You won't be disappointed!

Highly Overrated But Still Good

As Good As It Gets

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

This is a spectacular movie, nearly perfect. It tells the tale of a father's revenge in a way that Taken could not have fathomed. It's gritty, it's realistic, it's relatable and most importantly well acted. From Australia, the country of awesome independent films, comes the story of one man's relentless pursuit of the men who murdered his daughter, after drugging her and forcing her into the porn industry. I can't understand why this movie isn't rated higher. It's like "Near Dark" without the Vampires. Then again, I do have a weak spot for violent revenge thrillers, with the typical ass-kicking Jason Statham movies being high on my list of guilty pleasures. So maybe I'm a bit biased. But it's something we can all relate to, except those of us who are psychopaths of course, the tale of a vulnerable, young woman being exploited and killed/kidnapped by evil forces. As conscientious people, we secretly cheer when these people have their fingernails pulled, their pinky fingers chopped off and their testicles shoved down their throat. Who didn't cheer when Liam put a big fat hole in the princes head in taken. No one, that's who. Watch this movie, it's great.

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....

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.

Why they have chosen this title is still an enigma for me but that's my only complaint. This is pure brutality. It's not in the style of the latest French flicks but I can agree that for the squeamish this is a little bit too much to take. It isn't really gory but it is the style and almost showing what will happen that makes it good. The suggestion that things are happening really gives you goosebumps and surely if you are a boy. The story never lacks and just when you think things can't go wrong anymore things are going wrong. To classify it under horror I just don't know, but the brutality surely does make it almost a horror f lick. The acting is all believable and the agony and pain is almost touchable in your room. It's strange that this flick over here was immediately in the sale boxes, even on Blu Ray I just had to pay 7 euro's brand new...go catch your copy!