Herd

If you are expecting a Zombie film, you will be sadly mistaken. Why this film is called the "Herd" is beyond me and I truly do not understand why this film is rated so high by IMDb. Some of you will be fooled into watching this film by the trailer or other bias reviews. However, I want to repeat "THIS IS NOT A ZOMBIE FILM"!!!!!!!. I hoped that this film would improve, as I watched it, but it just got worse and was so boring that I just wanted the film to end (so much dialogue that led nowhere and did not enhance the story in anyway).

So, to recap: No Zombies, very little action, the main female character was so annoying that I wanted her to die, no frights, no shocks, absolutely no 'gore', hardly any blood, no scary scenes and NO ZOMBIES!! Waste your money if you want but be prepared to kick yourself for watching such a truly awful film. The title is so misleading, as there is no "HERD"!!!!!

You can tell that this is a high concept film that was pitched as a lesbian oriented version of Deliverance meets The Walking Dead.

However, it's less of a thriller...and more of a drama.

Focusing on the main couple, as they are brought into a commune that developed after the outbreak of a zombie apocalypse.

Who find themselves pitted against another, more violent, militarized group.

Sure...there are some zombies present in the film.

But their appearances are few and far between.

And never amount to anything even remotely close to being a herd.

So you can't help but be confounded by the title of the film.

There's also a problem with the onset of the viral outbreak that led to the zombie apocalypse, itself.

As it's never adequately developed or explained.

It's just, all of a sudden...sort of there.

And you never really understand how any of it came to be.

Which you can't help but blame on poor writing.

You plod through it, expecting there is going to be an explosive climax.

But this never really comes to fruition.

At least in the sense of any sort of zombie herd.

So you are left confused about what it was ever supposed to be about.

With an ending that is so stupid...it doesn't help the cause much.

The only thing you can do- in order to make any sense of it- is to assume it's all just a dream.

But it doesn't even play out like that.

Before it's over as inexplicably as it began.

Leaving you to walk away, mostly, unfulfilled.

Confounded about what it was ever supposed to be about in the first place.

In short...it's just not a very good film.

So do yourself a favour and just pass this one by.

2 out of 10.

Herd is one movie where you should definitely pay very close attention to the title. Here, the virus is never seen as the real threat, we are.

Synopsis: When Jamie Miller and her wife, Alex Kanai, try to save their failing marriage by going on a canoe trip in rural Missouri, they find themselves stranded after an accident. Alex breaks her leg during a canoe flip and they must slowly make their way to the nearest small town for help. Upon arriving they find it has been overrun by virus-infected "Heps" and extreme right wing local militias who are battling them. The leader of one of the groups, "Big John Gruber", shuttles them to safety at his bunker where they are welcomed by a seemingly friendly group of locals, but after witnessing personal and gruesome horrors, the women know they must escape. Jamie and Alex now find themselves on the run, caught between the group that saved them, a competing militia, and the growing infected Hep threat.

With the 2023 movie "Herd" being a zombie movie, of course I needed no persuasion to sit down and watch it. Had I heard about it prior to watching it? No, not even remotely. But with it being a zombie movie, then I am all game, as I have a knack for anything even remotely zombiesque.

The storyline in "Herd", as written by James Allerdyce and Steven Pierce, was rather slow paced and mundane. It wasn't a particularly thrilling or entertaining foray into the zombie genre. The narrative was rather generic and there wasn't really a whole lot happening throughout the course of the 97 minutes that the movie ran for. And that made sitting through "Herd" somewhat of a struggle and an ordeal.

The acting performances in "Herd" were okay, but nothing outstanding, mind you. There were a couple of familiar faces on the cast list, such as Timothy V. Murphy and Corbin Bernsen.

Visually then "Herd" was okay. Again, nothing outstanding, so you're not in for a grand spectacle of zombie effects, blood, guts and mayhem.

"Herd" came and went without leaving a lasting impression. And it is actually not a movie that I would recommend fans of the zombie genre to rush out and get to watch. It is more of a drama than an actual zombie movie, because the zombie outbreak felt like something that only rummaged around in the background, and there were hardly any zombies in the movie.

My rating of director Steven Pierce's 2023 movie "Herd" lands on a generous three out of ten stars.

I'm sorry to disappoint you, but there's nothing relevant to mention about this movie (to deserve such a rating)!

As you read in the description nothing in this script is new. As nothing else really. Each character, each situation, each line is so dramatically déjà vu that someone should warn horror movie lovers about this lost-of-precious-time-trap. At least that's what I'm trying to do future IMDBers who com to take a peak at the comments.

There's so many(/better) options out there that only as a masochist move you'd chose to spend your time like this!

I'm happy and at the same time sad I'm one of the first to tell you to stay off, because I won't be able to get this time back myself.

Just to the same for your fellow man!! :D.