SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

nigel tufnell This is a film worth a watch but it doesn't rate as a classic unless your thing is gratuitous torture scenes. It has the potential to be an excellent film as it contains some nice cinematography, a decent soundtrack some excellent acting and a revenge plot that puts you firmly on the side of the protagonist. There are a couple of nice twists and a sweet, surrogate father-daughter relationship between Peter Marshall and Caroline Marohasy.The film falls down by not developing enough narrative between the bouts of violence. I think they could have reduced the revenge attacks by half and developed the story about the ever expanding gang of rapist bully boys. As it is, it gets quite repetitive.There is only so much pain the normal human body can take, and in the world of films its acceptable to notch that up somewhat. The Horseman pushes the suspension of disbelief a little too far for my liking.How many times have we seen that fumbling with key and handcuffs routine? Its a shame when a film hints at a potential of being very good but ultimately the narrative lets it down.

James Farmer Having watched a plethora of good films with high ratings of 6-7 out of 10 recently I felt that I needed to comment on this film; it is out of the ordinary, extra-ordinary, if you like - fantastic acting, realistic action and a sense of realism that is lost in so many films today. It hits the spot in every way 10/10 ! Revenge and vengeance in a raw, real and honest way.The score is perfect, the direction is crisp, the acting is gritty and natural, no silly one liners and pointless dialogues, everything that is said and done is done for a reason, a good reason and it works, every time.Yes there is violence but it is not the tiresome inane stuff, the violence contained within is much like the whole film it is tense and dramatic in every sense.This film makes you appreciate how good a film can be, regardless of budget or the lack of "big name" actors, though there is certainly no lack of acting talent here.Well worth the watch !

oneguyrambling Getting the obvious out of the way The Horseman has nothing to do with horses or the men who ride them. I cannot fathom what the title has to do with anything to be honest.If anyone can help me please do.Peter Marshall is Christian – it says so right on his shirt – he is a pest control man who drives a van and carries with him a big toolbox full of all sorts of handy stuff… for the next hour and a half he uses many of these tools to inflict pain and remove body parts all up and down the East coast of Australia.The Horseman starts with a brutal killing and doesn't let up until the credits roll. When Christian discovers his teenage daughter has died he is distraught. When a VHS video arrives in his mailbox showing his daughter in an apparent stupor being tag teamed by multiple guys he sorta loses the plot.Fair enough too.Christian spends the next few days getting to the bottom of things, making sure he needn't backtrack by dealing with each and every responsible party at the time he meets them. Where ethics and fairness get blurred is where it seems that more innocent – or at least less guilty – members often receive the same treatment as the deserving. But don't worry the deserving cop more than their share, as does Christian as he deals out his form of justice.The fact that Christian does precious little preparation means that he is perhaps ill-equipped to even be on this mission, but fuelled by rage and armed with his toolbox and a nasty little pocket knife he makes do very nicely thanks very much.His only traveling companion is a young girl named Alice who has thumbed a ride – and who also seems to be on the run from something herself – it seems Christian sees her as somewhat of a daughter figure, which motivates him further at times. He also uses Alice to trigger some flashbacks to further propel the story and fill in the blanks of the circumstances surrounding his daughter's last days.I guess it would be fair to compare this film to Kevin Bacon's effort in Death Sentence, but this film is far grittier and doesn't bother too much with morals or pure justice. There are no movie star looking actors in bit roles, no neat and tidy ending or moral to take away. Christian cops as much sh*t as he dishes out, and he dishes plenty, but nothing goes smoothly and he very nearly buys it on multiple occasions.This is maybe the darkest, most revengiest film since Sympathy for Mr Vengeance, though without the intertwined story of that film nor the flashy execution. The Horseman is straightline stuff, see bad guy and kill him, move to the next one. Christian doesn't waste much time with dialogue or pussyfooting around his topics, he is desperate, angry and single minded, and judging by the variation in his methods more than a little unbalanced.Given what is written above it should be no secret that this is at times gloomy and difficult viewing and will not be for everyone. It isn't the dreaded torture porn though for a couple of moments it steers a little close to the breeze, but it is exceedingly violent – don't expect guys clutching at their chests and falling to a big unseen mat filled with air, not when the weapons on display are crowbars, pliers and blowtorches among many other things.Handy Manny would be appalled at such inappropriate use of maintenance equipment.Don't expect to watch The Horseman for a fun time or flashy action sequences and smooth moves, this is a brutal tale of an exceedingly driven and perhaps mentally unbalanced man on his own misguided personal mission. But that said it is a good example of a revenge film and does what it sets out to do.Final Rating – 7 / 10. There is a saying never get between a lioness and her cub – well the old king lion gets more than a little annoyed too – and he has bigger claws....

Leofwine_draca Imagine a stylish, modern, ultra-dark and gritty re-run of the Liam Neeson actioner TAKEN, made on a tiny budget in Australia, and you'll be close to THE HORSEMAN, a film that takes visceral action to new levels of extremism. In a nutshell, the film's about revenge: a grieving father discovers that his daughter appeared in a porn film shortly before her death and goes to track down the men who coerced her into it. He wants nothing more than to beat their brains in with a crowbar, and that's exactly what he does.So far, so par for the course when it comes to exploitation. Where THE HORSEMAN wins plaudits is in its intensity: there are a series of brutal action sequences as pulse-pounding as those in the Bourne films and the script never lets up when it comes to anger, sadism and vengeance. The performances elicited from an unknown cast are very down to earth and realistic, particularly Peter Marshall's depiction of a grieving father seeking revenge.The violence is extreme and also realistic, often gratuitous. I feel the film oversteps the boundaries of taste at the climatic torture sequence, which delves into sexual violence unexpectedly and left me feeling sickened; it's clear that HOSTEL was an inspiration for this sequence and I can't help but feel that the film would have done better without it. Still, aside from this misstep, THE HORSEMAN hearkens back to the gritty downbeat revenge films of the 1970s, where lack of budget and scope was never a problem for a filmmaker with a dark story to tell.