Horsemen (2009)

Director:

Jonas Åkerlund

Writer (WGA):

Dave Callaham (written by)

Release Date:

6 February 2009 (Italy)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Four victims. Four painful secrets.

Plot:

A recently widowed detective still grieving over his wife's death discovers a shocking connection between himself and the suspects in a serial killing spree linked to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Plot Keywords:

Death | Murder | Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse | Fetus | Kitchen

Cast

Dennis Quaid	...	Aidan Breslin
Ziyi Zhang	...	Kristin
Lou Taylor Pucci	...	Alex Breslin
Clifton Collins Jr.	...	Stingray
Barry Shabaka Henley	...	Tuck
Patrick Fugit	...	Corey
Eric Balfour	...	Taylor
Paul Dooley	...	Father Whiteleather
Thomas Mitchell	...	Thug
Liam James	...	Sean Breslin
Chelcie Ross	...	Police Chief Krupa
Manfred Maretzki	...	Bob
Arne MacPherson	...	Navratil
David Dastmalchian	...	Terrence
Peter Stormare	...	David Spitz

Also Known As:

Horsemen of the Apocalypse (UK) (video title)

MPAA:

Rated R for grisly and disturbing content, some sexual images and language.

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS | Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

USA:R | Hong Kong:III | Singapore:M18 (cut) | Singapore:NC-16 (edited version) | UK:18 | Australia:MA | France:-16 | South Korea:18 | Japan:R15+ | Philippines:R-13 (MTRCB) | Argentina:16

Filming Locations:

Bell Hotel, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Company:

Mandate Pictures

Trivia:

Director Jonas Åkerlund was particularly keen on making the movie as authentic as possible in real locations. Consequently only two sets were built for the film.

Goofs:

Continuity: (At 35:00) The main character runs into the bathroom, fills the sink with water, and puts his head in it. With the underwater camera you see he gets his hair wet but when he pulls his head out of the water his hair is dry.

Movie Connections:

References Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves (2005) (VG)

Soundtrack:

The Last Time We Talked

Shallow and pretentious

Somewhere at the core of Horsemen there is a good idea and a riveting premise. The execution, however, is all style and too little substance. There may have been a great screenplay at the beginning of the development of this project, but if there was, it got into the wrong hands along the way. The end product is a mess, like Frankenstein's monster, as if it were pieced together from material from past, better films.

Every single "serial killer on the loose" movie cliché is lined up, making Horsemen a tribute to these flicks or a "best of" compilation at best and a sad copy at worst. There is a neat twist almost half way through that cannot be described without spoiling the central premise, the only truly interesting part in the film, but in the end nothing remotely remarkable is done with it.

I am very sure that the people at Platinum Dunes are very good at what they do and they consciously aim their releases at a specific genre audience and most of their films are a success in that respect (I liked the raw energy of the Friday the 13th remake) but Horsemen is a failure of diabolical proportions. Dennis Quaid looks like he's sleepwalking through his role and his character is ridiculously clichéd. The rest of the cast cannot really do anything with their roles either, their characters being sketches at most – there is not one credible personality in this film's universe.

Photography is great, though: the film looks slick – just like an episode of CSI. The similarities do not end there; there are even a couple of those CGI zooms into wounds accompanied by a metallic sound. In fact, the whole film reminds me of an episode of a Bruckheimer TV procedural, only somewhat more gruesome.

Thankfully brief, Horsemen clocks in at a mere 80 minutes, but there isn't a single memorable moment in the entire experience. The "message" or "controlling idea" in the end ultimately turns out to be pretentious and very shallow. This idea could have been worth a much better execution – no pun intended.