Please note: This was screened in
What's a good sleepover without a bit of a scare? And what's a good fright without a good laugh?
Attack the Block brings dry humour and slapstick adventure to a South London housing block, where endlessly hostile encounters are never quite what they seem. In a similar vein to Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Hot Fuzz (2007), the film combines horror, comedy and gutsy action to create something distinctly British.
Unfolding over one Bonfire Night, with one ludicrous scheme followed by another, Moses (Boyega), Pest (Alex Esmail), Dennis (Franz Drameh), Jerome (Leeon Jones) and Biggz (Simon Howard) face threats not just from aliens, but from other tower block residents, drug dealers, the police and their own circumstances.
Released in the same year as the state murder of Mark Duggan and the subsequent protests against state violence, Attack the Block has since taken on a complex cult status within Black British cinema, kickstarting the career of British icon John Boyega.
