La Horde

2009
Dirs. Yannick Dahan and Bejamin Rocher

When a high-ranking police detective is found murdered by a gang of homicidal mobsters, a small group of his closest colleagues on the force take it upon themselves to avenge his death. Heavily armed and determined to see justice done, they manage to infiltrate the upper floors of the suburban high-rise apartment block that serves as the criminals’ hideout. But during the raid things go wrong and the cops find themselves overcome by the gang, who take them prisoner and begin to torture them.
 
Meanwhile, on ground level, the gang members become aware of a strange disturbance in the streets immediately surrounding the building, with the sounds of explosions and sirens filling the air. Incredibly, it becomes apparent that the commotion is being caused by ever-growing crowds of crazed people with a hunger for human flesh. It’s not long before the gang of criminals and the captive cops realize they are trapped together on the top floor of an unfortified building that is becoming rapidly infested with blood-thirsty legions of the living dead. Their only chance of making it to ground level and getting out of the situation alive is to join forces, but with their numbers dwindling and each side having a score to settle, the odds of survival really don’t look good for anyone with a pulse…


The Horde has been described as Assault On Precinct 13 meets Dawn Of The Dead and is the latest addition to the ever-rising wave of extreme French horror cinema. Haute Tension is widely regarded as being responsible for kicking of this latest craze, and the likes of Inside, Martyrs, The Pack, Ils, Calvaire and Frontiers followed in hot pursuit; each one more extreme than the last. Winner of the International Fantasy Film Awards for Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography at the 2010 Fantasporto International Film Festival, The Horde is a must-see for zombie movie fans, not least because it features scenes of genuine, edge-of-seat tension, insanely violent hand to hand combat between humans and zombies (certainly something you don’t see in most zombie flicks – and must be seen here to be believed) but because it also takes an exceedingly fresh approach to a by now very familiar genre.


As with most other entries in the ‘under siege’ sub-genre, the disparate group of individuals in The Horde must put aside their differences and attempt to work together to survive. Obviously this course of action is not without its difficulties, the two groups involved belonging on opposite sides of the law – but with more in common than they’d care to admit. The characters featured here are well written and the constantly shifting group dynamics share centre-stage with the original concept of pitting tough cops against badass criminals in a zombie-infested apocalypse. Before long, the group begins to turn against each other and the threats they encounter are from within, as well as from the zombie hordes attempting to gain entry to the building. With such initially ‘unsympathetic’ characters populating the story, the way in which the writers’ gradually flesh them out and make them more sympathetic is quite disarming.

The film also boasts a wily sense of humour - plus more than its fair share of deliberately cheesy one-liners - to counter the bleak violence and audacious situations the characters find themselves in. The ‘zombies’ in The Horde stem from Danny Boyle’s running/infected beings, though they too are shown in an oddly sympathetic light, particularly in the scene where several of the criminals overpower a zombie, torment her and even discuss raping her as she writhes on the floor; teeth gnashing, limbs contorting. No reason is given for what causes the dead to rise/living to be infected; the audience are thrust into the ensuing bloody chaos as much as the characters are, and events shoot along at break-neck speed.


While The Horde doesn’t necessarily show us anything we haven’t already seen before, it still presents us with a stylish, high-octane, insanely violent, darkly funny and supremely entertaining thriller, nonetheless. And it also boasts one of the most compelling and memorable heroines in recent memory - Aurore (Claude Perron).

The Horde (cert. 18, tbc) stars Claude Perron (Chrysalis; Amelie), Eriq Ebouaney (Thirst; Transporter 3), Aurelien Récoing (Intimate Enemies) and Doudou Masta (Arthur And The Minimoys) and is  released on DVD (£15.99) by Momentum Pictures on 20th September 2010. Special Features include: ‘Making of’ featurette; ‘Rivoallan’ (9-minute short film); zombie concept art; storyboards; teaser trailer; Easter Egg – rehearsal of a scene.

Popular posts from this blog

Whistle and I’ll Come to You (2010)

Image
Dir. Andy de Emmony After placing his senile wife in a care home, retired astronomer James Parkin (John Hurt) heads for the coast to revisit their ‘old haunts’, including the now out-of-season hotel they honeymooned in. By day he is stalked along the windswept beaches by a spectral figure dressed in white, and by night he is terrorised by strange sounds and someone, or something, attempting to enter his room… In the 2000s BBC4 attempted to reignite the old Ghost Story at Christmas tradition by adapting MR James’s A View from a Hill (2005) and Number 13 (2006). This series was seemingly short lived though, as their next outing wasn’t until 2010, and an unusual reinterpretation of James’s classic chiller Oh Whistle and I’ll Come to You, My Lad . While de Emmony’s direction captures the atmosphere and tone of James very well, this film differs significantly from other adaptations, including Jonathan Miller’s supremely unsettling 1968 take . Neil Cross’s screenplay only incorpo...
Read more

Caveat (2020)

Image
Isaac, a brooding drifter suffering from memory loss, agrees to look after Olga, the niece of his acquaintance Moe. A troubled woman prone to bouts of catatonia, Olga lives in an old, ramshackle house on an isolated island in the middle of a dark lake. Isaac agrees to wear a chained harness that prevents him from going into certain rooms. He gradually comes to learn of the unsettling history of the house and the unquiet dead it harbours within its walls... Written and directed by Damian McCarthy,  Caveat  is steeped in the Gothic tradition. With distinct echoes of the work of Edgar Allan Poe, it is ripe with a lingering atmosphere of morbidity and decay. McCarthy's screenplay toys with themes such as psychological rot, dark family secrets, and the aftermath of unspeakable violence and cruelty. The story unfolds within the creepy confines of the lonely, mouldy house, with myriad forbidden rooms, hidden passageways and concealed bloody secrets. The house itself is cut off from c...
Read more

Shankill Graveyard

Image
While staying with my parents recently in my home town of Lurgan, County Armagh, I naturally decided to pay a visit to a few of the local graveyards. Top of my list was Shankill Graveyard. Located just outside the town centre, and surrounded by a residential area, the site upon which Shankill cemetery stands was a place of worship in earlier centuries. Shankill Parish church was originally situated here before it was eventually moved to the town centre. The outline of a double ring fort is still noticeable. Amongst those at rest in the cemetery are the Brownlow family, who established the town in 1610 when they were given land beside Lough Neagh by the British government during the Plantation. They eventually contributed to the development of the linen industry the town became famous for throughout the seventeenth century. Their family vault is situated in the centre of the cemetery where the old church once stood. Apparently well off English families such as the Brownlow’s, sough...
Read more