The Horseman

This is a story of one man's revenge against the people he holds responsible for the death of his daughter. It's a grim and grimy revenge tale full of bloody violence. It won't appeal to everyone and my wife ceased watching after 5 minutes but if you like these kinds of movie then you are likely to enjoy this.

The acting is pretty good and I thought Peter Marsh did a good job at gaining sympathy as the grief stricken dad doling out his own particular brand of justice. Brad McMurray is also worth a mention as one of the most imposing villains you could wish to see.

I wouldn't say this film had many surprises or a particular message but I find watching lowlife scum being deservedly dispatched pretty satisfying in its own right. The Horseman is a fast paced film and doesn't spend much time setting the scene before plunging straight into the action.

I enjoyed this film and thought it was a very good example of a quality revenge movie especially bearing in mind it's relatively low budget. Recommended.

This Australian crime thriller is a revenge movie, a rather crude and agonizing one to watch, in my opinion. Unlike other revenge movies, after getting half of his hit list done, the protagonist kinda lost to the bad guys. And then it was his turn to get mauled. I don't know about you, but in revenge movies, the table isn't supposed to turn like that. That's the agonizing part I'm talking about. And that's what makes me take one point from my initial rating. The brutality I can take, the cruel tortures, even the blood lust. But the loss? That's hard to watch. And a satisfying ending in revenge movies to me means that the protagonist gets to torture the final boss to death. So that means this one doesn't have a satisfying ending. Cause he wasn't in no shape to get any satisfaction, it was just a quick death. I wasn't satisfied with the ending. Not at all. Unlike "I Spit On Your Grave", which still the number one revenge movies of all time. At least for me, it is.

but this is essentially an exploitation film.

The most outstanding thing is the lead actors performance which was pretty amazing. I was expecting more from the film after the first half an hour or so, but the film never achieves the depth that Peter Marshall's performance suggests. The script doesn't do justice to the production or the acting.

It's enjoyable revenge flick but to try and engage with it on a level beyond that just exposes how silly and tasteless it all is.

Despite these misgivings there is a lot to like about the film and I hope the director and Peter Marshall especially progress to bigger and better things.

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.

First off, this film isn't going to appeal to everyone. It features graphic violence (most of it unseen) and a quite mundane plot that plods along. However, if you are a fan of old 70's and 80's exploitation films then you are in for a real treat. The story follows a man, who has been sent a video of his recently deceased daughter in a porn film. She's smacked off her t*ts and obviously isn't a willing participant. He takes it upon himself to track down all copies of said film, and anyone involved in it's making...And destroy them! This is gritty stuff. With little to no soundtrack, there is almost a documentary feel to it. It really makes you ask the question: What would you do? Although the plot isn't at all similar, it has the same kind of realism to films like the underrated 70's classic 'death weekend' and 'The Last House on the Left'. There is real drama here and characters that you truly root for. I hope this little gem doesn't slip under the radar because there are a lot of film fans (myself included) that have been waiting for this type of film to come along since the early 80's!