Big Worlds On Small Screens & Fantasy/Sci-Fi Films You’ve Probably Never Heard Of: Rebecca Fisher Discusses “Attack The Block”
~ by Rebecca Fisher
In its purest form, Attack the Block is an alien B-movie, but instead of the action taking place on a global scale, it concentrates on a run-down council block in south London. Its protagonists are a bunch of teenagers who are refreshingly played by (gasp!) actual teenage actors. The aliens aren’t super-soldiers intent on mass destruction or in taking over the world, but instead act upon far more primal, biological urges. Writer/director Joe Cornish uses a shoestring budget to put together a sci-fi thriller that subtly touches on class issues and race relations in the midst of an alien attack, and it all makes for a unique and innovative take on the alien invasion theme.
Picture this: a young nurse is walking home from work when she’s set upon by a gang of masked delinquents who demand she give up her phone and wallet. The youth in charge demands her ring, and things looks as though they’re about to turn ugly when the mugging is interrupted by a large unidentified object hurtling out of the sky and crashing into a car right next to them.
You know what happens next, right? The woman will rush back to her apartment to rally the neighbours for the imminent alien attack, while the teenage hoodlums are quickly disposed of; the unsympathetic victims who are killed off to demonstrate the ferocity of the outerspace invaders.
Well, you’d be completely wrong.
Sam (the nurse) makes a run for it, while Moses (the gang leader) investigates the car, gets a nasty scratch across his face from the alien lurking inside, and leads his fellow cohorts across the park to bash it to death with planks of wood. The boys head back home with their trophy, carrying it all the way up to the top floor of their council block to stash it in the local marijuana grower’s weed room.
It’s up there that they witness more of the aliens crashing down to earth, and proceed to do exactly what you’d expect any teenage hoodlum to do in this situation – head back down to kill more of them.
But this new wave of aliens don’t go down as easily as the first one. With the speed and strength of simians and sharp rows of bioluminescent teeth, these terrifying creatures quickly accrue a significant body count. Taking refuge back in the council block, the teenagers run into a terrified Sam, and convince her that whatever threat they pose to her, the aliens outside are ten times worse. Together they make their way back up to the weed room, believed to be the safest part of the building.
At this point you might be asking yourself why you would want to watch a film where the “heroes” are a bunch of delinquent muggers – well, that’s what character development is for. It’s important to note that the mugging is never condoned or swept under the rug, and that if there’s any overt message to the film it’s that actions have consequences. Moses and the boys learn this lesson the hard way after their first encounter with the alien, eventually realizing that there’s a specific reason why these aliens seem to have a vested interest in their whereabouts.
Winding in and out of the narrative are other characters to help or hinder the teens: a pot-smoking college student, a drug-dealing criminal, a couple of nine year olds who insist on being called Props and Mayhem, a group of teenage girls who are easily the most intelligent characters in the film, and Nick Frost in a small role (with the best lines) as Ron the weed-grower.
It alternates between suspense and horror, but is perhaps most noteworthy for its humour. Most of it is what I’m going to coin “panic humour”, in which the laughs are derived from the frantic and hysterical deliveries of the actors as their characters struggle to stay alive. And if all that’s not enough to pique your interest, consider that the actor playing Moses – John Boyega – will soon be starring in the latest Star Wars film.
Next Time: The Secret of Kells
An animated film that’s not from Disney/Pixar, Ghibli or Dreamworks studios is a rare thing, but The Secret of Kells is a beautifully crafted gem that’s inspired by the illuminated manuscript known as the Book of Kells.
About The Reviewer:
Rebecca Fisher is a graduate of the University of Canterbury with a Masters degree in English Literature, mainly, she claims, because she was able to get away with writing her thesis on C.S. Lewis and Philip Pullman. She is a reviewer for FantasyLiterature.com, a large website that specializes in fantasy and science-fiction novels, as well as posting reviews to Amazon.com and her They’re All Fictional blog.
To read Rebecca’s detailed introduction of both herself and the series, as well as preceding reviews, click on:
Never heard of?! 🙂
It’s a small film, but its fairly well known in my circles.
Rebecca said the “you’ve probably never heard of” would generate comments every week. 😉
Perhaps we should think of “probably never heard of” as “aka, not well known in the mainstream.”