Flickering Myth

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1 Day ‘Till Halloween – Attack the Block (2011)

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Luke Owen counts down to Halloween by reviewing horror movies from the last 60 years; next up is Attack the Block (2011)…

We finish our countdown to Halloween in the current decade in which we live with a movie that I absolutely adore – Joe Cornish’s Attack The Block.

Being a fan of Channel 4’s Adam and Joe Show in my early teens and their 6Music radio show, I was very intrigued by Joe Cornish’s directorial debut. When the trailer for Attack the Block was released, I saw what a lot of people saw – chavs vs. aliens. Well, it certainly wasn’t what I was expecting from the man who gave the world American Beautoy. However upon actually watching the movie on opening night, I realised that the film is so much more than that.

The biggest problem people seem to have with Attack the Block is that the main characters are a group of “hoodies” or “chavs” which, if IMDB is to be believed, can never be seen as heroes. I’ve lost count the amount of times I’ve been told by people they didn’t like this movie because ‘they couldn’t sympathise with a bunch of chavs’. But the anti-hero isn’t exactly something new in cinema. Over the years we have been treated to murders, thieves, adulterers and rapists who have been portrayed as the hero. But throw a “youth in a hoodie” up on screen and people lose their minds.

What annoys me the most about this fact is that this is what people focus on when talking about the movie. People just seem to miss just how brilliant Attack the Block is. It’s very suspenseful, the action is great, the gore is good, the plot is exciting and the aliens are awesome. The film has so much going for it that just gets over looked for the stupid reasons we’ve already discussed.

The design of the aliens is just superb. Their sleek black furred bodies mould into the darkness with only their day-glow teeth showing a sign of life. After seeing so many pants incarnation of ‘what aliens may look like’, this is a really refreshing take that is almost reminiscent of The Deadly Spawn (which I looked at a few days back). On top of that, the fact that Cornish made the choice to have very little CGI work in the movie means that the aliens are a physical property that the actors on screen can interact with. Because of this, the cast said they were more scared shooting their scenes because they could see what was chasing them which heightened their tension leading to convincing performances.
The only thing I would say that is a negative for Attack the Block is that the comedy doesn’t always work. Cornish is a hilarious man who has written some great comedy material, but here it sort of falls flat. I almost feel as though he should have left the comedy to a minimum and focused on the horror factor as that’s where the movie works. It also led to a lot of the promotional material for the movie push it as a horror-comedy when it isn’t. Comparing this movie to Shaun of the Dead is such a misstep as the two are trying to accomplish two different things and I think this constant comparison hurt the movie as people were expecting it to be funnier.

Aside from all the great things I mentioned earlier, what I do love about Attack the Block is the character progression of all the main players. Moses goes from this troubled teen who robs from innocent people to a man who realises that his actions have consequences and he needs to face up to them. Conversely Sam goes from a woman who feels victimised to realising that she was attacked by someone who is more scared than she is and that appearances can be deceptive. While Cornish’s comedy writing left a lot to be desired in this movie, his character writing was spot on.

For me, Attack The Block is a film that has it all with almost every note hit perfectly. It’s a call back to the horror movies we grew up with in the 80s and is one of the best creature features I have ever seen. It’s a movie that was made with a low budget sensibility with little to no CGI and a lot of heart. I know that Cornish has been busy writing for others (most notably Ant-Man for Edgar Wright) but I hope he returns to the director’s chair again. The world needs directors like this man.

Gore: ★ ★ ★ / Scares: ★ ★ ★ / Entertainment: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Luke Owen is a freelance copywriter working for Europe’s biggest golf holiday provider as their web content executive.

Originally published October 30, 2012. Updated April 10, 2018.

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