Flasz On Film

Ever since the release of The Night of the Living Dead, zombie horror has been a de facto social barometer, even if Romero may have contributed to this phenomenon unwittingly. After all, it is a matter of public record that the sociopolitical interpretation mapped onto the film by critics and viewers was not something Romero consciously installed in the narrative. Nevertheless, looking at how the genre has evolved over time is closely associated with the idea of looking at how the societal zeitgeist together and the filmmakers’ political lens were changing alongside it.  

The Steven Pierce-directed Herd looks to add to this well-established tradition. However, in contrast to Romero, who may have imbued his movies with politically charged analysis incidentally, the filmmakers are using Herd consciously to express their views and to take a snapshot of where America is currently. To this end, the movie is applying the well-utilized toolbox of a zombie outbreak and drops us somewhere into the American interior, where two young women, Jamie and Alex (Ellen Adair and Mitzi Akaha), have gone on a canoe trip hoping to repair their failing relationship. What they don’t know – despite the fact we as viewers can easily pinpoint key elements of foreshadowing peppered in radio and TV broadcasts the leads occasionally hear – is that while they are disconnected from the civilization and working through their accumulated emotional strife – the world is succumbing to a rapid pandemic of a deadly virus turning infected victims into bloodthirsty zombies.  

What is more, after the two women eventually find out what’s going on and that the world as they know it may have ceased to exist, they quickly realize they must be really careful about who to trust, because not only do they find themselves in the midst of emergent tribal warfare between local militias vying to fill the power vacuum left after disintegrating authorities, but also – because they are after all in the Deep South – local residents might harbour prejudices against homosexual women, too.  

This, in my estimation, is the key distinguishing feature of Herd as an addition to the genre of zombie horror, as it overtly wants to use the language any fan will immediately recognize to take the temperature of the world around us and force us to think where we are and how we got there. The filmmakers are clearly keen on making strong political statements all throughout the unfolding story of these two women stranded in a seemingly precarious position where they can’t feel safe, regardless of who they encounter. We learn that for one of them this camping trip was another source of anxiety as it involved coming back home from where she had been expelled by her bigoted father, and how it could have been a great opportunity for her to face up to her demons and regain her agency.  

What seems to be the most intriguing however, is that the movie wants us to fear the local militias more than the actual zombies. This isn’t exactly new and in fact, with 28 Days Later and The Walking Dead, it has become a genre staple to find out that people can be more dangerous and ruthless than the seemingly unstoppable hordes of zombies. As a matter of fact, Herd could function as a natural evolution of what was depicted in The Walking Dead, which captured the American society as slowly disintegrating into small tribes, some more radical and belligerent than others. In here, things are much more clear-cut, as the narrative indicates that not only people are to be feared more than the zombies, but that zombies are just misunderstood victims who have fallen prey to a disease. Granted, we do see some body horror and familiar tropes of the let’s-hide-we-have-been-bitten variety, but the message is crystal clear – rednecks in overalls are to be feared much more than festering walking dead. Bible-thumping bless-your-heart MAGA Southerners are the real villains here, such is the state of the American society as depicted in Herd. The societal dissolution has progressed so far that the characters can actually seek refuge among zombies at one point, which is truly a potent judgment passed upon the society the movie wants to take a snapshot of.  

Well, at least in theory… because this is more or less what Herd wants to be. Unfortunately, the movie Herd wishes to be is hidden beneath layers of extremely heavy-handed authorial decisions, which effectively nullify any attempts at delivering this stinging societal indictment the story would like to advance. I guess I can only surmise that the filmmakers may not have been entirely aware of the good old “less is more” approach to storytelling, as though they lacked confidence in the material speaking for itself. Thus, Herd is methodically festooned with overt clichés aimed to make sure we do get the message after all. Between the frequent flashbacks, insert shots and specific directorial flourishes, this entire movie feels quite desperate in its attempt to drive its point home instead of trusting the viewer would figure out what to think about it.  

Moreover, this fundamental distrust in my own ability to perceive this film as it was intended extends to elements of the primary narrative evolution too. To this end, the filmmakers chose to ladle wall-to-wall blaring score over top of the entire movie, so much that they make Saw sequels look subtle in comparison. In fact, I’d go as far as to suggest that they take the movie out of circulation, remove the entire soundtrack and release it without any music at all and I’ll give it four stars immediately because the thematic message would probably look a bit better hidden and some potentially great moments of filmmaking flair wouldn’t disappear under the wall of noise Herd is scored with. Look, there is a scene in this movie in which Jamie is trying to escape from her redneck assailants in an RV and as she eventually manages to force the engine to start running, the car radio starts blaring country music into her ears, as though to spite her. This would have been a great moment of levity and an added piece of social commentary administered subcutaneously as the action sequence takes flight, but you can barely hear anything… because everything you see is overshadowed by a truly generic-sounding action score that sounds like leftovers nobody wanted to use for Resident Evil: Afterlife. What a wasted opportunity! 

Sadly, there are more such instances of wasted potential scattered generously across the entire running time of Herd. It is truly a borderline travesty that a movie with such a potent thematic payload could squander its own momentum with such ease. It only goes to show that maybe the filmmakers didn’t have enough faith in what they were trying to accomplish, or that they thought we were too stupid to get the picture. Either way, Herd is a movie that shoots itself in the foot as it unholsters its weapon of political commentary. It is a real shame because if you squint and stick your fingers in your ears, you can just about see how cool it would have been if the people who put this movie together had pulled back here and there and had some fundamental trust in the audience they were about to show this movie.

Alas, not everyone gets to be George A. Romero.