Wild Horse Nine (2026) reviews

The Fuzzy Mushroom take on Wild Horse Nine

By Fuzzy Mushroom · Updated 10 November 2026 · The Pros 86 · The Punters 92 · Spore Score 87 · How we write our takes

Why The Punters are a little warmer than The Pros

Wild Horse Nine is a crowd-pleaser in the best sense. The Punters give it 92, The Pros 86, and the Spore Score is 87. Both camps like it a lot. Where critics hold back, it is mostly because they measure it against Martin McDonagh's own best work and find it a shade messier. Audiences just see brilliant actors swearing at each other on a remote island, and they are having a great time.

What it is

McDonagh, the writer-director of In Bruges, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and The Banshees of Inisherin, sets this black comedy in 1973, the year of Chile's coup. Two CIA men based in Santiago take a trip to Easter Island. Chris Carlisle (John Malkovich) is an ageing officer with a morphine habit, failing health and a voice recorder full of memories the agency would rather stayed buried. Lee Chesterfield (Sam Rockwell) is his protégé, and it slowly emerges that their boss, MJ (Steve Buscemi), has told Lee that Chris must not come home. Parker Posey and Tom Waits turn up in smaller roles.

What it does well

Malkovich is the reason this film exists. He won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at Venice for it, and it is easily his best part in years: crude, paranoid, funny and, by the end, heartbreaking. Rockwell, back with McDonagh after his Oscar for Three Billboards, plays the straight man with a buried conscience. The dialogue crackles in that unmistakable McDonagh rhythm, and the jokes sit right next to a serious anger about what American spies did across Latin America. Shooting on Rapa Nui itself gives the film a strange, windswept beauty.

Where it wobbles

McDonagh's American films can tip into machismo and violence that his Irish ones avoid, and some of that shows here. The young Chilean students the agents meet, played by Mariana di Girolamo and Ailín Salas, are more interesting than the script lets them be, and the plot loses a little shape in the last act. If you disliked Seven Psychopaths, be warned that this has some of the same swagger.

Who it is for

McDonagh fans, obviously. Anyone who likes their thrillers talky, their comedy black and their history uncomfortable. Fans of Malkovich, who gets the kind of big, rich role he has not had for a long time.

Context

The film was shot on Easter Island and in Santiago in spring 2025. It premiered in competition at the Venice Film Festival on 3 September 2026 and went on to Telluride, San Sebastián and Tokyo. Searchlight Pictures released it on 6 November 2026, which is also its UK release date.

The Fuzzy Mushroom verdict

Must-see, with a Spore Score of 87. Not quite Banshees, but sharp, funny and properly angry, with a career-best turn from Malkovich. Side with The Punters and book a ticket.