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[The Horde]
Plot:Corrupt policemen wanting to avenge the death of one of their colleagues raid an abandoned tower block in which a group of gangsters are hiding. But a horde of bloodthirsty zombies suddenly appear and the policemen and criminals have to unite against them in order to survive.
Cast:Eriq Ebouaney,
Jean-Pierre Martins,
Aurelien Recoing,
Claude Perron,
Alain Figlarz.
My Thoughts:Wobbly zombie film.
Review:"The Horde" is Europe's latest stab at zombie horror. Pic follows a group of corrupt cops, who storm a hideout of a group of notorious gangsters, seeking revenge for the slaying of their fellow corrupt police officer. A shootout ensues between both factions, and things go from bad to worse when all of a sudden, zombies show up to the party and begin biting people. Those people of course become zombies themselves, and before you know it, what's left of both cop and criminal find themselves banding together to stave off death at the hands of the walking dead. The good of this movie?
It sets up a very original and unique jumping-off point for the zombie action. Pretty much anything that doesn't include stupid teens making a haphazard mistake, or government experiment gone wrong, in the zombie subgenre, I consider to be original. The film also opens up the action early on, as the shootout scenes in the movies early going are quite well done. The bad of the movie? The zombies. They just "show up". Like literally. There's no explanation as to how or why they're there.
They just appear in one scene, and begin attacking everyone. Granted, I like my zombie movies with a small element of mystery and a story that unfolds little by little, without giving away too much too early, but when zombies just pop up in a film, it usually signals the mark of a bad writer and lazy plot composing. Stuff like this would've worked back in the day, simply because movies were still evolving back then, especially zombie movies. But in 2010, I expect better.
Especially from European horror. Then there's the criminals...and the cops. Instead of turning the movie into a hyper-action-horror film, where the cops and criminals go at one another and the zombies, the leftover cops and criminals end up holing up inside a chamber in the criminals hideout, and rough-talking each other for 45 minutes. Not sure why this happens, obviously, this is a French horror film. So maybe there was an effort on the part of the writers to portray the characters as more honorable, or civilized perhaps?
But in a scenario like this, I would've liked to have scene all three players, cops, robbers, and zombies do battle within the confines of this massive criminal lair. Instead, the cops and robbers decide on some sort of temporary truce, because the undead are right outside. When in reality, the idea that crooked cops, and criminals, even in the face of the walking dead, would actually sit down in the same room with one another, and trash-talk, and drink alcohol like old college buddies...is very far from reality.
Add to that, the zombies in this movie have a certain viciousness to them, that has shades of the "rage infected" from "28 Days Later", and the infected from "REC". Not sure why the writers would waste such vicious villains by using them in just a few scenes in a 90 minute movie. What occurs after the cops and criminals decide to make a break for it, instead of starving to death inside the room they hole up in, is even worse.
The film breaks down into an American action film, where we get the guy who commits suicide in macho gun-toting fashion, the guy who claims his ethnic pride as he beats the snot out of a zombie, and the obligatory close calls where people avoid death just by the skin of their teeth. Yep, predictability, thy name is "The Horde". And it's a shame because this is a movie that should've been high on action, blood, guts, and death. Instead, it uses bad pacing, and bad spacing to ruin what potential it had. Really squandering a golden opportunity to be the best zombie movie of 2010.
The films finale works however, and there is where I credit the writers, on what note the movie ends on. It's just too bad that for such a clever, shocking, unexpected, and harsh-reality ending...the rest of the movie seems to hold back and be scared or fulfilling it's true potential. Zombie movie fans will probably love "The Horde" simply because it's a zombie movie, set within a different scenario from the usual norm. But horror fans who like their zombie movies to go above the norm, and raise the bar, will be sorely disappointed.
Positives:Nice story set up to usher in the zombie appearances. Good shootout scenes at the start, great ending.
Negatives:The film wastes a lot of potential to be great, doesn't take enough risks in act three, and instead rips off American action movie cliches. The zombies are heavily underused, and their origins are another American zombie movie cliche.
Overall:One and a half stars out of four.
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