Die Horde

When detective Mathias Rivoallan is found murdered by the gang led by the Nigerian Markudi (Eriq Ebouaney), detectives Jimenez (Aurélien Recoing), Aurore (Claude Perron), Ouessem (Jean-Pierre Martins) and Tony (Antoine Oppenheim) decide to revenge the death of his friend. The vigilantes plot bloodshed, executing Markudi, his brother Bola (Doudou Masta) and the other gangsters in the abandoned building where they are gathered. However, things go wrong when the watchman arrives and the violent gang subdues the quartet and tortures them. Meanwhile, the lookouts of the gang hear explosions, sirens and the weird sound of rabble. Sooner the survivors discover that the building is under siege of a horde of walking dead and the hungered zombies want to eat them. Ouesseem and Aurore team up with Markudi, Bola, Grego (Jo Prestia) and the veteran René (Yves Pignot) and together they have to fight against the zombies trying to find an exit from the building.

"La Horde" is an insanely gore and violent French horror film. The gore recalls "Braindead", but without the black humor of the trash cult movie of Peter Jackson. The plot is full of action, but none of the characters is likable. The origin of the walking dead is not developed and has only a minor explanation on television that mentions an epidemic. On the contrary of George Romero's slow zombies, in this flick they run like hell. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Legião do Mal" ("Legion of the Evil")

a very good french zombie film. It ticks all the boxes and has enough gore and dark humor for 'zombie' and horror fans. A cult film that is well acted, shot and is so much more fun than Dawn of the Dead style Hollywood films.

PLOT - a gang in a high rise flat are busted by undercover police. When the gang kill one of the cops it all goes wrong. Cue hundreds of zombies, weapons and hack and slash survival gore (with sick humor thrown in). Oh and of course there is the old clichéd 'has been bitten' rows.

Don't take it seriously and enjoy this mindless zombie survival fest, in a council tower block. It is like a French version of 28 Days Later.

Like Zombies? Bored? Try THE HORD :)

I have watched this film moments after seeing a low budget German zombie flick and so I could see the differences between the two immediately. While Rammbock was low budget, this one had lots of weapons and effects and plenty of gore; La Horde had superviolent gangsters and cops (the French kind, a la Luc Besson), the other one had painfully average people; the Germans had natural reactions, while the French were complete idiots; German film had believability while La Horde was ridiculous just when starting to like it. And so on and so on...

Bottom line: La Horde had the ingredients for a great movie. I was expecting (maybe that was my problem) a combination between From Dusk Till Dawn and Nid de Guêpes. It was neither, as the characters wasted bullet after precious bullet shooting zombies in the body (even if they noticed the only effective shots where legs and head) or shouting in anger and/or fear. And the thing is, in France, old men and young women are a lot scarier than zombies. Eriq Ebouaney was the highlight of the movie, but mainly because of his almighty blackness and acting, not his script lines.

A crew of cops and gangsters fight their way through a zombie apocalypse while interacting warily and sometimes violently with each other.

This is one of the best zombie movies I've seen in a while, it's surprising that I hadn't heard of it before. The zombies are the usual Romero type, although they do run instead of lurch at times. The usual zombie rules apply; shoot it in the head, and all that. The difference here is that several of the living engage in fist fights with zombies when a gun isn't handy, you don't see that very much. The fights tend to be quick, realistic and brutal. That was interesting.

The tension between cops and gangsters goes on until the very end, adding a bit of a twist to the plot. The acting is good, the production values high, and the special effects are good and gory. This isn't the backyard zombie movie your brother-in-law Cletus made with his camcorder and five drunken friends; it's a decently budgeted, well acted and somewhat original zombie movie with atmosphere.

I recommend this film to any zombie flick fan. It's in French, but there isn't that much dialog so the subtitles aren't obtrusive.

A group of law enforcement agents raid a building where some criminals are hold up. This is in retaliation for the brutal murder of one of their own and to rescue others held hostage. The raid has unexpected consequences.

This movie was off to a great start once the raid of the building commenced. It was very realistic; very tough. The criminals were convincingly hardcore and menacing. But this great start slowly began to dismantle as the movie progressed. Eventually it's edge and credibility was lost and it became for me just another farcical zombie movie. What went wrong? --A lot of things for me; some subtle and not easy to articulate. It seems to me that the decline began when the cops and the criminals decided to join forces. Perhaps because, at this point, the criminals didn't seem so menacing and in control anymore; no longer hardcore. Just terrified and confused. The dangerousness of them had been transfered to the new threat: the zombies.

Something more concrete is the fact that they kept shooting the zombies in the body or torso when clearly this wasn't working; and this after a successful head shot earlier. If it were you or I, we would have figured this out; concentrated our shots to the head. But the people in this movie never came to this elementary deduction. So credibility was lost because no one is that stupid. My guess is that the director and the writer didn't want the zombies killed too quickly; more suspenseful if they kept coming at you. How to do this? Let the people in the movie avoid head shots and common sense.

Another thing that bothered me was the introduction of this bloated, cartoonish, old fart who kept referring to the zombies as "chinks". As well, there was a scene wherein one guy took on a swarm of zombies all by himself. I did not at all find that credible. None of the zombies got even a nibble for some time. And mind you, these aren't the slow, leg-dragging, zombies of old. These are the newer, more ferocious ones that run as good as you and me.

Lastly, the advent of the zombies wasn't explained at all. In no time at all zombies were all over the place and humans were extinct or near-extinction. How could the world make such a sea-change in such a short span of time? What happened? Was there radiation from a nuclear explosion? Was there a virus? What the hell happened??? Notwithstanding all I've said so far, the movie has entertainment value. Just disappointed it turned into just another zombie movie as it progressed.

I seem to have a little time so I'll answer some of the questions of my zillions of adoring readers.

"Yes, you young lady. What's your question?"

"Are you a perv?"

"No, I am not. Next question.Yes, you young man."

"Are you a drug-fiend?"

"For godsake! You, kid, what's your question?"

"Do you wet your bed?"

"Okay. That does it! No more questions!"

"Please! I have a legitimate question!"

"Okay, make it quick."

"How do you feel when someone votes against the usefulness of your review?"

"Fair question. I feel they must already have known what the movie was about."

Love, Boloxxxi.