Horsemen: Review By Bryan Yentz

If there's one thing that thrillers love, it's killers with a hint of possible righteousness to their actions; a seemingly "pure" motive that somehow justifies the morbid ends brought about by gruesome means. David Fincher's "Seven" used the seven deadly sins as a foundation for its murderer's unrepentant "cleansing"; "Saw" established a hypocritical villain displaying the importance of life through merciless devices of torture and pain; "Righteous Kill" had a death-dealer who targeted criminals... While nothing new, this continuing trend also rears its head on television with the brilliant book-based show "Dexter" as well as videogames like the bone-crunchingly brutal "Condemned" series. All of these forms of storytelling seem to be quite popular because of the way we as viewers, readers, and players are able to live vicariously through these characters. We want justice, power, the means to write the wrongs we've so deeply felt...

And that's what leads us to this new piece of "killer with a moral". A movie that's able to show how worn-out the "just killer" concept has become, all the while putting a slightly new spin on it as well.

Like many a movie before it, Horsemen is a murder-mystery with religion as its focal-point for disaster. Borrowing from the book of Revelation, a group of killers adopt the Four Horsemen (Death, War, Famine, and Pestilence---get the title?) as a theme for their malicious intentions. Hot on their trail is an emotionally distant detective played by the rather grizzled Dennis Quaid. As one would expect, the farther he's drawn into the ritualistic deaths, the more the bread-crumb clues begin stacking up to something far more menacing than just a few dead bodies.

Now, as I already mentioned, this whole conceit is getting a bit weak in the knees. That's most likely the reason that this was marked for a straight to DVD release in the first place (Just look at the big-screen flop that Righteous Kill was). But as we know, straight to DVD doesn't automatically translate "bad", and can often times be a gem lost amongst the Hollywood trash---the psychological horror "Sauna" for instance. For the most part, Horsemen rides a fine line between cinematic monotony and compelling watch. It succeeds because of two main factors: the casting, and cinematography. By pulling a "True Romance" kind of deal, the filmmakers have acquired quite the mix of actors that I was quite surprised (and happy ) to see albeit for the five or so minutes they were actually on screen. Aside from Dennis Quaid turning in quite an honest performance (especially towards the climax) and Ziyi Zhang trying to speak in a cruel English; Patrick Fugit manages some time on screen along with Chelsie Ross, Peter Stormare, and Eric Balfour. And as if that wasn't enough, Clifton Collins Jr.---who really deserves more credit than he's been given thus far---plays Quaid's right hand man, Stingray (yeah, I know---cheesy name). Now, as pleased as I was with who was picked for the film, I would have really liked to see some of these characters play stronger, more distinguishable roles than just back-seat to ol' Quaid and his endeavors. Actors like Fugit and (oddly enough) Balfour pull their weight when the camera catches 'em in its lens, but everyone else seems to be... Well, just there, as if they knew their characters weren't important so they didn't even bother turning in memorable performances.

The other noteworthy feature to the film is (as I already stated) Eric Broms' cinematography. The opening credits display some excellent location shots as Quaid drives through a desolate snow-caked Michigan while morning mist cascades down frozen sheets of ice. Combined with the decent directorial efforts of Jonas Akerlund (who's previous portfolio was that of music videos---go figure), Horsemen comes through the gate with some eye-catching moments be it landscape shots, corridor dolly shots, or Mr. Quaid pulling his head out of water; attention has been applied to making this movie look as A-list as possible despite the B-list that the DVD shelves might scream.

Sadly though, the film suffers due to the fact that we've all seen this type of tale play out before. While Horsemen is competent, the feeling of "been there, done that" can never fully be shaken. The aspect of those wronged and why they do what they do does hit a ping of interest, but the fact that I knew who the villain was within the first 5-10 minutes of the film kind of ruined the surprise of the final outcome. The story's development also takes some hits when it leaps needed explanations so as to get to its conclusion quicker. And as if that wasn't enough, some obnoxious edits akin to a Saw film are used whenever a crime-scene needs depicting.

While Horsemen is nothing remarkable when it comes to the genre, it still delivers a solid (if not somewhat problematic) experience as well as an ending that has the capacity to haunt even as the credits roll. It's an ambitious work, but it's missing key elements which would not only make it feel complete, but drag it out of the towering shadow of its celluloid predecessors.