Author: Crossfire

The release of Wolf Creek back in 2005 gave Ozzie horror flicks the initial kick-start they needed to be recognised as genuinely terrifying. Now, four years later, there is another sickening set of events waiting in Australia, with the Horseman.

Taking the revenge-horror genre to levels never before seen, The Horseman explores one father’s desperate need for the truth when he finds his daughter has been assaulted, drugged and killed for the sake of a movie. He only has one thing on his mind, REVENGE, and no one will be getting in his way.

It is interesting the way in which the narrative combines back history with the father, Christian (Peter Marshall) first finding out about the death of his daughter and his need for revenge with the present day, a hitchhiking teenage girl called Alice (Caroline Marohasy) and their run in with the leader of the pack that killed his daughter. This keeps the action and violence at high levels from the start, while introducing a little bit more back-story the further the film develops to help a viewer understand the situation Christian is in.

The Horseman includes some of the more disturbing Australian horror scenes you will ever see. As Christian fights for revenge in the name of his daughter, there are some very vicious attacks and torture methods used as he attacks the men responsible for his daughters death. He assaults one man so badly his nose is practically none existent, sets one on fire, beats another with a crowbar and uses various other torture implements until death greets the horrendous men that took the life of a young girl. If you are at all squeamish and tend to turn your head at the sight of blood then you may be looking away for quite some time.

It is quite believable that a man can be turned into a very vicious person when hearing such devastating news. What is unbelievable however is that a female teenage hitchhiker could instantly trust a man she meets on the road, so far so that she shares a room (not bed) in a motel with him without any hesitation. Other than this aspect The Horseman is the perfect flick if torture, violence and revenge are on your mind.

Summer’s Moon is a Canadian psychological thriller that goes to prove just how dangerous hitchhiking can be. When Summer (Ashley Greene) heads out on the road to find her biological father, she gets into a spot of trouble with the police and is taken in by Tom (Peter Mooney).

Unfortunately, one night in the company of a complete stranger causes a bit of trouble for Summer when Tom and his mother refuse to let her leave. Instead she gets to spend some time in their human garden basement.

Summer’s Moon is different to other thrillers where young girls get kidnapped. Typically once the girl is abducted, it isn’t long before she is murdered. In this case it is not just some psychopathic or deranged mad man taking girls for his own pleasure. It is a mentally unstable man that believes he is growing angels in his basement garden, represented by the young women in his life being tied to flower beds and brainwashed.

That is until Tom’s father returns home and she realises that the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree. This is no ordinary family; they may not be as vicious as the killer families in Texas Chainsaw Massacre or the Devil’s Rejects but they are not far of from it and just as mentally unstable.

There are many unexpected twists to this tale that add a little more to an already sadistic narrative; incestuous relationships, murder running in the family like brown eyes or blond hair and killing your present family to be able to start afresh. The twists that occur will also have you looking at characters in a whole new light. Those that seem innocent enough at the start will gradually have you despising them and yet feeling for them in other ways as the story develops.

The only downside to Summer’s Moon was the lack of an appropriate ending. The film spends the better part of an hour building a relationship between Summer and her kidnappers, only to introduce the “daddy” figure and have everything thrown off scale when he acts as the man of the house and ultimately fails in his endeavour. Other than this disappointing ending, Summer’s Moon will twist you mind like never before.