Originally published on Set The Tape
The best zombie movies, the ones that stick around and are remembered, are about more than fighting hordes of shuffling zombies; they’re a commentary on humanity. You need look no further than the works of George A. Romero to see that, as his early zombie movies dealt with issues such as race and consumerism, and those films are often held up as the pinnacle of the genre, yet his later movies are often forgotten as they don’t really try to say much. Herd is much like the early Romero work, as it’s actually trying to bring something new to the table as it dives into trauma and homophobia.
After a brief opening scene that sets up the dangerous infection narrative, we meet the films two principal leads, Jamie (Ellen Adair) and her fiance Alex (Mitzi Akaha). The two of them have recently suffered the loss of their daughter, and their relationship is suffering as neither is able to communicate with each other properly and deal with their grief. In order to try to fix things they leave the big city behind to take a camping trip, canoeing down the river. When the tension between them comes to a head they have an accident on the boat, and both fall over the edge, with Alex’s foot getting stuck under a sunken log and snapping. Jamie pulls her out of the water, and tries to get her to safety.
As they try to find help they come across a group of men out on the road, one of whom at first mistakes them for ‘heps’ and tries to shoot them. It’s then that the women learn that the infection they’d heard rumours about on the news has turned into a full blown outbreak, and that their lives are very much in danger. Whilst Alex is eager to trust the men, who offer to fix her leg and take them to a secure compound, Jamie is less eager to, realising that their trip has brought them to her old hometown, where her abusive father ran her out after finding out that she’s gay. Now the women have to contend not only with the dangers of the infection, but also the prejudices of a small town.
For those that fall into what could be considered the ‘standard’ and most common groups in our society – cisgender, heterosexual, white, able-bodied people – there’s often very little thought that goes into the safety of those who fall outside of that standard. They often don’t have to think about whether or not they’d be safe in certain situations, so often don’t consider that it might be an issue for others. I’ve seen family come to a shocking realisation when my sister mentions she has to rule out certain holiday destinations with her girlfriend, and the look on people’s faces when they recommend me places to go which I have to inform them would see me killed is quite unique. Herd seems to be wanting to do this with the zombie genre, trying to show audiences that the expected human drama isn’t the only thing that you’d have to worry about, but that old bigotries would continue on even at the end of the world.
Herd handles this surprisingly well, and the way that Ellen Adair plays a woman haunted by the abuse from her father is wonderfully done in places. The compound that the group takes the two women to is her father’s mechanic shop, and as such she’s forced into the environment of her abuse, with the memories coming up to the surface unbidden. For anyone who’s suffered trauma, who’s had the experience of that trauma coming crashing back, these scenes will feel very familiar. The film manages to not focus solely on this, however, and there’s enough drama with the infected, with warring survivor groups, and the troubled relationship between the leads to keep the contents of the film varied and interesting.
The film also plays around with the zombie genre in a decent way when it comes to the infected, and as it progresses and we learn more about the infected, it becomes clear that this isn’t the dead walking, but people suffering with a disease, and as such the film gives them some interesting rules. The creative team manages to subvert a lot of the zombie conventions, particularly towards the end, and I think that fans of the genre will be pleasantly surprised.
A very well made and decently performed movie from a first time feature film director. Steven Pierce has previously worked on a number of short films, but Herd shows that he’s more than capable of moving up to feature films with great skill.
Herd screened at FrightFest 2023 and will have its UK Home Entertainment release on 23rd October.
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