WITH blood and gore oozing from virtually every frame, Brimstone, a brutally sadistic and unrelentingly grim western written and directed by Dutch filmmaker Martin Koolhoven, will tax your ability to stomach violence to the extreme. Throw in a female anti-hero determined to break free from her brutal past, a Bible-carrying villain, frequent references to the Old and New Testaments - and you have a cowboy movie with a difference.

It's an interesting if not particularly successful approach, but Brimstone doesn't beat about the bush too much with its ominous (and overly long) tale about God-fearing Dutch immigrants forging an existence in the unforgiving Wild West.

The film comprises four episodes (told in reverse chronology after the opening chapter, with the last chapter picking up from the first) under chapter headings with religious overtones: Revelation, Exodus, Genesis and Retribution.