What's with the recent spate of British urban thriller movies set in and around abandoned inner city tower blocks? In 2012 we've had CITADEL, TOWER BLOCK, ATTACK THE BLOCK and now COMEDOWN.
COMEDOWN is the least creatively accomplished or inventive of the trend so far. It relies on the slasher movie staple of wayward teens targeted by a serial killing maniac. They have to fight for their lives, and you just know that for most of them it's a losing battle.
Audience sympathy is not enhanced by the fact that the teens in question are portrayed as a barely literate group of alcohol-swigging, drug taking hooligans with low IQs, criminal tendencies and repugnant personalities. Their nemesis is equally as unattractive, subhuman and just as unsympathetic, so there's really no one to root for. Rather than hoping for anyone to survive or prevail, I found myself wishing for them to hurry up and get killed so that the film could move more quickly towards its (foregone) conclusion.
If someone has a mind to make this sort of movie, at least have the sense and common decency to attempt some level of character development and provide the audience with some individuals they have a chance of identifying with or emotionally investing in. I can't imagine even the most depraved brain-dead inner city delinquent hoodie scumbag finding anyone in this film in the least way appealing. What chance, then, have the rest of us got? It looks cheap – probably because it is – but the tower block itself is well rendered in all its decaying grotesqueness, and some of the death scenes rise just slightly above the mundane whilst still remaining largely uninspired.
Finally, COMEDOWN is probably an apt title. The film feels just like one.
COMEDOWN is the least creatively accomplished or inventive of the trend so far. It relies on the slasher movie staple of wayward teens targeted by a serial killing maniac. They have to fight for their lives, and you just know that for most of them it's a losing battle.
Audience sympathy is not enhanced by the fact that the teens in question are portrayed as a barely literate group of alcohol-swigging, drug taking hooligans with low IQs, criminal tendencies and repugnant personalities. Their nemesis is equally as unattractive, subhuman and just as unsympathetic, so there's really no one to root for. Rather than hoping for anyone to survive or prevail, I found myself wishing for them to hurry up and get killed so that the film could move more quickly towards its (foregone) conclusion.
If someone has a mind to make this sort of movie, at least have the sense and common decency to attempt some level of character development and provide the audience with some individuals they have a chance of identifying with or emotionally investing in. I can't imagine even the most depraved brain-dead inner city delinquent hoodie scumbag finding anyone in this film in the least way appealing. What chance, then, have the rest of us got? It looks cheap – probably because it is – but the tower block itself is well rendered in all its decaying grotesqueness, and some of the death scenes rise just slightly above the mundane whilst still remaining largely uninspired.
Finally, COMEDOWN is probably an apt title. The film feels just like one.