Horde [Blu-ray]

The zombie apocalypse is at hand! With the proliferation of books, films, video games and even TV shows in recent months--there is no escape from the marauding undead in contemporary entertainment. And now France is jumping into the fray with the ultra-violent "The Horde." Shot in the gritty style of a 70's era crime melodrama, "The Horde" is a relentless and brutal exercise in zombie mayhem. If you enjoy action combined with horror, "The Horde" is far from a bad picture--but, in the grand scheme of things, I'm not sure that it has much new to offer the genre. As someone obsessed with zombie lore (and what's not to adore about those flesh eating lugs?), I want to say I loved "The Horde" and yet I'm left giving it only a qualified recommendation. If you like zombie pictures, you may like "The Horde"--but if it's not your typical fare, there are far better films to whet your appetite for blood and guts.

Set in a mostly abandoned apartment building, four cops seek a little street justice after one of their own has been murdered by a Nigerian crime boss. Taking on his violent gang is only the first obstacle on what becomes an increasingly harrowing night. In the midst of some hysterically overwrought cops versus criminal confrontations, corpses start to reanimate. Soon the survivors from both groups must tentatively put away their differences with the goal of survival. It seems the entire city has suddenly been overrun, but don't expect any sort of explanation--you pretty much have to take things at face value. Luckily, our group is well armed and it's an all out war within the confines of the isolated building. The gore is plentiful, a ridiculous amount of bullets fly, and there is more hand to hand combat than seems wise! The action sequences are exceedingly brutal, but well staged and executed with ferocity.

My tepid recommendation stems from several factors. The characters are rather unappealing as a bunch and their constant arguing takes its toll on the viewer, becomes repetitive, and distracts from the more immediate danger posed by the ravenous horde. There is no zombie backstory, the humans are overblown and underdeveloped, and the minimalist plotting lacks any real originality. The entire film consists of "let's get out of the building." For warriors, our ragtag group of survivors is surprisingly dim about recognizing the need for head shots too!

In summation, I just felt like I'd seen it all before. The visual style is the most compelling aspect of "The Horde." There is a moment near the end of the film where one man holds a position in the parking garage and is surrounded by hundreds of zombies. This one sequence is so alive and exciting, it made me reflect on what was missing from the rest of the film. I enjoyed "The Horde" and got a chuckle at the last scene--I just didn't love it. So if this is your "thing"--by all means, check it out. "The Horde" was ultimately just a little thin and familiar (for me) to rank with the greats. KGHarris, 10/10.

This film was great to watch. Obviously it centers around a group of uninfected humans who find themselves suddenly in a zombie-infested world. More than your standard zombie fare, this film has a great story underlying the basic zombie eating deal. In the beginning, a team of police attempt to act against a crime boss, of sorts. This scene does a great job of introducing us to one of the main protagonists, the crime lord who proudly claims to be a Nigerian and plays the part perfectly, an unquestionably ruthless killer who will stop at no ends to meet his needs. It just so happens that the police and the crime boss realize they have to work together to survive, and the earlier scene of conflict creates a rich set of characters that is maintained throughout, and they variously try to survive, while clinging to their original motives of being enemies. I have to say that the Nigerian actors part was especially great; there was simply something captivating about his performance.

For zombie purists, you may take exception at this film, so be warned. In this film, zombies are not slow, easy to kill nuisances. Like the Friday the 13th remake, they're superfast, superstrong beings that are really quite hungry. If you're someone who can't deal with this characterization of zombies, move on. If you can, run to watch this film.

I rented The Horde on Amazon Instant Video because I always do that with foreign material that has not seen wide or limited release here in the US. My review is based on the merits of the movie itself, not the dvd package and what it contains.

THE GOOD: There are the seeds of what could have been a truly great horror film. There is also lots of action and some humor that should entertain on various levels.

THE BAD: A deeply flawed and underdeveloped script. Confusing direction. Terribly weak characters. To me, those three - script, direction, characters - are the key elements that can make or break any film.

Watching the trailer and reading all the reviews and high ratings here got me excited about this film. I love zombies. I love slow shambling zombies. I love fast hyper agressive zombies. I love all types of zombies. But what I especially love, are well developed zombie stories. This however, is not one. All these reviews are so misleading as to the merits of the film. Below I will explain my problems with the film. I'll include some spoilers.

A group of truly dumb cops, who act more like Mafiosi wannabes, decide to get revenge on a low level criminal hiding in an abandoned high-rise building who killed one of their own in some unseen episode prior to the beginning of the film. These dummies show no police training or discipline whatsoever and instead bicker constantly about family issues. These are supposed to be the good guys by the way. These are the ones we the audience are supposed to root for. I'm all for revenge stories, but the people taking revenge should at least be smart. These people are not. I didn't root for them. And you probably won't either.

Now, the criminals. There are a bunch of them. Just as dumb as the cops and pretty much faceless and nameless, except for three main ones. Two Nigerian brothers with deep emotional issues. I could see a good indie drama film in there, but of course this is a zombie movie so who cares about exploring their emotional issues. And some creepy looking dude from somewhere in Europe. There are also two people who live in the building, the super/caretaker who is another dummy, and this old crazy perverted veteran of some Southeast Asian war.

All these dummies start shooting at each other right away because it seems they have a need for bloodshed. One of the cops says they came for a bloodbath. The blood starts gushing right away from even the tiniest scratch. They should have replaced zombies with vampires and the story would have made more sense. In fact, the zombies seem more like vampires. They are so hyper agressive and difficult to kill that they make the zombies from Zack Snyder's Dawn Of The Dead remake seem slow by comparison. They also have the ability to reason to some extent because they don't just eat the people they attack. They take the bodies and stash them away for later meals.

This is all sort of funny because without any heroes to identify with and root for, you are left with little to do but laugh at how dumb these people are. They are armed to the teeth, but they waste their bullets shooting in every direction expect the zombies' heads. Even if they have never seen zombie movies, everyone knows that if you shoot someone, anyone, living or undead, in the head they will go down. These "hardcore" criminals and vengeful cops are the only ones who don't know that apparently. On top of that they waste precious escape time using martial arts on the hyper agressive vampire zombies.

Then, comes a scene that is so deeply disturbing that you wonder about the mindset of the writers/directors of the film. A woman zombie shows up and runs to attack them. They shoot her legs to keep from coming at them. Then, the younger Nigerian brother, the creepy looking dude and the old perverted veteran taunt her with sexual insults and threaten to rape her. This goes on for quite a while. After the older Nigerian brother shoots her in the head to stop the show, the old perv undresses her to show what a nice body she has. What was the point of this? Why was there a need for this? It's really unsettling that the writers felt the need to insert a scene where the survivors try to sexually humiliate a zombie. I'm not opposed to scenes of such difficult nature, but they should make sense within the context of the story. Like the sexual brutality that takes place in The Divide. It makes sense in that story. It this story it just seems disturbing on the part of the writers.

Overall, with its premise of a group of survivors trapped inside a high-rise fighting off a zombie horde, the film had the potential to be good, but bad script and direction didn't help. And even though the actors are decent, their characters are so weakly written that the film just doesn't have much to offer. Unless your thing is dummy characters who can't shoot zombies in the head and try to molest them. I didn't hate it, but I cannot give it more than 2 stars. Hopefully, someone can remake this properly. I doubt it, but it could be a truly classic horror film if done right.