Horsemen (18)

Dir: Jonas Akerlund, USA , 2009, 86mins

Cast: Lou Pucci, Dennis Quaid, Patrick Fugit

Review by Christopher Upton

Many music video directors have successfully made the leap from MTV to feature film, and taking Michel Gondry and Spike Jonze as examples, it should be positively encouraged. That being said Horsemen is the prime example of why certain music directors should stick to what they're good at.

In a remarkably similar crime scenario to David Fincher's Seven, there is a killer on the loose taking their cues wholesale from the bible. This time however, they've gone to revelations and a masochism convention and come back with tales of four horsemen and a load of kinky hook-based equipment. Cop Dennis Quaid is soon wading in to try and dissolve the situation before the final bodies come in, while simultaneously trying to rebuild a broken relationship with his son.

It's possibly unfair to compare this to Seven as, although they have both taken their serial killers actions from the bible, Fincher's killer had entirely different reasons. But it's also unfair as Horsemen has none of the creeping tension and character relationships that were built up in Seven. There is hardly any character interaction before the bodies start mounting up, and the tension between father and son is barely noticeable while their relationship remains confusing. Not the fault of Pucci or Quaid, who have both demonstrated in numerous roles that they can perform family dysfunction well; Pucci in Thumbsucker immediately springs to mind. But the troubled relationships that seemed so believable there are noticeable by their absence here.

This might not seem that important in a thriller where normally the case comes above all. But, as the film progresses this becomes an absolutely vital factor. In fact the father-son bond is so important it underpins everything that happens, and yet it remains underdeveloped. Akerlund seems much less concerned with character believability than with trying to create a Silence of the Lambs style psychopath in the form of Ziyi Zhang. Unfortunately, the character is neither icy nor threatening and any hint of malice is removed by the script. In place of this is a bizarre sexual frisson which is just uncomfortable- not in a tension building way but in a way that seems unnecessary, and unlikely, considering her history.

There's not really many positives to take from this film, it's mercifully short running time does luckily kill it before the preaching starts, but this isn't quite early enough. Once it's finished you may feel not unlike the victims in the film- trapped, hurt and awaiting a comfortable solution. But, like the unfortunates in the film, you aren't going to get one.