David O'ConnellThe Horseman
July 9th 2010 03:15
For sheer unrelenting grimness, you’ll be hard pressed to go past Steven Kastrissios’s debut The Horseman, a gut-churning revenge film that pulls out all stops in its descent down one man’s hellish path to retribution. Make no mistake, this is a road paved with the blood and viscera of some not so saintly men cornered in the wrong place at the wrong time. No manner of skillful backtracking or convincing wordplay will extricate these victims from the fate avenging angel Christian (Peter Marshall) has in store for them.
Christian’s life has been in freefall since the death of his only daughter. Complicating matters is the revelation that drugs clearly played a major part in the last days of her life. Even more distressing is evidence that she had become an unwillingly participant in a sleazy porn movie. Starting from scratch, Christian undertakes his own detective work to track down all those complicit in the production of the video to extract his own brand of justice.
A serious of brutal encounters, shown in hard focus, form the meat of the narrative in which, armed with his toolbox, Christian heads out on the road. These scenes are awash with the coppery stench of his remorseless biblical retribution as he comes head to head with players directly or indirectly linked to his daughter’s demise. In-your-face and resonating with this grieving father’s primal anger, these sequences continually unnerve with their brute power and ability to shock.
Christian (Peter Marshall) with Alice (Caroline Marohasy)
Kastrissios plays with strands of time, folding the past back over the present where Christian continues his road-trip, his flailing almost at an end. With only a couple of loose ends to tie up, he encounters a young girl looking for a lift at a remote roadside café. Alice (Caroline Marohasy) has secrets of her own and seems to sense, in Christian, a similarly troubled soul.
These quiet, faltering scenes are an interesting and necessary contrast to the violence and torture. Marshall proves equally adept at shading these healing, reflective moments with note-perfect credibility. Marohasy’s expressive eyes are more compelling than her actual performance which is limited and perfunctory, but she counterbalances the intensity that burns like a struck match in Christian’s eyes whenever ghosts of his recent past are evoked. Their power of over him is never assauged; through moments of aloneness we witness him engaging in acts of self-mutilation as if to maintain focus and keep the pain of his terrible knowledge raw.
It’s impossible to deny the flinty, red-tinged magnificence of this film and its sobering conclusion: retribution may come but there'll be no solace attached to it. No doubt it will be a slog for many, a repellent glimpse into the chaos churning inside a jet-black heart of darkness. But for those not so faint-hearted and unafraid of confronting, daring cinema made on the smell of an oily rag, The Horseman (2008) will be seen as uncomfortable but compulsory viewing that you couldn’t turn away from even if you tried. The film is a great calling card, not only for the astonishing Marshall, but for Kastrissios who is clearly an inventive, talented young filmmaker going places. His next project is eagerly awaited. Maybe it'll even be one that isn't quite so perfect a film to take an ex-wife or ex-husband to.
The Horseman has opened at Chauvel Cinema in Sydney and Tribal Theatre in Brisbane and will be screened for two nights only at Melbourne's Nova cinema on July 9 and 10.
Matt Shea's interview with director Steven Kastrissios can be viewed here.
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Comment by Matt Shea
20/20 Filmsight
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
JD, it's an Orble love-fest with this film. Couldn't see you as a dissenter on this one! I'm sure you'll concur with our very reliable assessments.
Comment by Deni
Abstract Magick
Cinema Herald
I'm speechless. It's really good and very intense.
JD, this is right up your alley. I think you'll definitely like it. It doesn't hold back, that's for sure.
I completely understand why the director justified his use of excessive violence. It was disturbing to watch but the protagonist was dealing with hard hearted apathetic scum who just didn't get that this was "somebody's daughter".
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic