Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2017
Images from the Internet
The Horde
Directed by Jared Cohn
313 Films / Razors Edge Productions /
Traplight Pictures
Gravitas Ventures / MVD Visual
87
minutes, 2012 / 2016
When I first heard the name of the film, I thought, “I wonder if it’s a
zombie horde or a vampire horde? Perhaps a demon horde?” From the cover it is
pretty obvious that at the very least this is a horror action film. You may ask
yourself, “Isn’t most horror usually filled with action (if it’s good)?” You
may ask yourself, “This is not my beautiful…” oh, sorry, I guess my mind
wandered back to the 1980s…
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| Josh Logan has many shirtless moments |
For the action part, we meet handsome ex-Navy SEAL John Crenshaw (real-life
bio-chemist and stuntman/martial artist Josh Logan, who also wrote the film)
and his beautiful girlfriend, Selina (Tiffany Brouwer). She’s a teacher taking
five of her (high school?) beautiful students on a camping trip to take
photographs of nature for school credit, including two couples and an angry and
spoiled rich gay brat, Riley (Thomas Ochoa, who has specialized in LGBTQ-etc.
roles).
Unfortunately, the woods are full of, oh yes, the Horde. It is a large,
inbred family, which they call mutants, as they are just genetics mixed with
radiation poisoning, in a similar vein to that kind of group in films like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and
especially The Hills Have Eyes (1977…
I don’t feel a need to acknowledge the remake). They refer to the females they
capture as “breeders” and the males as “meat.” Well, that explains a lot
towards motivation, doesn’t it? Love it when stimulus is clean and simple. Then
add the ingredient of escaped criminals and mad scientists who are out to make
some meth to bring in some cash to the congenital mix, and you have a nice
formula for said mutations to run amok.
The enforcer of the horde in question is a huge more-brawn-than-brain
escaped con with anger issues named Stone (ex-Football player Michael Willig).
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize at some point Crenshaw and the
much taller Stone are going to go mano-a-mano.
But that doesn’t mean Crenshaw isn’t going to have a few licks in beforehand,
actually even before his class group even get to the campground (but no details
about that, so no worries).
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| Tiffany Brouwer's Streets of Fire moment |
However, the leader of the horde is fellow escapee Cylus (Australian
actor Costas Mandylor, known for playing Lt. Hoffman in the Saw series), and Earl, the literal
butcher, who makes fresh tongue sandwiches (on white bread) is none other than
fellow Aussie Vernon Wells (arguably best known as Wes, the mohawk’d villain in
the only Mel Gibson film I can still watch without wanting to puke, 1981’s Road Warrior/Mad Max 2); he has a great nearly-whispered
monolog just past the halfway point. You can see that there are some heavy duty
heavies in this film. Plus, Bill Moseley (Otis in House of 1000 Corpses and The
Devil’s Rejects) and Don “The Dragon” Wilson have a bit of cameos, as well.
There are no huge surprises along the way, as Logan stealthily makes his
way through the horde camp, killing without a second thought from his training
background; “I’ve done a lot of things for my country I’m proud of, and some
I’m not proud of,” he tells Riley at some point early on, an exposition to show
he’s a trained military assassin (though I wonder what he does for a living
since retiring from service). Actually, it’s easy to cheer for each kill, and
it’s nice to root for the good hunter
rather than the bad ones (e.g.,
Freddy, Jason and Michael). While abound in clichés and genre tropes, such as
rising out of the water similarly to Rambo, this is still a fun watch.
Truthfully, I’m not that much into pure action films with a hero rescuing his
lady (in a tied-up situation reminiscent of 1984’s excellent Streets of Fire) by killing and beating
everyone up, but this falls big on the plus side because the body count is
high, the film looks good, and the action is definitely enjoyable. Logan makes
for a formidable and likeable hero (who, of course, is shirtless as much as
possible – including the scene that introduces his character – to show off his pack).
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| One of the mutants |
The gore here is impressive, extensive and beautifully handled by a
top-notch SFX team. Limbs are often separated, heads are smashed or snapped,
and yes, an arm is broken a la Steven
Seagal style. Also, the cinematography by Laura Beth Love is worth noting; there
is lots of fog lighting giving us Logan in crouching silhouette, ready for the
next move.
There are some double crosses along the way that you’re bound to see coming
from a mile away, but again, so what. All things considered, part of what makes
this film, along with the action of punching, chopping and hacking, is the
direction. Jared Cohn is known for some heavy duty B-films, such as Hold Your Breath (2012), 12/12/12 (2012) and a bunch of the Sharknado sequels, so he knows how to
frame the film into a positive mode for a genre fan. The lighting may be cliché
at times (e.g., the smoky back lighting), but it’s never too dark to see what’s
happening (for which I’m always grateful), the sound is solid, and the acting
in commendable if sometimes a tad overdone (Riley’s pissy moments, for
example).
The extras are kind of short, but shweeet.
First up is a 2:28 b-roll (over music) of some of the CK VFX work done in the
digital world, most of which look pretty good. That being said, there are a
couple of fire tricks that are a bit weak as they look more like fire overlays
than whatever it is aflame. Some of the splatter is obviously digi, but that is
true for most films these days. Overall, the rest is pretty good. I enjoyed
seeing how the effects were built.
Along with the trailer and chapter breaks, next up is the 16:36 “Making
Of” (listed as “The EPK” – E-Press Kit – on the Extras page). Including on-set
interviews with much of the cast and crew, this was one of the fun behind-the-scenes
featurettes I’ve seen in a while. There’s no areas where it lags, but rather it
keeps the viewers’ (well, this one, anyway) interest straight through.
Somewhere in there Willig says, “It’s a fun ride.” And he’s right.
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