Frequently, we cross paths with a movie at places like Netflixs or actual video stores such as Family Video or Blockbuster. We read the synopsis, check out the cover, and for whatever the reason we put it back. That was the case for this writer, with the French zombie movie The Horde (La Horde). It was not until one late night of insomnia that this writer settled in at her desk and watched it on Netflixs instant streaming. I will try to limit spoilers by not going into excessive detail for those that have not seen it.
In 2009 directors, Yannick Dahan and Benjamin Rocher brought to us a movie written by Dahan and Rocher, along with Arnaud Bordas, Stéphane Moïssakis, and Nicolas Peufaillit. The premise of this movie is that the death of a cop at the hands of gangsters results in a group of cops going rogue. They infiltrate the headquarters of the gangsters, everything goes wrong, and the groups are forced to work together to survive the zombie apocalypse.
In the beginning, this writer considered shutting the movie off. The cops were not at all interesting and the first fifteen minutes of the movie is just setup for their revenge. It is a very slow start. Claude Perron plays Aurore who is willing to do anything for revenge. The character is unsympathetic even though it is evident that she loved the cop that was killed. As the female lead, Perron is underused and ultimately due to the lack of character development comes off in an unappealing manner.
Jean-Pierre Martins plays Ouessem who much like Perron’s character is not at all interesting in the beginning. After the attack by zombies, this character more than any of the other cops comes into his own. Though in the beginning he comes off as wishy-washy unable to make a decision and uncertain if what they are doing is the right course of action, even though he went along with it. The inner struggle he goes through in the beginning might have been really good character development, but Martins seems more like a supporting character at that point.
What do I mean? Aurélien Recoing who plays Jimenez, yet another cop comes off as the lead character up until the point he gets shot. Now in zombie movies it is a given that everyone will most likely die or at least most of them; however, I have not seen too many movies where one character has been ‘presented’ in a way to come off as the lead character more-so then the ones that were meant to be.
In movies like Dawn of the Dead, Resident Evil, Zombieland it is clear who the lead characters are. This movie, the opening does not define it well and because of that you form little in the way of emotional connections with the characters. You really do not care what happens to them and if you are like me, you will most likely consider shutting the movie off.
So you perhaps might be wondering what kept me watching it. I assure you it was not the insomnia. It got 15 minutes into the movie and it began to pick up. We get to meet the gangsters and I do admit at first I had considered shutting it off again. However, what stopped me was very simple. Jo Prestia plays Greco, one of the gangsters. There are many great characters in movies, but this is the first one in a long time that I instantly liked. I truly believed that he was a gangster. My first thought when I saw him, was this is the type of guy that comes up to you, shakes your hand, smiles deceptively, then leans in, and stabs you repeatedly with a shiv. He looks like a young Harvey Keitel and acts like Scarface. Truly a standout performance.
Eriq Ebouaney plays Adewale. There is a lot of conflict between him and his brother, Bola who is played by Doudou Masta. A lot of the conflict revolves around working with the cops. Bola (Masta) disagrees with Adewale (Ebouaney) decision to work together. There is some other underlying stuff including what happened to them in their native Nigeria as well as Greco (Prestia) trying to convince Bola (Masta) that he should stop letting his big brother boss him around and make his own decisions. This dynamic was far more compelling then that of the relationships between the cops even though there were similar conflicts between Aurore (Perron) and Ouessem (Martins).
During the course of the movie, we meet one more survivor named René played by Yves Pignot. A war veteran who seems to have flashed back to the Vietnam war. Much like Greco (Prestia) this is a remarkably interesting character. He is old, overweight, certainly a slob, who thinks the zombies are the North Vietnamese during the war. It is not exactly clear why he has flashback to that time, Alzheimer, Senility, PTSD, but whatever it is he offers a different perspective and some kick-butt gun play and heroics of his own.
After the initial introduction of the gangsters, and the arrival of the zombies, the groups are forced to cooperate with each other. This brings a lot of tension and interesting ‘friendships’. However, it also leads to the biggest plot-hole of the movie, where exactly did the zombies come from? It is never explained and all that you get from the movie is that, if you die or get bitten you become one of them. It is a zombie apocalypse movie after all, so that question should hardly matter, but for those of us who care about such things it is never explained. It is not even a matter that it is not explained well, it is simply not even touched on. We do get to see that it is not limited to that office building as the cops and gangsters escape to the roof of the old building we get a fantastic view of what the city is going through as fire and smoke engulfs it.
There are some cons:
There was little in the way of character development and most of the characters you do not care about. The ones you do, well it is a zombie movie after all the survival rate is very low. If you prefer the slow moving zombies then the speed on these ones will most likely be a big disappointment for you. Overall the acting was decent, but not Oscar winning. The subtitles were good though not great. Of course if you do not like subtitles then this movie is not for you because it is strictly a French movie. It is never explained where the zombies came from or what had ultimately transpired to cause the zombie apocalypse. The movie starts out slow and is one where you need to survive the first 15 minutes before it picks up. It can be difficult to do, due to the lack of emotional connections for the cops. Stereotypical stock characters.
Despite it cons, I would recommend this movie to horror fan and zombie fan enthusiast.
Joe Prestia does a fantastic job as Greco. He has one of the best scenes in the movie. In most zombie movies when the zombies charge the people they do not put up a fight, what-so-ever. We actually get to see someone put up one phenomenal fight for survival, starting out with his bare-hands, against two zombies. A truly amazing scene. This movie brings up a very unique answer to a question that we often see asked around the internet. Where will you be when the zombie apocalypse hits? The answer for the cops is, seeking revenge. The zombies are very nicely done and give an extremely creepy feeling. The imagery is very dark, the scenery is very decrepit which is what you would imagine a slum is suppose to look like. It did not look at all like a movie set. This movie is very unexpected, which means you cannot easily pin it down to try to figure out what will happen next. While I personally did not like the ending, I thought it was very realistic. You go in for revenge, then why would you not seek it when you have the chance? If the ending was anything other than what it was, I surely would be disappointed in the surviving characters and certainly everyone who loves character development would be as well. You cannot tell who the good guys are or the bad guys. The dialogue and the characters are gritty and fit in with the dynamic set forth by the movie.
All in all I give this movie an 8/10. There is a lot of action, gore, blood, and violence. There is partial nudity during one of the scenes. There is some amazing imagery that is showed throughout the movie. It does have a slow start and character development is very limited and near non-existent, but certainly a horror/action movie worth watching.