Attack the Block Review

When I first watched this film in the cinema, I had low expectations, there was only one recognisable actor (Nick Frost), it was the first film directed by Joe Cornish who was one half of the show Adam and Joe which I have never seen, the subject of aliens in south London and the main characters being violent, undereducated looking youths would be enough for me to be put off from watching it but strangely I was tempted to watch it to see how it would end.

The film is about a gang of youths mugging a passer by (who it turns out to be a neighbour of the youths in the same block) and encountering a lone Alien who "Landed" (won't say crash since there was no form of transportation) on a car and attacked the leader of the gang, who goes by the name of Moses, and the gang kill the Alien and take it back to their block where eventually they are attacked by more of the Aliens and attack them by fireworks and various other weapons.

Surprisingly the film is very well made by making the characters change from being a violent gang to unlikely heroes of the film by seeing caring for each other and in a sense of irony, caring for the woman they mugged so the audience like me actually started to care for the youths. the effects themselves are exellent by relying on practical effects as opposed to CGI which is always good as it sets a feel of relism on a certain level. the Aliens themselves are very good by looking vage by appearence by only noticing their teeth which glow in the dark and their bodies looking pitch black which also helped with the atmoshpere of the film with a dark tone to it. So in the end for a low budget film with a directorial debut by Joe Cornish, it stands out very well for a creature feature which could be compared to the likes of Critters and Gremlins and science fiction horror films like Alien and the Thing, so if you are a fan of the genre's and the films I listed here, go and give it a try, you will be surprised.

Film:          9/10