"The Horde" Reviews/Discussion - 2011 Horror Challenge: Day 5
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"The Horde" Reviews/Discussion - 2011 Horror Challenge: Day 5
The Horde (2009) ![]() Selected by Darkgod |
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These "October Horror Movie Challenge" threads are for the discussion of the films in the 31 FILM SUBSET.
MAIN THREAD | LIST THREAD
The plan is for everyone to watch this film on the October day in the thread title, and to start discussing it the morning of the following day.
You may start discussion early if you want, but the preferred plan is for this to be as much of a group exercise as possible, with all of us viewing it "together" and discussing after.
Of course, you are totally encouraged to participate in these threads even if you haven't watched the movie on the designated day.
Even if you haven't watched it in years, or are not participating in the Horror Challenge, please feel free to chime in.
Spoiler tags are unnecessary in here, so if you have yet to see the film BEWARE OF SPOILERS.
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Re: "The Horde" Reviews/Discussion - 2011 Horror Challenge: Day 5
One of my old co-workers used to talk about this movie all the time. He kept telling me how great it was but I really did not like it at all. There are so many horribly unlikable characters.
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Re: "The Horde" Reviews/Discussion - 2011 Horror Challenge: Day 5
While I haven't watched The Horde for the Challenge, I did enjoy it and found it to be one of the better zombie movies in recent years. I'm looking forward to reading what the folks here thought about it.
#5
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Re: "The Horde" Reviews/Discussion - 2011 Horror Challenge: Day 5
I've been told like so many othes that The Horde is the best Zombie film ever. Well, that's not entirely true at all. It's an average zombie flick that most people have seen in any previous zombie film . Sure it's going to be hard to come up with anything original since just about everything that can be done has been done at one time or another. Blood and gore? I'd have to say the blood and gore are just about average for this film as well. It's a good film that has been slightly over hyped.
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Re: "The Horde" Reviews/Discussion - 2011 Horror Challenge: Day 5
It is indeed hard to find any likable characters in this film but I found myself rooting for Aurore above everyone else. The zombies in this film lack the dread that Romero's, Fulci's and even Boyle's Rage infected humans (quasi zombies) evoke. I believe that is because this film is structured as an action film more than anything.
#7
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Re: "The Horde" Reviews/Discussion - 2011 Horror Challenge: Day 5
It was entertaining and decently made. Not sure yet if it will stick with me and become a favorite though.
#8
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Re: "The Horde" Reviews/Discussion - 2011 Horror Challenge: Day 5
Not a fan. I must be missing something with these foreign zombie films, just not my thing. This one was well made but I felt disconnected from it. It had great gore, but in the end just felt like a 90 minute zombie-orgy. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
#9
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Re: "The Horde" Reviews/Discussion - 2011 Horror Challenge: Day 5
It may seem like I'm damning this film with faint praise, but The Horde is probably the best French zombie film that I've ever seen. Okay, so I've only seen three other French zombie films, but the statistic still stands. In this one, we get unusual zombie setup #812: cops raid a derelict building to take out a criminal gang, but zombies overrun the building and probably all of Europe, thus making taking out the gang secondary to not being eaten alive by the living dead. I had a definite feeling of "been there, done that" for about the first half of the movie, and I found it hard to work up any real enthusiasm for the film. But then the protagonists meet up with an overweight old wacko named Rene, and suddenly the film came to life for me. This is a very good thing, because about a half-hour into the film I was beginning to have the heretical thought that maybe I was tired of zombie movies. The last half of the film proved to me that, no, I'm not tired of zombie movies...I'm just tired of zombie movies that have nothing new to bring to the table. Luckily, this zombie movie ended up overcoming its cliched start to finish strong. There are still aspects of the film that I could do without (fast-moving zombies, obviously computer-generated blood), but on the whole, The Horde ended up delivering the goods.
#10
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Re: "The Horde" Reviews/Discussion - 2011 Horror Challenge: Day 5
It was worth watching just for that first, nearly indestructible zombie. I wouldn't wanna face him in a zombie apocalypse.
#11
Re: "The Horde" Reviews/Discussion - 2011 Horror Challenge: Day 5
I liked it. Might've even loved it if it had an alternate ending (*Pointing the finger at the chick's decision*), but that's what makes this a refreshing take on zombie-apocalypse because of the nature of all of the human characters (It certainly would've bordered more on the medicore level if kids/tweens were in the story/cast)
Never seen so many zombies get head-butted before!
Never seen so many zombies get head-butted before!
#12
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Re: "The Horde" Reviews/Discussion - 2011 Horror Challenge: Day 5
I enjoyed it - I thought the editing reminded me of 'District 13' - notably in the kitchen fight scene and the kinetic ending - loved the shot of all the hands extended towards their victim on top of the car. I liked how the filmmaker's implemented both the practical on set gore/blood and the cgi blood - which the latter is used way too much by US filmmakers, if you ask me - the French on the other hand deliver the goods on squib work and stickyg ooey blood as in 'Inside' 'Martyrs' 'High Tension' et al
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Re: "The Horde" Reviews/Discussion - 2011 Horror Challenge: Day 5
#15
Re: "The Horde" Reviews/Discussion - 2011 Horror Challenge: Day 5
I liked it but "nothing special" would be my ultimate verdict.
I don't really care how unlikable the characters are when they basically all get eaten/die anyway one way or the other.
I dig the French ghetto setting for some reason so that worked for me. Liked the back story that set up the situation and caused a lot of tension, though I never made a ton of sense of it. Felt like I missed something about Rivoallan somewhere.
The uber zombie at the beginning was awesome. The rest of the zombies kind of meh. But the zombie fistfights I thought were a nice touch. Carny especially.
Liked the shot when he is on the car making his last stand but it ended up looking too...rhythmic almost? It looked more like a bunch of metal heads headbanging in unison to a strobe to me than a mass of hungry zombies. And to me that scene's CGI was absolutely terrible. Fake fake fake rip you out of the moment CGI.
Loved Rene.
Liked the ending. Don't f with Aurore!
I don't really care how unlikable the characters are when they basically all get eaten/die anyway one way or the other.
I dig the French ghetto setting for some reason so that worked for me. Liked the back story that set up the situation and caused a lot of tension, though I never made a ton of sense of it. Felt like I missed something about Rivoallan somewhere.
The uber zombie at the beginning was awesome. The rest of the zombies kind of meh. But the zombie fistfights I thought were a nice touch. Carny especially.
Liked the shot when he is on the car making his last stand but it ended up looking too...rhythmic almost? It looked more like a bunch of metal heads headbanging in unison to a strobe to me than a mass of hungry zombies. And to me that scene's CGI was absolutely terrible. Fake fake fake rip you out of the moment CGI.
Loved Rene.
Liked the ending. Don't f with Aurore!
#16
Challenge Guru & Comic Nerd
Re: "The Horde" Reviews/Discussion - 2011 Horror Challenge: Day 5
Yeah, that last stand on the car was pretty cool.
I hated how they all knew from the very first zombie that nothing but head shots would hurt them, but then refused to aim for the head most of the film.
I hated how they all knew from the very first zombie that nothing but head shots would hurt them, but then refused to aim for the head most of the film.
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#18
Moderator
Re: "The Horde" Reviews/Discussion - 2011 Horror Challenge: Day 5
really? I don't remember such a scene. I thought the car scene was probably THE scene from the entire movie, it's also apparent that the filmmakers got their inspiration from Peter Jackson's 'Dead Alive' - minus the lawnmower of course - the scene was brillantly shot with the camera swinging around, the right amount of gore, amd even though we don't see the victim's ultimately gory demise - the title of the film comes aptly into play - the horde literally devours it's prey, sight unseen.
#19
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Re: "The Horde" Reviews/Discussion - 2011 Horror Challenge: Day 5
I thought it was kind of lame. You have all these zombies that could previously grab people, run around, in other words, do things. Then when he's on the car they're all just waving their hands around like their clapping at a deaf sports event. Even the ones that can reach him and put their hands on his legs, don't even grab. They just pet his leg like it's a dog or cat. They should have at the very least been able to just climb up the car if they aren't going to drag the guy down that's within reach.
The other thing that popped into my mind with all those waving hands was that using his gun is stupid on them. Why not just use the machete and start chopping hands off? Then they couldn't grab anyone anymore.
Other than that, for a French movie, I liked it.
The other thing that popped into my mind with all those waving hands was that using his gun is stupid on them. Why not just use the machete and start chopping hands off? Then they couldn't grab anyone anymore.
Other than that, for a French movie, I liked it.
#20
Re: "The Horde" Reviews/Discussion - 2011 Horror Challenge: Day 5
I liked it. Might've even loved it if it had an alternate ending (*Pointing the finger at the chick's decision*), but that's what makes this a refreshing take on zombie-apocalypse because of the nature of all of the human characters (It certainly would've bordered more on the medicore level if kids/tweens were in the story/cast)
#21
DVD Talk Special Edition
Re: "The Horde" Reviews/Discussion - 2011 Horror Challenge: Day 5
I also meant to mention that I really dug the beginning sequence, at the funeral. The whole first 10 minutes or so of the film seemed to have no dialogue. Very effective.
#22
DVD Talk Platinum Edition
Re: "The Horde" Reviews/Discussion - 2011 Horror Challenge: Day 5
This was a fast paced bloodbath of a film but some for the shots were a bit labored. Before the car scene I could have sworn I saw a horde of zombies marching single file through an open parking lot. In the car scene the zombies paused a bit too long to stretch believability. Still a good movie just with some cheap devices. Any one else think there'll end up being a horde 2?
#23
DVD Talk Legend
Re: "The Horde" Reviews/Discussion - 2011 Horror Challenge: Day 5
If Left 4 Dead (the video game) was made into a movie, this was kinda what I imagined it would be like. But for some reason, this movie didn't engage me like I thought it would. Maybe it was the lack of likeable characters (as others have mentioned), no reasoning as to why the zombies started, bland zombies other than uber-zombie at the beginning, the sped up kicking and punching, the silly car scene, or the seriously stupid ending.
Carny's fight scene was good and the old man was a great character. The sped up punching and kicking really got on my nerves though, especially when the woman was fighting. It just looked silly.
I knocked the movie down half a star due to the completely out of character car scene for the cop. He can keep going with the gang to survive (why hold them off...they obviously had plenty of time) or do a football run thru dozens of zombies to then do an overly-dramatic scene standing on a car surrounded by zombies. It just seemed the director just tacked that on because he wanted a cool looking scene and not because it was necessary for the story or the character.
I actually would have liked the cop to survive and then they have a 3 way stand-off at the end instead of just having the chick and the black guy. Would have made it more interesting though I am not sure how they would have resolved it. Or I would have liked to see a zombie at least attack and start eating the woman for her idiotic decision to kill the one healthy guy who could and did help her survive. I know the filmmakers wanted to be different but it just came across as an incredibly stupid decision on her part.
And I know we have all seen dozens and dozens of zombie films but I still like a little backstory as what is causing the issue, why did this happen, etc. It didn't have to be much...just a story on a TV or something...or did I miss that.
Again...not a bad movie but it just didn't grab me. It's definitely worth watching once.
My rating: *** out of *****
Carny's fight scene was good and the old man was a great character. The sped up punching and kicking really got on my nerves though, especially when the woman was fighting. It just looked silly.
I knocked the movie down half a star due to the completely out of character car scene for the cop. He can keep going with the gang to survive (why hold them off...they obviously had plenty of time) or do a football run thru dozens of zombies to then do an overly-dramatic scene standing on a car surrounded by zombies. It just seemed the director just tacked that on because he wanted a cool looking scene and not because it was necessary for the story or the character.
I actually would have liked the cop to survive and then they have a 3 way stand-off at the end instead of just having the chick and the black guy. Would have made it more interesting though I am not sure how they would have resolved it. Or I would have liked to see a zombie at least attack and start eating the woman for her idiotic decision to kill the one healthy guy who could and did help her survive. I know the filmmakers wanted to be different but it just came across as an incredibly stupid decision on her part.
And I know we have all seen dozens and dozens of zombie films but I still like a little backstory as what is causing the issue, why did this happen, etc. It didn't have to be much...just a story on a TV or something...or did I miss that.
Again...not a bad movie but it just didn't grab me. It's definitely worth watching once.
My rating: *** out of *****
#24
Re: "The Horde" Reviews/Discussion - 2011 Horror Challenge: Day 5
It def. isn't the best zombie movie ever, but I did like it. Like everyone else, I liked the shot of them reaching up onto the car. I liked the setup too, that the groups hated each other, but had to work together to fight the zombies.