THE CRITIC-AL LIST
Reviews by Alan Jones
5 STAR FAB - 1 STAR RUBBISH

The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Inception
Predators
The Twilight Saga:Eclipse
Toy Story 3
Hot Tub Time Machine
Iron Man 2
Repo Men
The Collector
Clash of the Titans
Shelter
How To Train Your Dragon
Kick-Ass
Shutter Island
Alice In Wonderland
The Crazies
Case 39
The Wolfman
Legion
The Lovely Bones
Black Death
Daybreakers
Avatar
Ninja Assassin
The Descent: Part 2
Amer
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
The Box
2012
Disney's A Christmas Carol
The Horseman
Solomon Kane
Pandorum
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs
District 9
An Education
G.I. Joe: The Rise Of The Cobra
Orphan
A Perfect Getaway
The Imaginarium Of
Doctor Parnassus
Up
Harry Potter
And The Half-Blood Prince
The Taking of Pelham 123
Transformers
The Revenge Of The Fallen
Antichrist
Terminator Salvation
Last House On The Left
Inglorious Basterds
Angels & Demons
Adventureland
Star Trek
Crank: High Voltage
Coraline
Dragonball Evolution
Let The Right One In
Drag Me To Hell
Race to Witch Mountain
Knowing
Monsters Vs. Aliens
Not Quite Hollywood
Lesbian Vampire Killers
Martyrs
The Children
Surveillance
Watchmen
The Unborn
The International
Friday The 13th
Franklyn
Push
Punisher:War Zone
The Good The Bad And
The Weird
Hush
Underworld
The Rise OF The Lycans
My Bloody Valentine
Bolt
Slumdog Millionaire

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

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

© London FrightFest Ltd. 2000-2009
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