DVD Review: "Horsemen" Starring Dennis Quaid and Xiyu Xang

'Horsemen' was supposed to be one of the next big thrillers that was to hit DVD this last week with a vengeance. Unfortunately after seeing this film, it sounded more like 'The Mouse That Roared"!

The story begins in the woodlands of Michigan where an old man comes upon a serving tray in the middle of a frozen lake with the words 'Come and See' scrawled on a nearby set of trees written in blood. After what he discovers on the tray (which turns out to be a bag of human teeth), the old man contacts the police and then we see Detective Aidan Breslin on the scene trying to make sense of the case.

Breslin is a tortured and insensitive man who was married more to his work than to his wife who has recently died of cancer. Now a single parent of teen-aged son, Alex, and five-year-old son Sean, breslin must attempt to maintain a balance between his life on the streets and the life that is within his own home. As the bodies consistently rack up and the teeth and statement from the trees being his only clues, Breslin soon feels that the case may be going nowhere fast. On one particular evening, however, Breslin meets Kristen (played by Xang), the adopted daughter of one of the victims who had been found hanging from a ritual rig from hooks in her skin that had drowned in her own blood. As the case progresses, Breslin soon finds that within the sweet Kristen may be, in fact, the mind of a cold-blooded serial killer who is as crafty and conniving as her smile. Soon, Breslin must decipher all of the clues that are being left behind as he questions Kristen about the locations of the other Horsemen who have not yet killed again, but is certain that there will be another two victims to make the four total needed to match the number of Horsemen. While trying to be a good father and racing against time to find the other victims and the other Horsemen involved, Breslin walks the line between duty and madness to an end that was (unfortunately) typical for many films of the genre.

I enjoyed Dennis Quaid's performance as the shattered and unfeeling Breslin. It was every bit as good as his work from his previous film, 'Vantage Point', where he played a Secret Service agent trying to protect a foreign dignitary from a terrorist attack. The main difference between the two is that this role made him look a little more human. The main disaapointment that I saw in the film is that the script was under-developed in story. Nearly about 90% of the film had been placed into the 'gore factor', where the viewer is exposed to grotesque and inhumane acts of torture, murder, and cruelty. The story itself was there, but you had to get past the other factors in order to find the story. It was mostly conjecture and drama rather than anything spine-tingling or chilling.

Xiang unfortunately also did not deliver as the psychopathic Kristen, as well. She came off more as nothing more than a crazy person who merely thought she was intelligent due to the acts that were being performed. All I saw was a whacked-out teenager whose head wasn't quite screwed on right. The best thrillers that involve most serial killers have at least some intelligence to them, such as Anthony Hopkins portrayal of Hannibal'The Cannibal' Lecter in the Thomas Harris series of films.

'Horsemen', for the thriller-viewing set, was a major disappointment. I was able to figure out the film within about halfway through the movie as to who was who and what, as well as when. If I had wanted to include the gore factor and still have the intensity needed to make the thriller a great one, I wouuld choose the 'Saw' series of films or perhaps 'Seven' starring Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt. These to me, were some of the great thrillers of the present day that make 'Horsemen' feel like a wild stallion that has run amok.

My rating for this film is one star out of five. The screenwriters definitely needed to go back to the drawing board for this one!