Attack The Block (2011)

I think on some subconscious level I didn't really want to watch this film. On paper it sounds like the perfect film for me; Alien invasion with a gritty real setting, directed by a UK comedy legend and featuring Nick Frost (though he's often an iffy prospect if not accompanied by Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright). I'd heard complaints about the London slang in it but I didn't expect that to bother me that much. The thing that put me off a little though was when I first heard about it I read that the opening scene involved a mugging, which is something I've had happen to myself. It's not like since then I've avoided any films with a mugging in them but just because of the way it sounded similar to my own case there was always a sense of apprehension that I didn't really want to watch something that would make me re-live the experience.

But since it's cropped up a few times recently in last years best of lists I figured I should give it a go and as it turns out I wasn't really bothered by the mugging scene after all. This kinda surprised me a little as it was also at knife-point - not what happened to me but something I think I'm quite scared of in general just because of the potential for things to suddenly go really bad because of it. For example, I always feel a sense of shock in the pit of my stomach during that scene in Kick Ass where he gets stabbed, even though I should know it's coming by now. I thought there were a few bits that were quite well observed from the girls point of view though - that "Oh S**t" feeling as you realise what's going on and her panic later on when trying to get back in her flat quickly.

As for being warned that I would hate the accents/characters, I don't think I ever really felt that. Very early on I think the film tries to establish that the group aren't a really tough gang, they are just kids trying to act hard at the end of the day (who were in turn inspiring even younger kids to act like them). I think because of this, without going into too much spoilerific detail, when members of the main group died it wasn't a sense that any of them deserved what happened. I always think that's what makes a horror film horrific, rather than a queue of unredeemable characters that you can't wait to see the back of (though there is one death in this for someone who deserves it). You can see why most of the characters are how they are, either through ignorance or neglect on their parents part.

I was quite glad in a sense to watch this on Blu-ray and be able to watch some of the making of stuff straight afterwards. I wanted to know how much was practical effects and how much was CGI and I was pleasantly surprised to find that most of it was computer enhanced effects rather than complete CGI creations. It was one of those situations where just the look of the creatures tipped me off to them being CG as it wouldn't be possible in real life but after that point I didn't really give it much more thought so they obviously weren't distracting from the rest of the film. For those who are interested, there were actually people running about in furry gorilla monster suits, with animatronic jaws controlled by remote control. A lot of the actors made mention of being genuinely scared of the guys running at them full pelt while filming and while I think that probably helped their performances, I didn't find the creatures all that scary myself. Not sure if that was the intention all along though, having the threat of gang violence seem more dangerous than the aliens.

I also couldn't help but think back to the London riots in August, and it was probably lucky that this came out earlier in the year as I remember there being some ill timed adverts during the riots that had similar imagery. I found myself thinking of a common complaint I heard in August, which was that people didn't understand why the rioters were turning around and destroying their own community. Not to say that it was okay to ransack large chain stores but I found myself more saddened hearing from a friend living in Croydon who told me about a family run business that had been running for years, which was burned to the ground just for the sake of it. I felt that in this, though it was a bit misguided, the kids at least had some sense of community for their block. That they probably wouldn't have mugged the girl if they'd know she lived there. Whereas the drug dealer Hi-Hatz explicitly refers to the block as his, to use however he pleases while not actually living there from the sound of it.

So on the whole I thought it was a great film, not my favourite of the year (that honour goes to Drive I think) but it was a good balance of action and humour. Lots more that I could write about it but it's mostly already been expressed more eloquently than I could hope to. Definitely worth a watch.