marohasy), who he offers a ride to. "Is this your business truck?" she asks. "Yep," he replies, citing "pest control" as his line of work. Quite.
Before the vitriolic mayhem continues, a flashback montage throws some light onto Christian's vigilante plight: to locate and slaughter those involved in the death of his daughter.
Amid old home movie-style clips of his daughter Jessica as a toddler, we witness scenes such as the day the cops asked Christian to identify his teenage daughter's corpse, and then proceeded to tell him how she'd been found on an industrial estate - her corpse bloated by alcohol, cocaine and heroin.
Days later, Christian had received a porno tape anonymously through the post. Entitled "Young City Sluts 2", Christian viewed the cassette and was mortified to find his daughter getting fucked by three men. The police informed Christian that a fourth, unidentified, man was also involved.
Interspersed between scenes of Christian and the largely oblivious runaway Alice bonding in motel rooms and driving relentlessly in a bid to find the elusive final piece of the puzzle surrounding Jessica's death, are further flashback scenes to Christian catching up with the various parties involved.
He begins by tracing the production of the videotape to a small rental store and torturing people for further names. This takes him through fisticuffs at a gym, a nasty bit of mop-wielding violence at one bloke's home that would make Toxie proud, and more sadism that at times verges on being cartoonish. Fishhooks, knives, bicycle pumps, iron bars, sledgehammers and even bare fists are among the other weapons put to brutal use by Christian in his bid for a truth he may ultimately not want to discover ...
THE HORSEMAN is a vicious revenge thriller that nods to forefathers as old as THE VIRGIN SPRING and HARDCORE, while also evoking more recent efforts such as DEAD MAN'S SHOES and TAKEN. Despite being nicely shot on HD and benefiting from stylish cinematography from Mark Broadbent, however, the film lacks the finesse of any of these other genre examples.
Instead, it goes for the violent pay-off every time. As such, it's no surprise that the film is gaining lacklustre reviews from mainstream press while gaining praise from the likes of Fangoria, Ain't It Cool News and WOLF CREEK director Greg McLean.
It's a thriller with religious allegory to spare (the protagonist is called Christian; the film's title is apocalyptic; he's sent to avenge his child's death; the theme of redemption that creeps in), but ultimately it's low budget trappings and penchant for gore are going to make this one that only the horror crowds are likely to warm to.
Writer-director Steve Kastrissios' feature debut, based on his own 2006 short film of the same name, was the proud winner of awards for Best Australian Film and Best Australian Director at the 2008 Melbourne Underground Film Festival. It's since gone on to make the selection for 2009's Frightfest in London. The chief reason for these accolades is undoubtedly the film's crowd-pleasing lashings of gory catharsis; much like DEATH WISH, THE HORSEMAN invites its audience to revel in the violent slayings of one despicable character after another.
All of which is no bad thing in terms of sheer entertainment value.
The action is frequent, and filmed in an unflinching manner that will no doubt bring joy to the hearts of sadists everywhere. The choreography of the fight scenes is supervised by Chris Anderson (KING KONG; MAD MAX) and therefore is as assured and kinetic as you'd imagine it to be. The blood runs red and the screams of loathsome, unapologetic males barely stop during the 94-minute running time.
As a revenge-fulfilment fantasy, an exercise in unrelenting machismo, THE HORSEMAN is a stylish and highly proficient actioner. Where it falls down is in the lack of decent plot, script or characterisation. Storytelling, it would seem, is Kastrissios' weak point and I'd be interested to see if the original short film worked better than this overlong reworking of his (hardly) original idea.
Still, I'm not knocking the film too hard. For all that it's villains are portrayed as one-dimensional perverts with not a shred of humanity between them, and for all that the bond between Alice and Christian never fulfils it's potential, this works as simple entertainment with a violent streak to rival Darren Ward's upcoming A DAY OF VIOLENCE.
Also, the big thing that works in THE HORSEMAN's favour is Marshall's lead performance. The guy is frequently riveting, providing a career-best portrayal of a man destroyed by his own desire to avenge his child's death. It's an emotive starting point, one that's not difficult to side with. From here, Marshall delivers an intense performance, one that ultimately leads to some disturbingly authentic-looking tears. Impressive stuff, indeed.
Not your average Multiplex film, then, and certainly not what you'd consider as a date movie (unless your date happens to be Rose West).
THE HORSEMAN is a dark, uncompromising and almost absurdly violent low-budget revenge thriller that will alienate almost all but less particular horror fans and those with a bent for people getting their nipples torn off with pliers and then blowtorched.
On that level, it comes recommended.
Review by Stu Willis
| Released by Kaleidoscope Home Entertainment |