The Horde

When I sat down to watch the 2016 movie "The Horde" here in 2024, I was unfamiliar with the movie. And I actually thought it was a zombie movie. Yeah, I hadn't heard about the movie prior to sitting down and watching it here for the first time.

Writer and leading actor Paul Logan put together a rather generic script. It was an odd combination of a traditional young adult in the woods type of movie mixed with elements of deranged hillbilly killers roaming the woods. Sure, it was watchable, but you're not in for anything grand or innovative here. It was, in a lack for a better term, a rather generic hillbilly slasher flick. Writer Paul Logan didn't really bring anything great to the genre, that haven't already been seen in movies such as "The Hills Have Eyes", "Wrong Turn" and the like.

The movie started out pretty nice, but then the balloon sort of deflated and you have to venture more than 30 minutes into the movie before things start to pick up.

There are some familiar faces on the cast list, in bigger and smaller roles, with the likes of Paul Logan, Costas Mandylor, Bill Moseley, Don Wilson, Sydney Sweeney and Vernon Wells. I was initially rather thrilled when I saw Bill Moseley's name on the screen, but unfortunately he only had a minor support role in the movie. The acting in the movie were fair.

Visually then the movie was okay. There were some visceral killing scenes that sort of managed to spruce up an otherwise generic and bland storyline a bit. So thumbs up for that accomplishment.

I have to say that the movie's title, "The Horde", was poorly chosen, as there was no horde in the movie. So it just made absolutely no sense. And it definitely wasn't a zombie movie, which I initially believed it was.

My rating of director Jared Cohn's 2016 movie "The Horde" lands on a five out of ten stars.

By that I mean that Logan has quite the ... pecs! Not sure how old he is, but that body of his ... respect to the man! And by bad Mandylor I'm obviously refering to the moral of his character as in evil. You may have heard of those two, you likely have heard of some other actors who only grace the screen for a small amount of time, like Don Wilson or Bill Moseley. Easy money I assume for them and something to recognize for the viewers who care.

The movie is not really good overall, very predictable, not the best fight choreography and all that. But it also is not the worst thing I've seen (and not just because I just finished watching cats ... that's a different story alltogether) ... not even close. Logan seems to have a signature kick move, it's been a while since I last saw a movie of his. Anyway, if you are into B-movie stuff, you might find something interesting for you. A beautiful location for example all things considered.

The Horde was recommended to me by a friend - turns out I watched the wrong movie.

The acting is terrible and the horror movie tropes are laid on thick in this movie. A young Sydney Sweeney stars as the titular (heh) character and star student in this campy, and frankly unintentionally hilarious horror movie where a commando soldier accompanies his teacher fiancé in a field trip gone wrong.

Laughably bad, but worth watching with friends as part of a line up of bad movies that you can talk over. I wonder what the budget for this film was.

We were laughing that Sydney Sweeney's character plays the virginal good girl character in this. A far cry from her roles in pretty much every other movie or show she's been in.

Acting isn't horrendous, "storyline" is fairly basic, Sydney Sweeney is cute as hell, and the gore effects are pretty good. All in all a decent slice of splatterpunk.

After reading the reviews here, I was hesitant to watch this movie. I love slasher movies like Friday the 13th and those kinds of things but some people here really just trashed it.

No, there was not great character development in the entirety of the ~88 minutes this movie ran for. But then again I tuned in for a horror / action movie not to watch The Piano. I didn't want nor expect drama. I wanted kicking and punching and buckets of blood and that's exactly what I got!

Setting your expectation when you go in is important.

The action was fun, and a good kind of fist fighting that I like. Paul Logan and Matt Willig are both pretty rough and tumble in this movie and for a low budget movie the stunts are really cool.

I heard on the radio during an interview with Paul Logan, Matt Willig, and Costas Mandylor that Paul payed homage to his dad in the movie in several places and when I watched it I noticed and it was really cool he did that. That was worth an entire star by itself for me.

The Horde is a GOOD horror and action movie. I really enjoyed it because I knew exactly what to expect and exactly what not to. Being this is Paul Logan's first script I'll give him a break on the cheesy lines here and there, but even when they were a bit cheesy Costas Mandylor, Matt Willig and crew delivered well. In particular I liked the Cylus character Costas played. Total bad guy and I loved it. Would have liked to see more of Costas on screen.

Overall, I liked the movie. Don't be too turned off by the negative reviews and I'm glad I didn't let them influence me too heavily. Just realize this is a low budget horror movie and enjoy the heck out of your few bucks!

There are certain kinds of folks that write reviews for these indie films, and they fall into just a few categories.

A. People who love movies! (that's me!)

B. People who trash on other people's work because they are jealous (Trolls, boo!)

C. People who think they are critics like some people think they are foodies (delusional!)

D. People who generally just want to spread an honest word about a movie they saw (Good folk)

Figure out which is which and you'll know which reviews to place stock in.