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    Attack the Block

    Reviewed by
    adamwatchesmovies@

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    "Attack the Block" is a horror comedy that really works. It has a lot of laughs, memorable characters, sharp dialogue, excellent performances, a smart story and some good action/thrills too. Not only are the human characters unique, but the creature designs/effects are unlike anything you've seen. I had heard about this one from word-of-mouth and to me, it feels like a real hidden gem. The kind of movie people might not have heard about and is full of delightful surprises.

    The film begins with a crime. Samantha (Jodie Whittaker) is mugged by a small gang of teenage punks. Just as Pest (Alex Esmail), Dennis (Franz Drameh), Jerome (Leeon Jones), Biggz (Simon Howard) and Moses (John Boyega) are about to make off with their ill-gotten gains, a meteorite falls from the sky. Turns out it’s not a meteorite at all, but the first of a race of deadly alien creatures. Covered in hair so dark it seems to absorb light and armed with razor-sharp teeth, these antiheroes are the only ones who know what’s going on when the creatures begin attacking the apartment block they live in.

    What I love about this movie is that it takes you for a loop. The heroes are a group of ghetto misfits who are introduced when they mug an innocent woman. Normally, you wouldn't care if any of these punks made it out alive but here that’s not the case. The movie plays with your expectations and initially you dislike the protagonists. As the movie plays out though, you get to learn more about them, and your opinion changes. You realize how genuine the friendship between these guys is, you see that there’s more to them than the petty crimes they commit and how under these circumstances there is no one else you'd rather be with. These flawed main characters add a touch of realism that makes the thrills and scares more intense. You don't know who is going to make it out alive and when people die in the movie, it's genuinely shocking.

    In this movie is something I hardly ever see in horror films; actual character development and personalities that evolve. You feel like you've spent a long time getting to know these guys and just as they've really started to grow on you, an alien comes around and kills them, just like that. I found myself getting really upset when something bad happened to them. Usually in horror movies, seeing people get killed is the best part, it’s what you came to see, but here it’s heart wrenching. This picture takes the time to make you care about people that you wouldn’t usually care about. You get to see the characters grow and this allows the film to explore some important themes about poverty and community without ever feeling preachy.

    Another element I thought was nothing short of brilliant was the setting of the action. This apartment block that’s under siege makes for some really interesting scenes, something you haven't ever seen before. To give you a hint, this building is set in a poor neighbourhood. It’s so poor that the lights in the corridor don’t even stay on all of the time. To save on power, the lights in the corridors automatically turn off and you're expected to press a button to light them up and walk with the lights before the place is once again submerged in darkness. What a terrific setting for some scares. Just imagine walking down this corridor and not even having the light to comfort you. With these aliens blending into the darkness perfectly, you've got yourself a recipe for more than a few scenes that are genuinely frightening and incredibly tense.

    The casting here is perfect. There isn't a moment in the alliances and friendships that feel forced or manufactured and at the end of the movie everyone really feels like a big, unlikely family. The performances, mostly done by child actors are dead-on. The characters speak with unique slang and expressions in a thick accent that at first is hard to understand, but adds that extra touch of realism. As the movie moved along, I found that I was able to adopt to their dialogue (in fact I wouldn’t mind adopting some of their expressions in my own dictionary) and I’m confident that you will too. Also noteworthy is the excellent soundtrack by "Basement Jacks", which helps pump up the energy and adds to the film's ghetto, uneasy feel.

    All this and we haven’t even really sunk our teeth into the monsters, which are really intriguing to observe. I’m a big fan of horror being boiled down to its basics and here is a terrific, simple design that’s elegant. They feel menacing but because there's not really much to see when they're on the screen (their fur is so dark it doesn't reflect light and they basically look like gorillas with tiger teeth) you focus on the action and the adrenaline the characters feel, not the special effects.

    All that, and as a cherry on top, you have characters that are intelligent because they don't make the same stupid mistakes you see everyone do in horror movies and are able to improvise when the situation calls for it. That means there’s actually more tension than in your average horror movie because you really don’t know if they’re going to make it out ok, or if they’ll figure out a way out of this mess. You have the protagonists running from 3 different threats throughout the film."Attack the Block" is more than a good sci-fi creature flick, it's a great, a fantastic, a splendid sci-fi creature flick. It's scary, thrilling and even touching at times. Once it's all done with, you'll be excited to share this with your friends and just thinking about it makes me want to watch it again. (On Blu-ray, November 4, 2012)

    10
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    adamwatchesmovies@  14.4.2015 age: 26-35 2,866 reviews

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