Following Citadel, here’s some more hoodie-horror with Community, which manages the not inconsiderable task of being set in quite possibly the most run down, scuzziest and essentially unpleasant looking estate in England. What makes this cr*p-hole all the worse is that it’s slap bang in the middle of nowhere; making it seem even more like a cruel joke played by 1960s town planners. (Note: I believe the location in question is somewhere in Basildon, a place I’m sure is absolutely lovely, or at least more lovely than Harlow).
Anyway, the film follows a pair of film students (perky, irritating Jemma Dallender) and laconic Elliot Jordan (a regular in Eastenders a few years back)) who go to investigate this particular council estate after hearing a variety of strange rumors concerning it. They discover it to be a very strange place indeed: the kids don’t go to school, learning to kill animals instead; the adults are all zonked out on a super strong kind of weed; and the whole place is presided over by a transvestite drug dealer and general lunatic (TV regular Paul McNeilly). And – heh, heh, heh – they don’t take kindly to snooping strangers…
Given its extremely low budget this is actually a decent effort. It’s all rather silly, of course, and it lacks the depth and intelligence of Community, but its portrayal of a dystopian society – a kind of lower class equivalent of something that JG Ballard would dream up – is pretty effective. It has a bit of Ben Wheatley about it – especially the way it mixes up Mike Leigh and Tobe Hooper – and it manages to be gripping throughout (once the initial Blair Witch Project stylings have been discarded). Not brilliant, but certainly acceptable.
