La horde (2009) - How Not To Survive In A Crisis

Claude Perron, Jean-Pierre Martins, Eriq Ebuoany, Antoine Oppenheim

by Daver!

Tell me, dear reader, are you familiar with the words of Shan Yu? There is a lesson of the warrior poet that is most appropo: "Live with a man forty years. Share his home, his meals. Speak on every subject. Then tie him up, and hold him over the volcano's edge.  And on that day, you will finally meet the man."

Now, switch out the volcano for a zombie apocalypse and you have the French horror film, La horde, or The Horde for the English-speaking audience.

CAUTION - SPOILERS AHEAD!

Crooked cops Ouessem (Martins) and Tony (Oppenheim) find out this out the hard way when they 'finally meet' their longtime teammate Aurore (Perron), in the middle of the worst night of their lives. The film opens at a funeral for a fellow officer, with the squad paying their respects to the officer's widow. That night they illegally raid drug dealer Adewale's (Ebuoany) hideout in a dilapidated apartment high rise, seeking vengeance for their comrade. And they fail. Badly. But before they're executed, with neither backup or anyone knowing to look for them, they're saved by the least welcome of interventions: the zombie apocalypse. So these two groups, the cops and Adewale's gang, must work together to escape the building and the namesake Horde gathering outside, for a chance to survive.

Internal Affairs can't help you now.

Yeah, no. They're separated not even ten minutes later by rampaging ghouls, and this is where Aurore's true character comes through: of a cold-blooded psychopath. Tony learns this when Aurore executes him for being unknowingly infected by a bite. Aurore doesn't tell him this, despite noticing the infection spreading like fractured glass on his shoulder. His thoughts on the matter are irrelevant, Tony is just an obstacle. All she tells him before pointing her gun at him is that only one thing matters to her, the baby she's carrying. A baby fathered by the dead officer, whose widow was none the wiser when she met them face-to-face. But that's a lie, there's one other thing that she wants. Vengeance against Adewale.

Ouessem realizes her true nature with Tony's death, killed by a headshot right in front of him by the pursuing Aurore. He rages at her that their raid was her fault, that her lover only attempted bringing down Adewale to support her and their child, but can't bring himself to shoot down the last of his squad, his "family." And she throws this in Ouessem's face.

On ne passe pas, motherfuckers!

In the end, she and Adewale are the only ones to escape the building. Ouessem is bitten and stays behind to buy them time, in one of the most bad ass death scenes ever in a horror film. Adewale's gang is long dead, having turned on him only to wind up as zombie and zombie chow. But no sooner are they free and clear does Aurore put two bullets in the back of Adewale's head. And the very last thing that the audience hears before credits is the Horde, drawn by the sound of gunfire, rapidly bearing down on a virtually catatonic Aurore.

Left with two options, the chance of survival for herself and her unborn baby, or revenge for her lover, there really is no choice. Surviving would have required empathy for another person, and she was incapable of that.  Aurore's moral compass only had one direction, what was good for her. Perfect for a crooked cop, but literally suicidal in the zombie apocalypse.

Lots of my friends have devoted some thought to how they'd handle the end of civilization as we know it. The most popular of the scenarios they've discussed is, of course, the inevitable zombie apocalypse. Barricading your neighborhood for sieges, looting warehouse stores, making a run for a farm in North Dakota, or lone-wolfing it Mad Max style are all ideas for survival. But for any team efforts, it's essential that your crew knows who they're dealing with before being dangled over the proverbial fire. Aurore's partners never really did, and they all paid the price.

Yves Pignon is back, bringing justice to the streets!

That's it for now, readers. Come on back when I have something less gory but just as gut-wrenching, romantic drama. Till then, here's a senior with a Browning machine gun.