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The Horseman (2008)

Dir: Steven Kastrissios

Christian (Peter Marshall), divorced father and pest controller is on a mission.
After his wayward daughter is found dead in an alley from a drugs overdose he receives a pornographic video anonymously in the mail that features his heavily drugged daughter.
Drowning in an all consuming rage Christian sets out to find answers and above all to find and kill all those involved, all with the aid of his trusty toolbox.

As he blazes a brutal trail of vengeance he meets Alice (Caroline Marohasy), a young runaway not unlike his daughter and a relationship starts to build up between them.
But Christian’s mission becomes all consuming and nothing will never be the same again….

 

Australian genre cinema has gone through a mini-boom recently with the international success of “Wolf Creek”, “Storm Warning” and the ‘Ozploitation’ documentary “Not Quite Hollywood”.
Now it’s nothing unsual to find the likes of “Dying Breed” or “Rogue” on any global new release DVD schedule.
Into this boom came a slightly different type of brutality in the form of “The Horseman”. Not an outback terror tale, but a vigilante flick that owes much more to that controversial ’Motherland’, Great Britain, as it’s an Aussie take on Shane Meadows’ “Dead Man’s Shoes” in much of its feel and style and “Get Carter” in much of its basic set-up.
There are also nods to American cinema such as Schrader’s “Hardcore” (though with slightly less finger wagging), the sadly maligned “8mm” and of course skeletal nods to “Death Wish”.
Oh…and “Bloodsport”! But more on that later.

As such “The Horseman” does owe a great deal to other cinema from other countries (just as the likes of “Wolf Creek” owes much to the likes of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and its ilk) but the more urbanised setting also means we lose much of that unique Australian landscape that added such a, very Australian, flavour to “Wolf Creek” despite the foreign influences..
So in this sense “The Horseman” does not really feel like an Australian film, away from the accents. But hey, if you are going to be influenced then picking the likes of “Get Carter”, “Dead Man’s Shoes” and “Death Wish” are damn fine influences.

At the heart of the film is the wonderful performance by Peter Marshall. And like the film, it’s a performance of two rather different aspects.
As the barely in control grieving father he is fantastic and delivers serous dramatic strengths to both his generally cookie cutter character as well as the movie itself.
This is a dark, gritty, painfully realistic in its feeling, performance that gives the film genuine dramatic class.
But, despite his general look and age (though he is suitably tough in build), Marshall also gives us a thuddingly violent, murderously driven figure of vengeance who almost moves into action star territory.
It’s a barnstorming performance that achieves the strange feat of giving us a Frankenstein Monster creation made up of equal parts George C Scott and Steven Seagal!

This action aspect of his otherwise regular guy character is the biggest surprise in the film. It’s a decision that treads a very fine line as far as realism and popcorn fantasy go and the film does sometimes slip.
Marshall’s superb, dramatically serious, performance as the broken father is so intense and all-encompassing that it actually makes sense that he can take on so many younger men in numerous, truly brutal, smackdowns. You feel his sheer strength of hate and raging, adrenaline fuelled, power could enable Christian to do what he does in the non-flashy, frenzied way he does it.

Where we slip is in the amount of damage he takes personally. We sadly do move (sadly because it’s not really this type of movie) into Van Dammage territory as far as the sheer brutal abuse his body takes which manages to never damage anything too serious thus enabling him to get back up and keep on swinging.
For all the reality of his own attacks on others, the attacks by others on him are out of a fantasy fight flick, certainly not a medical journal.
And when added to the otherwise deeply serious psychological aspects of his character these cliché action/physical traits sit badly.

As mentioned though, the action is stunningly brutal in its execution and content. There are no real effects sequences here, but there’s a lot of blood spattered, bone snapping, flesh pummeling violence and again Marshall’s utter conviction and drive during these scenes (be they fights or scenes of cold-blooded, very nasty, torture) not only helps sell them but gives them much added power. He certainly knows how to swing a crowbar!

The screenplay’s slightly schizophrenic nature towards Christian’s character is also mirrored in its plot as well.
Again we have dramatic realism and grit mixed with far more unlikely, even fanciful, action thriller sensibilities.
That a legal, seemingly quite widely distributed porn film (even with the distributors name and business address on the tape cover) contains an obviously drugged up young girl who has barely any idea of what is happening to her seems more creative licence than anything else.
If the whole enterprise had been far more underground and completely illegitimate it would have sat better with the plot and the (more than we ever believe at first) rather big criminal, murderous, enterprise behind it all.

We also have (again fine in cheesy action films, not so fine here) long-used contrivances and lucky breaks as far as rescuing the ‘hero’ goes.
Things about to get lethal for Christian? A handy phone call or visitor will interrupt things just in the nick of time giving him a chance again.
And it has to be said Christian gets out of more tight corners in the nick of time than James Bond.
And when added to the thudding fight scenes (where only the lack of martial arts and much heavy object usage stop them from actually being Van Damme flick type sequences) these elements give the film a really strange vibe thanks to the otherwise truly dark, gritty drama they are weaved into.

The film is not sure what it wants to be, dark drama or brutal action film, but decides that both things are great so embraces them both.
Which does deliver a film that satisfies as far as bloody revenge and serious drama content goes…but also gives us a film where these two obvious pluses don’t really gel when attempts are made to mix them.
It should be that two such effective styles, both done exceedingly well, should meet to make the perfect cinematic storm, but in reality, despite how good they are individually, they never truly match up to make a perfect movie on the whole.

What does remain consistent in its brooding nature though is the excellent score (composed and performed by Ryan Potter) that compliments Christian’s dark journey and heartbreaking loss to perfection, giving us ominous pounding drums and melodic mandolins that complement the film’s shifting emotions perfectly.

Acting away from Marshall is solid, with nice turn by Caroline Marohasy as the runaway who adds lighter shading to Christian’s dark heart and extra levels to the plot.
Her character is also used to reveal the sense of obvious guilt and sense of failure in Christian because he failed to protect his daughter, no matter how set on self destruction she seemed to be.
Most of the henchman roles are taken by some excellent fight and stunt men who really sell the crunching action and when added to the effective cinematography, tight direction ,excellent pacing and structure (action and drama are spaced and mixed just right as far as keeping the audience’s attention goes) it all ensures the film looks and feels far richer than it’s meagre budget , where even the producer doubled as the cook and dish washer!

So what we have is a very well made, exceptionally well acted by Marshall, dark, gritty, brooding, serious revenge film but with full-on action thriller sensibilities and plot reveals that tend to work against the realism and grit of the central drama.
Thus “The Horseman” is a peculiar movie overall, but a movie that’s full of so many excellent and satisfying components that you can, and should, ultimately forgive the faults in tone and settle down with a still very satisfying, dark, brutal and grim tale of a father’s vengeance.