Herd

As other as said, this isn't your "typical zombie film". By that, they mean there are hardly any zombies (better described as "infected") in it.

DEI is so often shoved in our faces, that there's often a Pavlovian eyeroll. I didn't really mind it in this movie. Meh.

Anyway, the acting was so-so. I didn't consider it to be completely amateurish. There really wasn't much in the way of special effects, as there were only a few scenes with the infected.

There was an interesting twist near the end, but I found it odd that the movie didn't bother really delving into it any deeper.

I don't think this deserves a 1, but I kept bouncing between a 4 and a 5. I think it's really a 4.5. I didn't have to pay to watch it, but I'm also not complaining about spending 90 minutes of my time on it, either.

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.

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.

You know when you watch something like Debbie Does Dallas and you can clearly see the so-called actors were plucked out of strip clubs and street corners just by their sheer ineptitude to perform the simple, and I mean simple task of acting convincingly... where you look at some of the directing decisions and thing "Surely I could have done better and I 'm not even a movie director!" ?- well, this movie gets you in that gear right off the bat!

Not only does this movie. Scream low-budget, it also screams "low-talent". The line delivery is high school drama-level. The drama between the two D. I. E characters is so forced and stilted while the chemistry is turned to 0 you just can't help asking "Didn't the director, or caster not see this?".

The thing that happens to one of them on the river is so lame you think, "Dude, you even zoomed-in on the area in question and it is clear that no one could get THAT hurt from that situation".

The whole militia plot I equate to something the director's 10 year old suggested, wrote and co-directed... with veto power on the final product.

I watched this "movie" with my wife and I can absolutely guarantee that any positive review of this trd is very likely paid for or by a member of the cast! Don't waste a fraction of your very valuable time sitting down to watch this. Utter garbage.