‘The Horseman’, Australia’s answer to ‘Dead Man’s Shoes’, is a brutal tale of good old fashioned revenge. In Steven Kastrissios’ directorial debut a grieving father, played by the brilliant Peter Marshall, proceeds on a bloody and murderous trail hunting down those he feels is responsible for the death of his daughter.
Following her death a video arrives anonymously in the mail. The x-rated video features his daughter who appears to be heavily drugged and violated right in front of his eyes. This leads Christian on a revenge spree across the country as he tries to hunt down and execute everyone involved with the film. Along the way he forms a friendship with a young girl he picks up on his travels that he becomes protective of in the shadow of his daughter’s cruel demise.
Marshall is excellent as the grief-stricken Christian and always walks that line between grieving father and cold blooded murderer so effortlessly. It’s a little difficult initially to gather whether this father figure is the protagonist or antagonist in this gripping story but the audience soon finds itself perversely rooting for him.
‘The Horseman’ is by no means easy watching and is filled with brutal and extremely gruesome violence but it never feels gratuitous. It always sits nicely into this one man’s struggle with the death of his daughter and the grim blame he places on the shoulders of this group of men.
OVERALL SUMMARY
With a startling twisting final third ‘The Horseman’ is a gripping, bloody tale of vengeance that never relieves its audience! Expect some great things from Steven Kastrissios in the future.
