This isn’t the first time we’ve reviewed the import zombie gangster film known as The Horde (La Horde pre-import) by directors Yannick Dahan and Benjamin Rocher. I have a feeling it’s not going to be the last either as I have this sneaking suspicion that every reviewer on the site will want a shot at it when they watch it just to stress how great this film is. The screenplay itself was split up on writing between 5 writers (Arnaud Bordas, Yannick Dahan, Stéphane Moïssakis, Benjamin Rocher, and Nicolas Peufaillit) who all did an amazing job putting the piece together. What we get is a solid film about love, revenge, gangsters, and zombies.
We see the film starting with one man who has been brutally murdered. His friends and lover vow they are going to have revenge on the gangster who was responsible for killing him as there doesn’t appear to be another way to currently bring him the justice he properly deserves. Yes murder by cop, the only way to deal with gangsters in France apparently. The plan though goes terribly wrong and the cops are caught and in the case of a couple of them killed right off the bat. Right before the rest are executed for bothering this gangster’s night though someone they had killed previously turned out to not be quite dead after all.
It takes the entire group of gangsters to take him down and they lose a couple in the process. The new plan, once they realize that there are more, is to combine forces with the cops as these aren’t a stupid set of crooks – at least their leader isn’t.
What happens following this is an all out use of guns, axes, and whatever they can get their hands on to rip through the zombie horde that is in the building to try to get to safety. Mix in an insane ex-soldier who happens to have some spare weapons from his days in ‘the war’ and you’ve got a great mix of people who can’t trust each other past surviving the undead outbreak. While some of the introduction may start off slow don’t let this fool you as zombies are constantly thrown into the mix and the characters get little to no downtime to try and recover. Action is intense and ongoing which is a perfect mix of what should happen when you mix running zombies (sorry slow loving zombies) and the enclosed area of a giant apartment building.
You really get sucked in and I don’t know if it was the great acting (the subbed version was better but I skimmed the dubbed version and it’s pretty spot on), the pace, or the special effects but the film came together perfectly and was 110% fun to watch!
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