Attack The Block (2011)
“You know what fam? I’m shitting myself innit. But at the same time…this is sick.” - Pest
Attack The Block (2011)
Directed by: Joe Cornish
Written by: Joe Cornish
Starring: John Boyega, Jodie Whitaker, Alex Esmail, Nick Frost
A cult classic from 2011, I absolutely love Attack The Block. However, I am yet to meet someone else who’s seen this masterpiece, so thought it was borderline malpractice if I didn’t do a quick review and force you to at least think twice when scrolling past it.
A British sci-fi comedy horror, Attack The Block provides a fresh take on the genre, with an incredibly funny, fast-paced alien invasion romp. Written and directed by English funnyman Joe Cornish (who went on to write the screenplay for the original Antman movie with Edgar Wright, and is good friends with the British comedic powerhouse trio of Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost – famous for their ‘Cornetto Trilogy’ – Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The Worlds End), the movie features a very simple setting, premise, and protagonist(s).
The setting: a council estate in South London on Guy Fawkes Night.
The premise: dangerous aliens crash land and then begin terrorising the tenants in the estate.
The protagonist(s): 15 year old Moses (Boyega) and his teen gang.
Not only is the plot this simple, Cornish furnishes you with this basic information within the first four minutes of the movie. This speedy story telling is indicative of the pace of the rest of the film, with an incredibly short run time of only 88 minutes.
So how does the film compare to other ‘alien invasion horror’ movies? Well, similar to other horror slasher films, there is a colourful group of main characters who will inevitably have to outrun and survive their attackers. Moses and his gang of teenage hoodlums – Pest, Dennis, Jerome and Biggz – are first presented as villains, mugging helpless trainee nurse Samantha Adams (Whittaker). However, when it becomes clear that they are the only thing standing between the world and the extraterrestrial invaders, the boys emerge as the heroes of the film. This ‘villains then heroes’ transformation for the gang is some great meta-commentary by Cornish, who is trying to counter the trend of urban youths being lazily painted as the villains in films. The rest of the cast is rounded out with a bunch of policemen, local gangster Hi-Hatz, local friendly drug dealer Ron (Frost), and some kiddies who want to join Moses’ gang who go by the nicknames ‘Probs’ and ‘Mayhem’. As such, it’s a tight group, but there are enough characters to form an attachment to before the aliens arrive and start picking them off one-by-one (similar to Alien/Predator/Scream/[insert slasher horror movie here]).
Another aspect Cornish nails here is a great villain. The aliens, who Pest at one point describes as “big gorilla-wolf motherfuckers”, are intimidating and dangerous, but not impossible to kill. The kids aren’t taking on Superman here, and as long as they have a chance of victory the audience can cling to hope (an underrated aspect of ‘survival’ horrors). Cornish doubles down on this alien vulnerability by smartly flipping the script at the start of the movie – due to the youthful confidence of the gang, they initially decide to go and hunt the aliens rather than run for their lives.
As stated earlier, this is a cult classic. This is usually code for ‘a good movie that didn’t do well at the box office’, and that’s no different here. Attack The Block received positive critical reviews, but only made half its budget back at the box office upon release. A financial failure. However, it received an injection of new life with the subsequent individual success of Boyega (cast as Finn in the new Star Wars franchise) and Whittaker (cast as the 13th Doctor on Doctor Who, the first female to play the title role). Funnily enough, Attack The Block was Boyega’s first feature film role, and was a big part of Whittaker’s 2011 breakout. Therefore this was a launching pad for many cast members, and given the exceptional young talent on display here, it’s not surprising. I couldn't fault any of the cast for their performances, with a massive shout out to Alex Esmail, the actor who plays Pest. Unfortunately this kid never went on to bigger and better things, but he’s an absolute lightning rod in every scene, zinging people with one-liners and commanding the screen.
Complete with a funky original score by British electronica group Basement Jaxx, the film is unapologetically South London, littered with slang like ‘blud, innit, fam and bruv’. US distributers were actually so concerned that American audiences might not understand the accents that they might have to use subtitles.
Idiotic American distributors aside, the movie oozes cool from start to finish. It delivers on every single requirement of the genre in a short, fast-paced, fun, exciting package. I dare you to not enjoy this. Highly, highly recommend.
Rating: 7.5/10
A few fun production nuggets I found:
The plot is actually inspired by an event where Cornish was mugged. After adding the sci-fi section of the plot, Cornish then went and interviewed various kids in youth groups in order to find out what kind of weapons they would use during an alien invasion. Some of these - fireworks, baseball bat, samurai sword - ended up in the movie.
The more exciting nugget: BOYEGA AND CORNISH ARE DISCUSSING MAKING A SEQUEL. Not only is this a fun prospect for fans of the original, but as Boyega and Cornish are now established names in the industry the likelihood of it being a flop is greatly reduced. Cornish confirmed that he had discussed the idea with Boyega in person as recently as March 2021. Bring on ATB2!