Edit: If you think about it...this could be a lost sequel to 28 weeks later. O' God don't I wish that it was!
La Horde doesn’t do anything special to the already saturated Zombie film market, that said, the action and special effects are good enough to make it enjoyable; it’s also French.
I have always thought that Zombies, and the Zombie Apocalypse (which is soon to come!) are always good subject matter for films. That said, there sure have been a lot of things with Zombies in over the past decade. Not only in films, but in books and in games as well. Perhaps this has led to some heightened Zombie saturation which makes it difficult for the more standard Zombie Genre films to stand out. That said, there is still room for the unique Zombie horror to stand up above the rest. La Horde certainly isn’t that film. It doesn’t really do anything new with the Zombie format, in reasons for their appearance or in attributes. Nor does its story focus on anything else enough to make it unique in that respect. It is truly your most standard of standard Zombie films. That said though, this doesn’t mean that it isn’t in some ways enjoyable. Afterall I presume many will be coming to this film, not for some new zombie innovations, nor for plot or character development, but rather to see some hardcore zombie killing action – and there sure is some hardcore Zombie killing action.
The premise is simple, if not somewhat non-existent. In essence, the film makers obviously wanted to contrive a scenario where the police would have to work with criminals to escape the Zombie horde. Hence, we have our gang of police, fresh from a funeral, attempting to take revenge on those who had killed one of their team mates who are holed up in a tower block. Things go bad pretty quickly and they find themselves captured by what amounts to generic gangster (probably drugdealing) dudes. Hey, and then Zombies come. From here they must, predictably, fight their way down the tower block taking on Zombies here and there, spending a brief amount of time creating tensions between the cops and criminals. They’ll be slowly picked off one by one as is usual in such films and really its straight action to the finish, apart from when they meet the, pretty racist, ex-soldier, who helps them escape. I’ll leave a hint, some of them may or may not escape, try and guess who!
That’s pretty much it for story, and its fine for what it is: a facilitator for further action. To be honest, the film in its entirety is just a facilitator for further action. There isn’t really any enjoyment to be found in any of the characters, which are pretty much just bland stereotypes, with the ex-soldier ‘Rene’, being the only real exception, though not so much in an enjoyable way. The fact that I can’t remember any of their names doesn’t bode to well.
That this is a French film probably doesn’t aid this problem, with the barrier of subtitling perhaps increasing the gap between viewer and character, but the best foreign films manage to put characters across even through this barrier and I would argue that even if this was in English the characters would have been no more enjoyable or relative for the audience (I should probably note that there is an English Dubbed version on the DVD, so you could probably go this route – though for me Dubbing doesn’t work for anything bar animated films).
There is some characterisation. There’s the vague relationship between the brothers Bola and Adewale and the strife that that brings as well as a vague plot line about the fact that Aurore, the female cop, is blamed by her companions for the death of their colleague, though this is of little importance. In the end, if you are looking for good characters and something of a complicated and interesting plot, then definitely look elsewhere.
Turning from these issues though, prospects improve somewhat. In terms of action, it is both good quality and frequent throughout the film. Mostly I was impressed by the quality of the physical effects. The Zombies themselves look great, on par with the best Zombie films. Though they lack a character of their own, mimicking in some way the fast Zombie style of films such as 28 days later and games such as Left 4 Dead, this doesn’t really matter. The rules are plain, shoot them in the head. The characters don’t really spend much time pondering what these creatures are, or try to figure out where they come from, but rather just get down to ridding their path of the undead. When the action comes it is mostly your typical shooting spree, though in some instances there are a number of good, more physical, fight scenes with the Zombies, seeing our characters using everything from their fists, to ash trays, to fridges, to fend off the horde. The film makers were clearly willing to fill the screen with as many undead as possible, especially when the gang get down to the lower levels of the block, and these scenes certainly look great. One problem I had with the action was that much of it, due to the fact its night time and that they in a tower block with no power, is done in near total darkness, which sometimes makes it hard to see what is going on, especially in some of the quick cutting action scenes. You’re going to have to close your curtains for this one for sure!
As a side note, don’t expect much scary stuff here, the action is just straight running and gunning are there doesn’t seem to have been much of an attempt to create either a creepy mood or even to throw in some jump scares. This is a Zombie film which is rooted squarely in the action category.
In the end then, if you’re looking for something unique, La Horde will probably disappoint. But if you’re looking for a decent action film, one which doesn’t really require thought or one which makes you worry about anything you might consider a ‘story’, then this Zombie flick will most probably be an entertaining ride. For sure, it isn’t Romero, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
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