Attack the Block (2011)
There is a particular strand of British genre filmmaking that tries to plant one foot in the kitchen-sink tradition and the other in pure pulp spectacle, and Attack the Block is one of the more talked-about attempts at that balancing act. Released in 2011 and set almost entirely on a South London council estate on Guy Fawkes Night, the film pits a group of teenage boys from the block against a wave of alien creatures that descend on their neighbourhood. The premise is deliberately B-movie, leaning into the low-budget creature-feature spirit while wrapping it in a very specific, very local sense of place. The estate, the fireworks, the tower-block stairwells lit in neon colours: it all gives the film a visual personality that is, at minimum, recognisably its own.
The picture was the debut feature of writer-director Joe Cornish, best known at the time as one half of the radio and television comedy duo Adam and Joe. Cornish had co-written the script for The Adventures of Tintin (2011) alongside Edgar Wright and Steven Moffat, and his connection to Wright's orbit was not lost on audiences. Produced through Big Talk Studios and backed by Film4, the UK Film Council and StudioCanal, the film sits firmly in the tradition of British genre-comedy that Edgar Wright had done so much to popularise with Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, though Cornish was aiming for something rougher in texture and more rooted in contemporary urban life. The budget was modest, and the production leaned on practical creature design rather than heavy computer-generated effects, which gave the aliens a tactile, somewhat retro quality. Nick Frost appears in a supporting role that plays knowingly on his association with that Wright-adjacent world, while Jodie Whittaker, several years before her higher-profile work, plays the mugging victim who finds herself reluctantly bound up with the gang's night of chaos. Luke Treadaway rounds out the more recognisable adult cast as a student caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The film is most often remembered now, though, as the feature that introduced John Boyega to cinema audiences, four years before he was catapulted to global recognition in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Boyega plays Moses, the de facto leader of the gang, and the role requires him to carry a great deal of weight without much expository support. Whether that gamble pays off will depend rather a lot on how a viewer responds to the film's central moral proposition. It is worth noting that Attack the Block arrived at a culturally charged moment: the London riots of August 2011 occurred just months after the film's May release, which meant that its portrait of South London youth, crime and community was received through an unusually heated lens. That context does not make the film better or worse, but it does make it harder to watch in a purely neutral frame of mind. What Cornish intended as a genre exercise with social texture landed, for many viewers, as something rather more loaded.
Joe Cornish’s 2011 sci-fi comedy Attack the Block might feature the most hateful ensemble of characters I have ever seen on screen.
The film introduces us to a street gang of London youths who literally open the picture by mugging a woman at knifepoint, goading her as she flees. From that moment on, they spend the entire introductory act aggressively intimidating everyone they cross paths with. It is a profoundly alienating way to start a movie, and I found myself desperately wanting to dislike them from the very first frame. You can't root for scummy characters.
When the extraterrestrial threat finally arrives, you might expect some sort of redemptive turn. Instead, we are treated to a montage of these teenagers retrieving bats and machetes they’ve hidden in their bedrooms to "tool up." I have never seen a film quite so willing to openly glorify this kind of awful, violent gang culture. Rather than framing their actions with any meaningful critique or nuance, the picture seems to celebrate their aggression, wrapping deeply antisocial behaviour in the shiny, forgiving wrapper of a "comedy sci-fi" romp.
To make matters worse, the actual execution of the script is a bit of a mess. The delivery of the lines from most of the cast feels extremely forced, lacking any natural rhythm or authenticity. The supporting extras they encounter, who seem to be actively trying to force a "roadman" accent, are just terrible to listen to. It strips away any potential for genuine tension or humour, leaving you with a clunky, artificial soundscape that constantly pulls you out of the moment.
I really dislike this film on practically every level. Cornish clearly had a high-concept premise on his hands, but the execution is fundamentally flawed, both morally and technically. It is a deeply unpleasant, poorly acted slog that glorifies gang culture. For me, it is a spectacular misfire.
Attack the Block has its defenders, and they are not hard to find. It enjoys a devoted following that reads the film as a pointed, if rough-edged, commentary on the way working-class young men are demonised and then expected to become heroes on society's terms when the occasion demands it. That reading is available in the text, even if it requires considerable goodwill towards the material to sustain it. What is beyond argument is that the film polarises: it asks audiences to do real work on behalf of characters introduced at their worst, and not every viewer is willing to make that bargain. For those curious about other films that place disadvantaged young men at the centre of their stories, Imperial Dreams covers adjacent territory with a rather different emotional register. As for Attack the Block itself, it remains a film that tells you a great deal about what kind of viewer you are, which may be its most genuinely interesting quality, even if it is not quite the same thing as being a good film.
Rating: ★½ | Year: 2011 | Watched: 2026-07-31
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for Attack the Block (2011) on YouTube
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: Studiocanal Presents Amazon Channel
Rent: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Sky Store
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Sky Store
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US
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