Perhaps French film makers took the ending of 28 WEEKS LATER as a challenge as not long after the zombie/infected of MUTANTS we have a group of undead going under the name of LA HORDE.
A police raid on a tower block of illegal immigrants and gangster types turns to disaster when the criminals gain the upper hand and turn the tables on the cops who were hell-bent on bloody revenge for the death of one of their colleagues. Then France inexplicably erupts with a zombie infestation with the vast majority of them teeming toward the tower block. Now the cops and the crims must team up in order to survive.
Story wise there's nothing new here but the execution by directors Yannick Dahan and Benjamin Rocher is slick despite massive plot gaps that they've run roughshod over with some corking violent action sequences. It takes only fifteen minutes to get the zombies on screen, the juddering fast ones of recent years with no decay in sight, and from then on the film only flounders when it tries to deal with characters and motives when all you really want is to see more ridiculous fight scenes. LA HORDE gloriously revels in it's ultra-violence as its antagonists go up against their undead compatriots in hand to hand combat. No mere kick and a slap will do though as every time there is a human/zombie battle there are over dozen head butts, ten dozen roundhouse kicks with fridges and kitchen appliances thrown in for measure.
Shot in a grime covered sets without a redeemable character amongst the group to root for LA HORDE is a hi-octane, foul mouthed, just don't give a f*** bad-ass zombie flick. Not as well done as the 28 DAYS LATER movies or Frances own MUTANTS this is put together like the levels from a computer game with lots of shouting, swearing, arguing and shoot outs. Any back story just gets in the way of really bad cops and really bad bad guys kicking the crap out of the undead. And it's a lot more fun than it should be thanks to its exhausting set pieces and the mad and brilliant axe-wielding veteran soldier character.
Viva la nasty zombie horde! A great big raging stiffy for this one.
