The Horsemen (V)
| release date | July 14 2009 |
| studio | Lionsgate |
| director | Jonas Akerlund |
| writer | David Callaham |
| starring | Dennis Quaid, Ziyi Zhang, Lou Taylor Pucci, Peter Stormare, Barry Shabaka Henley, Neil McDonough, Patrick Fugit |
| rating | R |
| trailer 1 | Trailer #1 |
6 Comments
When I saw the one-sheet for `Horsemen’ plastered on the wall at my local cinema here in Georgia (which seems to be the only spot it is playing), I immediately made plans to attend a showing the next day. I know WHY this movie isn’t being promoted (read further), but I still didn’t expect to be the only person attending the film…I mean, it’s Dennis Quaid. Oh…wait…its Dennis Quaid.
The opening scene is beautiful in its vividness & leads the viewer believe this film may be something intensely thrilling. Unfortunately, when the next scene change begins and Dennis Quaid seems immediately intensely bored to be doing his role as the lead detective, I know this is going to be rough ride. A horror and/or thriller movie can have choice acting as we’ve all seen before. Attempts were made here as the beautiful and award-winning Ziyi Zhang is one of the few reasons one might see this. Gripping in her acting, she plays bad good.
Besides the lack of Quaids’ lack of drama, it is the concern of how taboo and politically incorrect the killings are for most of `Mainstream America’ that has kept this film hush-hush. Examples include the extremely homophobic army brat whose gay brother looks to him for love and support; when his younger brother is…erm, dead, the army jerk, erm, brat, continues to rant on about how he is dead, etc. because he is a `f’n fag*ot’ no less than 8-times. Perhaps the film chatter has become silenced due to additional scenes involving a father who had raped his adopted daughter…or the son who was killing himself in front of his father due to a complete lack of a parent’s love.
The subject matter in this movie DID make me think about it the next day. If the Director, Jonas Akerlund (Music Video Director extraordinaire) was intending to get a personal message across, he succeeded. He did not however, create an effective horror/thriller film; the gore is moderate and thrills are very minimal. I wouldn’t jump in the saddle just yet.
3 skulls my ass. Think of the movie se7en, with better twists and less rain, and you get Horseman. Ironically the only thing I didn’t like about the fim was Quaid’s acting, which was subpar when i expeced it to be great. Overall, an excellent movie definately worth seeing.
Apart from the sickly-sweet ending, this was a great film! Very tense, dark atmospheres, no idea who was doing what or why. The denoument was a bit of a disappointment, but I would still recommend it despite that one gripe
Very interesting plot premise, nice amount of gore, and Dennis Quaid ae the good points.
The bad points are it was to easy to figure out, figured out the shocker ending half way in, and when you find out what is really going on you go “HUH???” but it was a good movie.
I would recommend it only as a rental.
Spoilers are here but to be honest who gives a crap since the movie was a decent film. Dunes should stick to their remakes they are way better then their actual real films.
But here are 4 things I’ve learned.
1. Don’t raped your adopt daughter, because she will prob become a complete nut job.
2. never call your bro a fag, and always look out for him, because if not mostly likely he will go ape shit and fuck some serious shit up.
3. Always be there for your son’s and daughters cus if not they will lose their minds and umm become some horseman thingy. COOL.
4. Fuck if I know i forgot.
i can see why this film collected dust a while before being dumped to dvd, the only real interesting feature in this, is Dennis Quaid, the film really starts off with some good mystery to it, even hitting me with a nice surprise and a shocking moment, as well as one part that actually made me jump which is super rare anymore, but unfortunatly these few things arent enough to save the film from the terrible 3rd act, the reasoning is down right laughable behind the reasons for the things that happen.
there was some really terrible acting by Eric Balfour and what a waste by having a good actor like Patrick fugit and then giving him very little screen time to build up enough interest in that character, ultimatly in the end the film surely disapoints, someone said something about how if people paid for tickets to see more original films than remakes that there would be more original films to be made, but just because the idea isnt a remake doesnt mean it’s a good one.
I have a hard time believing that people invest time and millions of dollars into some of these stories that hollywood puts out.
Instead of blaming fans for not buying tickets to see more original films, you also have to realize how can they buy tickets when these films get limited release and dumped to dvd?
To anyone considering watching this movie, just remember there’s a reason this went direct to DVD. This movie tries to be a clever horror/thriller… but the script sucks. It’s not well written by any means. It’s highly predictable but still really doesn’t make much sense. It looks thrown together. This movie is just not good. Don’t waste your time.
it was okay
Very very great! Just a great movie with Dennis Quaid @ his best! You will love this movie, its really bloody and great, just a flat-out great film! 1 of the best films ive seen this year since Drag Me To Hell. Great Movie!
Started out as a puzzle worth working your brain out, but I got the twist before they revealed it. Did they give up to many clues? Did they want us to figure it out? Or did they just made a bad, predictable movie? Hmmmm.
P.S. Dennis Quaid’s performance here reminded me of Kiefer Sutherland in Mirrors. BAD BAD ACTING.
Started out good but then lost steam.
this is a ridiculous piece of crap. written for viewers who possess a dismal IQ. bad writing, bad acting, bad directing. skip this, you have better things to do.
I really enjoyed this film up until the last 20mins, It went a bit lame there, with the constant flash backs and the ending was really bad, both of them.
It completely messed the entire film, Dennis wasn’t too bad although he still looks like a tired coke addict, all in all I thought it would be worse than that, not bad for straight to dvd
This movie is actually quite cool. I really enjoyed this up until the final 20 minutes or so.
(SPOILERS)
They spent the whole movie talking about the 4 Horsemen, and then it is revealed that there are thousands of Horsemen which are just kids who are mad at their parents, seriously.
If they hadn’t destroyed the lore that they spent building throughout the whole movie, it would have been head and shoulders better. The movie should have ended right when Quaid saw Alex. The explanation killed the movie.
Still, 6/7 out of 10.
Who the fuck walked out of this film thinking that they saw something new. This film was not terible but the twist or lack their of in this movie could be seen coming a mile away. This film had its moments of gory scenes and disturbing twisted characters it had a interesting premise but the film just did not hold up. Dennis Quaid plays a widower amd daralect dad who is to consumed by his work as a police detective to pay attention to his kids. His oldest son is bespoken the unofficial duty of babysitter and rolemodel to his younger brother. Quaid is to busy reserching a string of murders and suicides perpetrated by a cult. Disgruntled young people who are torn apart by their own confusion and rage caused by their own family dramas. They are known only as the horsemen. Looks like I said to much or havent said enough. A movie with a few gory scenes with no real satisfactory conclusion.
I remember this movie being filmed in my neighborhood a while back. Ha ha. Then I watched it and I was utterly impressed. It is slow, so you must have patience and pay attention to detail. But I enjoy movies like this. It was predictable. I predicted the ending within the first few minutes, as a joke. But still. I recommend this to anyone simply because it is a wonderful, heartbreaking story.
This showed some promise in the first scenes– dark/stylish murders, cryptic clues and messages, trying to figure out the next, etc. (total homage to Seven). Then Zihi Zhang’s character started ruining each scene she was in, the story jumped around too much, and the twist got too corny. This is not good, but ok for a view–just don’t purchase it.
dennis quiad did an awesome job in this movie:), acting was great, story was awesome, and good kills:)
I actually really enjoyed this movie. It had a very similar feel as “SE7EN” but without feeling like a rip-off. Dennis Quaid is always excellent and the ending was absolutely chilling. Good job on this one. Wish it hadn’t been strait to DVD, would have liked to see this one in the theatre.
My PC won’t let me add a skull rating for some reason to this review, so I will give this film 2 1/2 skulls. “The Horsemen” has some fairly interesting ideas and some good acting, but other movies have covered this territory more successfully.
Dennis Quaid plays a homicide detective who’s investigating a series of murders which are inspired by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from the Book of Revelations. He is estranged from his two sons following the death of his wife. The problem is that they don’t know how to handle their grief as a family. Quaid does a very fine job with the family scenes, as do the boys.
He’s not as convincing playing a detective. A large part of the problem is that the screenwriters spend very little time on Quaid actually doing his job. Quaid might seem more authentic if the screenwriters did. Ziyi Zhang plays Quaid’s prime suspect for the murders. Zhang has the physical beauty to play a woman who can convince others to perform unspeakable acts. Otherwise, unfortunately, I didn’t find her performance very convincing.
As other reviewers have suggested, “The Horsemen” covers territory that other movies have handled more creatively and suspensefully. Plot elements seem to come from out of the blue and aren’t developed sufficiently. The connection between those committing the murders isn’t made clear. Despite some good acting, I can only give “The Horsemen” an average rating.