The Horde is a French film about cops seeking revenge against some gangsters headquartered in a condemned project on the worst night possible: the commencement of the (fast) zombie apocalypse. If you are really into macho posing, but think that gangsters versus cops does not quite provide enough thrills that fast zombies can, then The Horde is for you, but this pastiche was not to my liking.
I think that The Horde was going for a Quentin Tarantino meets Aliens meets Robocop remake meets Night of the Living Dead vibe, but the majority of the characters were not interesting enough to make it work so it just seems like a shameless mingling of movie genres. The Horde had two things going for it: the head gangster, Ade Bola, and the random appearance of a Vietnam/Indochine vet in the middle of the film. Unfortunately The Horde focuses the film around Ouessem because he is supposed to be the moral core of the group and a suitable foil for Ade, but other than his spoiler appearance on the cover art, it was a big mistake to purposely distract viewers from what I thought was an obvious ending that is supposed to leave viewers shocked, but just left me annoyed because why did common sense and street smarts depart that character’s life? Too contrived and convenient to shock viewers.
The Horde is basically an ugly film that does nothing with its sensationalism and just isn’t fun. The cops’ vengeance plan is deeply dumb. It is aggravating that no one cottons to the head shot rule. It takes too damn long, 1 hour 4 mins in a 90 minute movie, for the female cop to finally turn badass, and along the way, she has the screamiest, most stereotypically lame storyline which basically makes her the Yoko of her unit. I would rather have no female cop than one who is going to seek revenge then crumble with the first mishap and turn into a hysterical mess once the zombies start coming. Nigerians are ruthless criminals who will eventually grab a machete. If I want to see guys discuss raping a dead girl, I’ll watch Deadgirl.
The Horde isn’t edgy. The Horde is hacky. Add subtitles, and The Horde is too damned inconvenient to enjoy as a mild, violent diversion. French horror rivals J horror, but The Horde ruins that reputation when it adds in the gangster element. Skip it!