Fridae

There has been too many gory splatterfest movies in recent years, and although Horsemen doesn't push the boundaries any further, it offers precious little else in terms of plot development or acting. The sophomore film of music video director Jonas Akerlund looks pretty good throughout, but the audience would find themselves a few steps ahead of the storyline in spite of the red herrings, which undermines the impact the film could have had.

Commencing with a "shock" sequence where a woodsman discovers a platter of ripped out teeth, justifying the presence of "forensic dentistry expert" Aidan Breslin (Dennis Quaid) on the case, Breslin soon discovers that the serial killings are somehow related to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

It's really nothing we haven't seen before, and no matter how elaborate the setup of the murders and the crime scenes, movie audiences these days are too jaded to be impressed by such theatrics (especially since the Saw series). What redeems Horsemen is the family scenes, which sees Breslin struggling to come to terms with his wife's untimely demise, and his fractured relationship with his two sons.

Zhang Ziyi, who plays the adopted daughter of an early victim but turns out to be involved in the killings, turns in a very "ferosh" performance but still comes across as being rather unconvincing. The film also stumbles to an ending that feels too slapdash and unsatisfying, which has become an unfortunate trademark in the splatterfest genre in recent years. Much as the studios would like to believe it is true, a copious amount of blood and gore is not enough to turn a mediocre movie into a good one.