Film: The Horde
Release date: 20th September 2010
Certificate: 18
Running time: 93 mins
Director: Yannick Dahan & Benjamin Rocher
Starring: Claude Perron, Eriq Ebouaney, Aurelien Recoing, Doudou Masta, Jean-Pierre Martins
Genre: Action/Crime/Horror/Thriller
Studio: Momentum
Format: DVD
Country: France
Writer/director Yannick Dahan adds some hyper stylised action to the traditional zombie apocalypse movie with The Horde, a perfect marriage of brawn and splattered brains.
In the desolate northern slums of Paris, a rogue police unit, headed up by Jimenez, execute an unsanctioned attack on local drug lord Adewal, to take revenge for the death of one of their own.
On arriving at the apartment building, events soon lead to a bloody shootout and the police are captured and held at the mercy of the drug cartel. Yet, when the casualties of the bloodshed begin to rise from the dead and attack them, the group soon realises that they have more than each other to worry about.
Caught in the middle of an outbreak of bloodthirsty undead cannibals, Jimenez and Adewal form a shaky partnership in order to survive and escape the apartment building, much to the chagrin of their companions…
Once a niche sub genre of horror, the zombie film has gained ubiquity in the past decade, largely thanks to filmmakers who wish to pay homage to its ‘70s heyday. Popularised by George A. Romero, who liked to attach allegory and biting satire to the undead apocalypse, Z-horror has now become a shadow of its former self. Fast zombies, Nazi zombies, zombies with social issues - the zombie iconography has been endlessly recycled and run into the ground. For every success, (Shaun Of The Dead, [REC], Romero’s continuing Dead Saga) there is an army of soulless barrel scrapers (Zombie Diaries, Zombie Highway, the Resident Evil franchise).
What makes Yannick Dahan’s B-Movie different from the norm is that he doesn’t seek to over complicate his undead maguffins. There is no attempt at humanising the horde, nor are they presented as a metaphor for the dead eyed masses of the status quo. They are simply a plot device, a catalyst that exists merely to perpetuate some Hollywood style action beats.
The pacing of the film is furious throughout, from a bloody botched sting in the opening act to a series of brutal zombie attacks. The film only slows for a short breather as the disparate group meet a loony resident (the film’s only weak link, who wears his welcome out way before the final act), and hideout while going through the usual “what’s going on?” paces.
Dahan and co-director Benjamin Rocher pile on set piece after set piece, and it becomes hard to focus on such frivolities as ‘plot’ and ‘substance’ - who needs them when there’s an army of zombies being cut to pieces by an antique WWII machine gun. The films showpiece sees hero Jimenez, perched atop a car, taking on the horde with a pair of pistols a machete and a dirty vest. Its OTT, it’s iconic, and it encapsulates everything that makes this film so appealing.
The cast is deliciously expendable, no character spends much time on screen before being made into lunch, it is left to Perron and Ebouaney to keep the audience invested in the films flimsy human element. Jimenez and Adewal make for a strong hero/anti-hero pairing; the former an honest cop forced into an unlikely situation, the latter an honourable criminal with trust issues and a strict moral code. It’s a testament to these central performances that we actually care about the fate of these genre staples.
Overall, The Horde is an action movie that just happens to have zombies in it, its cops Vs criminals Vs the living dead. Not particularly original, and lacking any real substance, it still crams enough energy and enthusiasm into its running time to keep gore hounds hooked.
Blood, guts, zombies and octane; Yannick Dahan throws an army of undead into a generic action plot to create an interesting and fun hybrid. One dimensional characters and wafer thin plotting aside, The Horde is a thoroughly enjoyable popcorn horror. KT
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