Film Festival 09 - The Horseman
The Horseman
Australia 2008, 95m
Director: Steven Kastrissios
Festivals: Melbourne 2008; SXSW 2009
This raw and relentless lo-fi thriller trades star power and big
budget superficiality for gritty realism and ferocious performances
and joins the pantheon of such brutal revenge pics as Straw Dogs
and Last House on the Left, films that refused to sanitise the ugly
reality of their grueling subject matter. Right from its
jaw-dropping opening, the film sets up the thrust of its narrative.
A father has found out his runaway daughter has died of an overdose
and he wants some answers. Discovering she was abused in some
filthy homemade porno before her death, his rage becomes white hot,
and his sole purpose to rid the world of every scumbag involved.
Things become complicated when an innocent female hitchiker
unexpectedly joins his mission of hellish retribution. The gifted
young director Steven Kastrissios has created a hybrid road movie
that careens from thriller to balls-out horror. Warning, not for
the squeamish.
www.thehorsemanfilm.com
