The Horseman Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

The Horseman Blu-ray Movie Review

'The Horseman' is not (repeat NOT) a western.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 31, 2010

Revenge films are among the most basic and often among the most satisfying genres in all of moviedom. It doesn’t take long to set up a situation where we find an emotionally devastated protagonist (usually the relative of someone who has been slain, or at the very least kidnapped), give him the tools to enact his justice on the perpetrators, and then simply sit back and watch the chips (and broken bones) fall into place. When the modern revenge film found its voice with the Death Wish series, a whole generation of then-young filmmakers grew up with a template that usually featured gratuitous amounts of mayhem and gore in the place of actual character development, and in the long run, that supposed failing really didn’t matter all that much. When an audience is caught up in the visceral excitement of bad guys getting their comeuppance, they don’t need Shakespearian monologues or really much else than a pair of mournful eyes and some kick ass action sequences. Even a film as recent as Taken didn’t bother with any real character “arcs” or anything other than one slam bang payback sequence after another. While The Horseman may not have the slickness of the Liam Neeson starrer, it does aim for a bit of humanity in between its often shocking violent moments. As in most films of this type, that aim may be commendable, but it really is largely laughable when taken in the context of people getting sledgehammered, crowbarred and pummeled, shot, and shorn of body parts.

Peter Marshall is Christian, a man into "pest control."

Part of what gives The Horseman its viscerally gritty demeanor is its non-linear structure. When we start the film, we’re given snippets of scenes showing what appears to be a homeless girl in the throes of some sort of emotional breakdown. Intercut with this are scenes of an apparently blue collar, somewhat haggard, man arriving at a rural Australian house, evidently to do some exterminating. What we soon discover is the man, perhaps only semi-ironically named Christian (Peter Marshall—and, no, not the Peter Marshall of Broadway and later Hollywood Squares), is on an exterminating mission of an unexpected kind. When The Horseman erupts into its first furious foray of extreme violence, it’s like a sucker punch to the gut, or even perhaps a more delicate area, and it’s likely it will elicit a gasp or two as Christian’s sudden fury explodes across the screen.

It soon becomes apparent via a series of flashbacks (and even flashbacks within flashbacks) that Christian is the homeless girl’s father, and she has been found dead from a heroin overdose, after evidently having been involved in some sort of sexual activity. Christian later (or earlier, as the case may be, in this film’s rather haphazard timeline) finds out she’s actually been filmed drugged out of her mind in a porn outing, and he sets his sights on the onscreen male participants, as well as the film’s director, producer and distributor. Yes, this has some obvious, if more violent, parallels to the George C. Scott film Hardcore, down to Christian forming an alliance with another homeless girl (Caroline Marohasy) who stumbles into his path and soon finds herself part of a brutal drama in which she neither belongs nor wants to be part of.

Director-writer-editor Steven Kastrissios is part of a new generation of Australian filmmakers who have learned their genre lessons well, and know how to cut (literally at times) to the core, filming his action sequences with élan and a rather grippingly gruesome flair. The Horseman is a film that leaps out of several logical inconsistencies to bask in the horror of seeing an upright citizen devolve to the point where he’s hobbling bad guys, Misery-style, even as he’s struggling to literally keep his own guts from spilling out of his knifed abdomen. Vicious vindication like this has seldom been portrayed as hideously up close and tormentedly personal as it is here in The Horseman, and whether or not this type of film is your particular cup of tea (and/or testosterone), Kastrissios deserves kudos for (no pun intended) not pulling any punches and delivering a squirm-worthy hour and a half that will probably have most people covering their eyes in shock and awe at least once.

Marshall and Marohasy make a very believable pair, as outlandish as The Horseman ultimately proves to be. Marshall has a world-weary air in this film which elevates its gravitas considerably above its rather Penny Dreadful ethos. Marohasy is alternately vulnerable and resolute, and crafts a surprisingly well shaded character, especially considering the short shrit Kastrissios’ script sometimes gives her. The bad guys, as might be expected, are little more than ciphers, there for a moment to grunt and strut before Christian does them in with various accoutrements. Kastrissios does offer a bit of comeuppance for Christian himself once he’s captured near the end of the film, when some of his own techniques come back to haunt him. It’s one of the few moments The Horseman attempts anything akin to some philosophical or mural musing, and while it’s not particularly subtle (especially in the hyperbolic way it’s portrayed in the sequence where Christian is tortured and maimed), it does at least allude to a certain questioning spirit on Kastrissios’ part which might be exploited and developed more fulfillingly in subsequent films.

It’s almost ridiculous to even mention whether or not the violence in The Horseman is gratuitous or not. Of course it’s gratuitous, and of course it’s one of the main raisons d’etre for the film in the first place. What scrawny-bodied, acne-faced adolescent doesn’t dream of teaching the more muscular world a major lesson? And aren’t films like The Horseman really written with that type in mind, no matter how old they are in physical years? The stunted emotional growth of a bullied soul, adolescent at heart if not by the clock’s hands, finds incredible relief in films of this ilk, where mild mannered men go berserk and enact vengeance on those who done him (or his kin) wrong. It’s the fevered wet dream of the less gifted, the less fortunate, the less well endowed (in any sense of that term). You ultimately may not want to actually admit you may be part of that class, but if you are (or ever were), chances are The Horseman may appeal to your need for empowerment more than you may initially realize. It’s horribly violent, yes, but perhaps it’s a violence that may make at least a few people pause to reflect on the rather dubious moralities of everyone in the film.

The Horseman Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Horseman is not going to win any videophile awards for its VC-1 encoded 1080p image (with a 1.78:1 aspect ratio), and yet it is perfectly evocative of director Kastrissios' vision, I'm sure, especially considering the film's paltry budget. What we're greeted with here, aside from the ubiquitous use of post-processing (more about which later), is a rather grainy stock with blown out contrast that gives the film a perfect indie verité quality, which is exactly what I bet Kastrissios was aiming for. The bulk of this film features some pretty heavy post-processing, so that we get almost completely desaturated segments, where only blacks, whites and reds remain, and others which are lit or filtered to highlight certain shades, typically blue or green. It all gives this film a slightly surreal, hallucinogenic quality which blends perfectly with Christian's mental and moral breakdowns. The image is reasonably sharp, though never brilliantly so, and in fact the overblown contrast in many scenes gives the film a patina of softness. Because of the film's processing and the filtering, it's hard to describe colors as accurate or well saturated, but I'm quite positive this Blu-ray accurately represents the filmmaker's vision, within the confines of his budget.

The Horseman Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

On the other hand (and/or ear), The Horseman's staggeringly robust DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix will leave you ducking for cover as thumps, cracks, moans and groans fly about the room as all sorts of mayhem is unleashed. This is a really bombastic soundtrack that takes no prisoners and delivers a lot of sonic punch, especially considering the film's relatively small budget. While the smaller, more dialogue driven moments of the film are delivered with crispness and clarity, it's in the expected action and revenge sequences where this film really explodes and exploits the surround soundfield. All sorts of bone crunching foley effects are employed, some simultaneously horrific and hilarious (one character gets a nipple yanked out of their chest and the ensuing "thwop" is quite memorable). The minimalist roots-based score is effectively mixed into the proceedings, and all in all, a lot of sonic chaos is brilliantly handled by this lossless track.

The Horseman Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Aside from two quite excellent Commentaries, one with the director, and the other with cast and crew, The Horseman also offers these SD supplements:

• The Making of The Horseman (35:58), is a cut above the typical EPK-fest, with some nice background on the lesser known talents in front of and behind the camera.
• Deleted Scenes (9:08) presents three scenes, including some extended as opposed to totally deleted items. Nothing really earth-shattering here, and it's easy to see why these moments were jettisoned.
• Short Film (14:42). This is probably the standout extra on The Horseman, the short that Kastrissios first filmed and which became the template for this film. This is basically another version of The Horseman's kick-ass opening sequence.
• Interviews (20:32), features some nice in-depth moments with stars Marshall and Marohasy, as well as stunt coordinator Chris Anderson.

The Horseman Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Make no (broken and twisted) bones about it, The Horseman is violent, bloody, gruesome and often gasp inducing in its absolute mayhem. That said, there's just an inkling of some actual moral consciousness running beneath the surface of the gore which augurs well for Kastrissios once he becomes a bit more mature as a writer and craftsman. This certainly isn't family fare, or for the even moderately squeamish, but if you're a fan of this kind of vengeance flick, The Horseman is recommended.