In another era, this would have been Vincent Price’s bit part. Now it’s Matt Damon’s.
The hoary tradition of the alien invasion story gets an update in Attack The Block (2011), and it has the advantage of being both logical and explains the behavior of the aliens. The aliens, of the lunatic ravening sort, land in London and assault, among other citizens, a London street gang, encompassing members ranging in age from their early twenties to … nine. Their stinging rebuttal eventually sets up a sequence of actions that become more and more mysterious as the bodies drop.
But the real fun is in the explanation of why the ravening monsters are, errr, ravening, rather than sneaky like those in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (pick your version). In that explanation lies a good bit of tension and reason, and I appreciated that.
Unfortunately for me, some of the accents, and much of the street slang, was unintelligible to me; I suspect a Londoner would understand that street slang far better than I did. I have a bit of a tin ear when it comes to certain accents. But it doesn’t detract from the building tension as the monsters converge on the gang.
If you’re a Jodie Whittaker fan, this precedes her recent turn as The Doctor in Doctor Who, and you must see this if you’re a completist. But that’s not the only reason to see Attack the Block. If you’re a fan of seeing how the general run of humanity might deal with the alien wanting to slice and dice them, if you like tension and horror, then this might just be for you.
Give it a try.
And, no, that’s not Meatloaf.
