Directed by Steven Kastrissios. Starring Peter Marshall, Caroline Marohasy, Brad McMurray, Jack Henry and Evert McQueen . Australia, 2008, 110 minutes.

Out on DVD & Blu-ray on 1st March 2010. RRP: £9.99. BUY NOW

The ‘Testicle Torture Thriller of the Year’ is now on general release. We chose director Steven Kastrissios’ intensely visceral experience to play at Film4 FrightFest in August because we knew hardly anyone saw it when it premiered at the Barbican Australian Film Festival in March. Although we did keep shifting it between the main Empire auditorium and the Discovery Screen based on Kastrissios’ indecision to come to London to support it, we eventually plumped for the former despite his no-show because we wanted people to see his gut-wrenchingly brutal revenge flick on the big screen. Those who didn’t witness the toe-curling violence at either of those two outings really should make the effort as this take-no-prisoners, unflinchingly horrifying killer chiller is aggressively compelling to the max. Soon after having to identify his own daughter’s raped and abused body, pest controller Christian (Peter Marshall) is sent a pornographic video of what were her last hours alive. Revealing to him a world of sex, drugs and corruption that he never knew existed, grief mad Christian then tracks down the human vermin - distributors, producers, actors, and narcotic suppliers - from the tape so he can exact the most horrific forms of leg-crossing retribution imaginable before eradication. Emphatic in its mise-en scene, and devastating in its realism, Kastrissios’ debut feature is a demented road movie about a man and his bug-blasting toolbox travelling Australia in search of impossibly painful redemption. The en route relationship he develops with a runaway girl and the genuine desolation he feels as he uncovers the real truth about his own daughter lead to heart-breaking tenderness on his journey to hell that returns all the harshness of such 70s classics as DELIVERANCE, DEATH WISH and STRAW DOGS to the screen. A white-hot blast in the face cast from the same excessively bitter mould as CHOPPER, THE HORSEMAN is grounded by one of the year’s best performances from Marshall who delivers an incredibly potent, primal and moving shock to the system. Top notch in every artistic department, this galvanizing burst of rage redefines the description ‘full-on’. Not to be confused with the dismal muddle that is the similarly titled HORSEMEN.

Alan Jones

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GORE IN THE STORE
REVIEWS BY FANS FOR FANS
5 STAR FAB - 1 STAR RUBBISH

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