Just got back from seeing “Attack the Block”! I love a good sci-fi horror flick, especially when it’s something different. To set the scene without too many spoilers, we encounter our main characters in the act of a mugging – a young nurse, Sam, is accosted by a group of teenage thugs while she’s walking home late at night. In the midst of this, something blasts down from the sky, smashing a car and interrupting them long enough for Sam to escape. The boys investigate and discover a monkey-like creature, and when it attacks their leader, Moses, they hunt it down. And so the invasion begins, and more and more creatures begin to hurtle down from the sky like the meteors. Sam and her teenage assailants end up having to work together to defend themselves and their home, a housing project in South London, from a terrifying alien invasion.
I enjoyed the fact that the heroes in this movie weren’t really heroes. I did find them to be sympathetic, because even if they weren’t necessarily good people, they were represented as real people. The kids were forced to face and take responsibility for the things they did, both mugging Sam and killing the first alien that arrived. It was as much a coming of story as it was a sci-fi horror. And I like movies and stories with unconventional, anti-heroes. I’m seeing it billed as a comedy, and it did have a few good laughs, but unless there was a lot going over my head because I’m not British (or unless a straightforward British horror is not allowed to have any comedy in it what-so-ever?) I wouldn’t go to see it expecting a comedy, even a dark one. Most of the jokes are in the trailer. But also don’t go expecting a movie that takes itself too seriously. It’s not a movie to be over-analyzed. It was a fun, tense horror movie, with a lot of jumpy scares and action, just enough gore to make you squirm, and a great soundtrack by Basement Jaxx.
I also have to mention the fantastic minimalist poster design above. I haven’t been able to track down the name of the artist who designed it, but I will add that info when I find it.
