French Zombies in "The Horde"

I miss going to the video store to rent movies but the advantage of Netflix -- being able to browse movies, watching each one for a few minutes to see if it grabs me -- outweighs that loss. Plus, I've watched some really good films and TV shows that I otherwise wouldn't have. (And it also allowed me to completely avoid some trash.)

One of those non-trash films -- at least in my opinion -- is The Horde. (It's no gem, but it held my attention.)

It's a good zombie flick, especially if you can stand the extreme gore. The biggest problem is that the description of the film obliterates the surprise, the sudden "Oh, we have bigger problems right now!" turn of events that turns the plans of some corrupt cops to kill the drug dealer responsible for the death of one of their own into a scramble for survival.

Their revenge plot isn't going so well when the bad and badder guys come under attack by super strong and fast zombies. These aren't the kind of zombies found in The Walking Dead. These ones are more along the lines of 28 Days Later. And from what the survivors can see from the roof of the apartment building it's pretty much the end of the world. What ensues is survivors alternating turning on each other and working together to escape the building to (hopefully) reach a nearby military base. The end is rather stark and depressing but it wrapped up the way the zombie apocalypse probably should.

I just wish the film description was misleading or omitted any mention of zombies. If the description focused on the revenge aspect of the four corrupt cops, that probably would have been enough. Make the zombies an actual surprise.

The Horde also suffers the same problem as nearly every other zombie film. Though it's set in the "real world" zombie films don't exist. No one automatically says, "Shoot for the head!" There's always this drawn out process of figuring out how walking corpses might be put down. That's just kind of irritating. If I saw a shambling horde of zombies coming down the street right now I'd know to aim for the head.

More "Killing Floor"

Man alive, Killing Floor has really impressed me of late.

I should have drawn comparisons between it and Counter-Strike much, much sooner. Ten years ago, I put in many, many hours with Counter-Strike and Killing Floor might be the first game I've played since then that has done a good job of nailing that upwards upgrade progression during the course of a match. Do well in a round (survive, at the minimum) and the player is rewarded with additional funds to purchase bigger and better weapons or equipment. And if you don't do so well, you need to rely on the generosity of your comrades to drop some money on the ground so you might be able to put down the next wave of zombies together.

Killing Floor - 6 Hours In

The game has been around for ages, but I'm finally getting around to playing Killing Floor with the recently released Gold Edition. And in a lot of ways, it's showing its age. Graphically, it's well behind what's currently available in the multiplayer shooter genre on PC and the world is extremely static as there doesn't seem to be much of anything in the way of physics.

The lack of respawn reminds me of the run I did with Counter-Strike back in the early days of The Armchair Empire, 12 years ago. Once you die, you just have to wait until the start of the next round! That's unheard of in most multiplayer shooters that are measured in kills-per-minute and things exploding.

And the menus... it took me more than a dozen rounds to figure out how the store worked. If it was found in any other game, it would receive a round of critical invective.

Zombie Related: Why is it...?

Any zombie film or TV show or game I've ever come across that has a "real world" setting always has one gaping hole in overall logic.

Whether it's Dawn of the Dead, 28 Days Later, Zombieland, The Walking Dead, Resident Evil, The Crazies, Shaun of the Dead -- the list is pretty long -- there never seems to be any outright acknowledgement that zombies have been a part of popular culture, in films, books, video games, legends, for a long time.

Zombies? Never heard of 'em!

Wouldn't it make sense in these movie universes that people have seen zombie movies before? Shouldn't they just know that they should avoid being bitten and aim for the head? That they'll follow loud noises? That zombie are essentially running on the basest of instincts and react predictably to a set of stimuli? Wouldn't the characters understand any of that?

Apparently not.

Any piece of zombie literature, film, video game exists in its own bubble where no one anywhere has ever had dealings with zombies before. (Unless it's a sequel.)

And for some reason this really annoys me.

Or am I just not paying enough attention for evidence to the contrary?

Walking Dead Screens *Possible Spoilers*