The Horde

In an era full of dozens of the same standard zombie flick, it's hard for one film to stand out from all the rest. However, The Horde is a film that manages to do so without being too revolutionary or ground-breaking.

 

The Horde is a fairly unheard of, at least not here in the States, French zombie film centered around a group of cops that raid a run-down apartment building looking for the group of thugs that took out one of their own, only to be descended upon by the undead masses. Now both groups must work together to escape the horde.

At the end of the day, the film brings nothing new thematically to the table. The idea of two warring factions having to "put aside their differences" in order to survive has been done countless times, and the rest of the film follows a straight-forward zombie apocalypse movie. Even the technical aspects of the film are in keeping with typical horror and action films. However, the simple timing, execution and sheer violence of the film makes it one not to miss.

Step aside, Tom Savini; this is perhaps the most violent zombie film ever! A man bashing a zombie's skull into a cement pillar over 20 times shot with a sped-up camera, a man atop a car swinging wildly at a congregation of zombies with a machete, and an old geezer mowing down zombies with a machine gun. Not to mention more hand-to-hand combat between humans and zombies than this reviewer has ever seen in a film, which is quite strange to see. They establish fairly early on that only head shots will kill the zombies, yet we continually see them fighting zombies with their fists and feet. It's still violent, but a different type of violence than zombie films are used to producing.

 

The timing of all the jump scares is simply impeccable; not a single second or edit in the film is wasted, keeping the viewer tense and on-edge throughout the entire film. When a shotgun blast destroys a door and kills one of the cops, it's preceded by a slow section of silence while the cops try to sneak up to the door, and timed perfectly to deliver an exhilarating jolt; not to mention the jagged hole left in the door, about three-feet in diameter, later serves for a nice bit of menacing imagery.

Where other films have failed at making a zombie action flick, namely Zach Snyder's Dawn of the Dead, this film succeeds by keeping the style of action flicks. Every main character is such an unlikeable asshole, the lighting is extremely dark and high contrast, the tempo and editing approach the speed of the Crank movies at times, and all the violence is of the style of an action, or even martial arts, film. Rather than trying to blend some action film elements into a zombie horror film, The Horde keeps all the elements of action films, and so the audience isn't left in limbo as to what genre of film it is; it's an action film!

The fact that every character is an asshole is both fun and predictable. It's fun because it keeps the tension high throughout the film, and predictable because the audience knows the characters will get pettily angry over the most trivial of things. Day of the Dead, Romero's third in his series, manages to pull off this trick masterfully without becoming predictable at all. Yannick Dahan and Benjamin Rocher, The Horde's directors, would have been well-suited to take some notes on how Romero managed the feat.

I also liked the ending of the film. Throughout the film there had been small little reminders as to why the cops had invaded the building in the first place. Without giving away too much of what the ending entails, the film manages to wrap up its basic story line between the cops and thugs in a simple, subtle and gripping way, while still leaving the matter of the zombie mob to be reckoned with; a very smart and astute way to conclude the film.

This film has a little in it for everyone. For the movie critic, there is skill and intelligence used in crafting this film (whether the horde of zombies is a metaphor for the proletariat can certainly be debated). But, for the balls-out action and horror fan, there's still plenty of violence and badassery to go around.

Die Hard

Action films are always difficult for me to critique. Save a few exceptions, namely action films that fall a bit closer to the heist, crime or revenge genre labels, such as Oldboy, Kill Bill or Bonnie & Clyde, I really don't care too much for the genre. At all. They are almost always lacking in artistry and social commentary. I understand that fans of these movies find the gunfights and explosions "awesome" and "epic." I just find them boring.

 

Die Hard is a film that has an occasional, and I stress that word, hint of intelligent, artistic film making in it. For example, on two specifically memorable occasions, John McClane and Hans compare John to the action hero screen legends of the past, e.g. John Wayne, Roy Rogers (the codename John uses when talking to Sergeant Al), which leads to the larger comment on the "all Americans are cowboys" stereotype. This is interesting, but it's only sparingly mentioned, and mentioned in such an goofy and cheesy way that I didn't feel that any true, significant statement was being made about the stereotype.

One aspect I did like is that the film began with exposition. Most action films will begin with a scene of action to establish the excited mood and feeling that accompanies an action film, then slow down later to get to the characterization. This film opens with the characterization, allowing the audience a chance to get to know and sympathize with John even before stuff starts going down, which I thought was a nice and appropriate change of pace from what I expected. John is such an "every man" that the film needs to open with getting to know him and establishing him as such, rather that an over-the-top action scene to establish that you're watching an action film; the rest of the movie makes that crystal clear.

I also liked the pacing and editing of the first thirty to forty minutes or so of the film. I liked the transition between the slow, tender moments with John and Holly, to the quick, chaotic moments with Hans and his team. I like how this shows, especially after the terrorists make their presence known, that John shows his duality between being the every man dealing with the stresses of family life, and the badass cop "playing by his own rules," as the cliche goes.

But, sadly, these are really the only few moments in the film I enjoyed. Once the action begins, it does not let up. In fact it becomes so overbearing that no artistry whatsoever can peek its head into the production. All the bits of story, plot and character development, and suspense are so obvious and cliche that they were of no interest to me. John McClane's bravado and cocksureness, with his clever one-liners and imperviousness in gunfights, make it impossible for the viewer to doubt that he will triumph before credits roll.

For a film like this to work, I would say there are two options. One option is to make your lead character more vulnerable. Inception, for one, does a marvelous job of this. Cobb is such a vulnerable, conflicted character that the audience genuinely doubts whether he will succeed in his mission; even after the film ends, and the totem continues to spin, that doubt still lingers. The other route is to break the fourth wall, or even break what I call the "third-and-a-half" wall. Kill Bill does very well in doing the latter. Watching the film (I consider both volumes as one film), I get the sense that Tarantino knows his film is predictable, but by referencing past films, some of which had also been predictable, and by making the experience remarkably beautifully photographed and set-up, not to mention much better performances from Uma Thurman and David Carradine that Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman manage to bring to the table, Kill Bill is also able to succeed where Die Hard failed.

If your thing is action films with little artistry and social importance, a fun exciting ride without a real raison d'etre, then Die Hard will most definitely be found in your section of the video store. And God bless you for that. However, you probably won't find me in that section. You can probably find me in the foreign, classics, or horror sections instead.