Horsemen of the Apocalypse   Starring: Dennis Quaid, Zhang Ziyi, Clifton Collins Jr., Chelcie Ross and Peter Stormare Icon Home Entertainment RRP: £17.99 ICON10181 Certificate: 18 Available 19 October 2009

Ever since the untimely death of his wife, police detective Aidan Breslin has plunged himself into his work, consequentially having little time for his two sons, whom he simply leaves money for. When parts of a body are found, Breslin is brought in as an expert in his field. When the corresponding body is discovered strapped to a rack, having been filmed being tortured and finally killed, Breslin researches a clue which leads him to believe it has religious connotations, and in particular the Bible's Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The race is on to find the three remaining prospective, seemingly random victims. As additional information is uncovered, realisation dawns that Breslin has been drawn into the case for a very personal reason...

The PR company for Icon Entertainment has a bad habit of disrespecting the reviewer; the very person who may through his or her own opinion help the sales of the DVD release. Again, not only did I receive a standard check disc with no packaging, but the picture contains a constantly running time coding, and is flagged with a periodic intrusive message about the film being the property of Icon. Contrary to what PR companies might believe, most reviewers are not curly-moustached villains whose first thought is to copy and distribute discs. If we don't receive them in the condition they should be seen by a retail market, how are we supposed to give a fair and valued opinion? And with that off my chest, let's concentrate on the film itself.

Horsemen is a gruesome thriller or murder mystery very much in the vein of Seven or the TV mini-series Messiah. In this case, however, the killings take place in relation to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from the Bible. In fact, it's not giving too much away to reveal that the four horsemen are actually the killers working together. Dennis Quaid helps lift the film just above average fair. It's not a bad movie, but this concept has been done several times before, to the point that fictional police dramas are incorporating the premise into single odd episodes. A serial killer working alone to his own agenda has significantly more impact plot-wise, as there are no conflicting views or other diversions from his twisted agenda. The conclusion of Horsemen will come across as rather predictable to those viewers familiar with horror, murder mystery or thriller films.

6

Ty Power