When a woman trying to outrun her past ends up trapped between a zombie outbreak and warring militia groups, she must fight to find her way back home.
Starring Timothy V. Murphy (Snowpiercer, National Treasure: Book of Secrets), Corbin Bernsen (Major League, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, LA Law), Ellen Adair (Homeland, Bull, The Sinner), Mitzi Akaha (Archive 81), and Jeremy Holm (Mr. Robot, House of Cards), Herd is directed by Steven Pierce.
In Herd, Jamie Miller (Adair) and her wife Alex (Akaha) travel alone through rural Missouri in an effort to rescue their failing marriage. After an accident, the women are stranded in Bernsen, Jamie’s father’s home town, which has been invaded by ‘Heps’ virus-infected people, the film’s take on zombies.
Herd is a film with an agenda. A big one. And the unfortunate thing is that I absolutely understand and agree with all of the points that the film not-so-subtly addresses. The thing about horror films and genre films, in general, is that they are able to simultaneously be creative outlets for social commentary while delivering terrifying stories or unnerving narratives. The werewolf was an allegory for capitalism all along!
Antichrist (2009) and the divisive The Babadook (2014) are perfect examples of allegory done well, with both sticking to their plots while speaking volumes when the viewer reads between the lines. Herd doesn’t offer much in the way of metaphor, choosing rather to highlight the evils of the American Midwest (or south) in an unabashed way. The entire zombie plot takes a backseat to the culture war which seems somehow more important than the downfall of humanity. I felt like the film’s spotlight seemed to be on all of the wrong places.
The characters are essentially one-dimensional stereotypes that aren’t very likeable, protagonists and antagonists alike. Jamie and Alex spend most of the first act in an extended domestic dispute and all of the locals are made out to be ammosexuals, alcoholics, hillbillies, or all of the above. While I understand that the film is trying to highlight that herd mentality that can be found in parts of the Midwest and the South, specifically the gun-toting, queer-hating, Jesus-loving, militia-forming meatheads, most of the tropes felt incredibly forced.
“Strong queer couple takes on warring militias during a zombie outbreak” sounds like something that I should be excited about, but the execution really fell flat. I had no investment in any of the characters or their fates and probably would have been fine if everyone was simply eaten. Herd sounds good on paper and it probably could have been a decent flick if the film’s themes weren’t so forced. I’d say the only highlight for me was the unexpected ending, though sitting through the entire film was not worth the clever closing quips.
Thanks for reading and as always, stay sordid. Herd has just had its European premiere at Frightfest and is currently still on its festival run. It is expected to be released in December of this year. The trailer and poster are below.
