Community

For a low budget British horror film, COMMUNITY has potential, it's true. It's a grittily realistic little movie in which the budget fits the storyline, chronicling the adventures of a couple of student film-makers who decide to do a segment on a local run-down council estate. Unfortunately for them, their college project soon brings them into contact with some very unsavoury individuals indeed.

COMMUNITY boasts an absolutely wonderful location in its depiction of British at its worst: grubby, run-down streets, overrun by feral youths and occupied by adults who have more in common with some of our simian cousins than the human race. There are some truly icky ideas behind this, and some bizarre characterisations (like the transvestite) which stick in your mind.

A shame that it all falls apart in the second half. The first half boasts an effective atmospheric set-up, with lots of foreboding, but the second half reverts to type: a couple of people trying to escape their captors, and nothing else besides. It's typical 'torture porn' territory, with slim characterisation, although not as gory as it could have been, which is at least something. The acting is only acceptable and the silly twist ending drags things down still further.

This movie has everything necessary to achieve a nice little tale of horror. A fairly original plot line, reasonable acting by everyone, a good setting, nice editing, directing and sound effects. What more could you need right?

Unfortunately, it makes the mistake of being utterly predictable almost all the way through. It's really sad when a movie tries very hard, only to fall into the too often used clichés that are the salt and spice of horror films.

I won't bother listing these clichés. If you watch the film you'll see them easily enough, and you'll probably agree with me that they sort of pull the originality out of the film. Even that would be forgivable, but the clichés themselves seem to actually DIRECT the flow of the film, leading it to a predictable finish.

It's almost as if I could ask myself leading questions every few minutes:

"They're doing _____, so that means that later _____ will happen." "The main character won't stop doing _____, so later on _____ will happen." "The whole plot is based on _____, therefore _____ type of ending will occur."

etc. Sadly, I was right at least 90% of the time.

It's not a waste of time to watch though, all in all it's a reasonable little thriller. Watch it with a friend or two.

I wasn't expecting much from Community given its 3.9 rating here on IMDb, however I quite enjoyed this creepy little Urban Horror. Now I watch a slew of movies, horror movies in particular and there are simply mostly average and below average made movies. Community however, despite it's low budget, was I though above average. Taken in the light of an Urban Horror short story I thought the acting was decent and the use of sound particularly good; this isn't a particularly gory film a lot happens off camera. Taken points few horrors are not formulaic - the likes of Martyrs being an example of a great horror few have seen which breaks that mold. However Community was not a dumb movie like a lot of US horrors. There wasn't academy inspiring material as to why things happened as they didn't however it wasn't just plain dumb, could have been smarter in some points but was smart enough at times too. The premise resonates some points which added to creeping me out, as I grew up in a place where there were estates the police did not enter and some terrible things happened within them, and there's certainly use of symbolism within this movie. And Auntie..creepy or what. Finally I am always one for joking about female leads in horrors generally making bad decisions that causes disasters and I thought this was another one of those, however I was able to suspend disbelief because this wasn't the case entirely here.

Community (2012) is a scary,moody, creepy,bleak,dark,paranoid,grimy & gritty almost so real to life pure Horror movie made in that disturbing inbred no rules or morals dysfunctional way like The classic The Texas chainsaw massacre (1974) or Wrong Turn (2003) where a whole family are so apart & isolated from the rest of the world that they function in a primal animal monster way & have no idea about right & wrong!!!

The rough grimy estate named the Draymen estate is dreary,grubby & trashed it looks almost apocalyptic & that's very creepy & gives a terrifying atmosphere that basically anything could happen here & no one would care or even help.

The scary thing is this Horror movie is not far fetched at all & it's very much real in alot of places around England I've seen them myself & they are no go zones especially at night time because you will get beaten up or stabbed they are that bad!!!

The fantasy Horror movie part is the cannibal side to it but everything else is scarily true but hey maybe eating each other is next for real? Wouldn't put anything past how rough they are!!!

So yes the tone is on the edge creepy & the atmosphere is desolate wasteland Danger everywhere style that gets terrifying at night fall & the claustrophobic atmosphere gets so thick as our 2 students are running through the dark gloomy estate & down some dimly lit tunnels being chased by evil looking feral depraved hooded youths,the feel is almost John Carpenter style reminiscent of Assault on precinct 13 (1976) & that's a very good thing!!!

The two student documentary makers are excellent & give fantastic performances for such a low budget flick you can feel the fear & terror they feel & see it in their faces!!! Great performances!!!

This violent Hoodie youth culture is everywhere here in England & at thr time this movie came England was named Broken Britain that's how bad the streets got with evil violent gangs of thugs & this movie came out of that paranoia of whole uncontrollable Communities murdering people & all hooked on drugs it's scary but true & has only gotten MUCH worse!!!

A raw & gritty British HORROR THRILLER.

The setting was great, the story was delightfully strange, and the acting was actually pretty good for low budget. Not a lot of jump-scares, but more of a twisting, winding tale of brutal insanity. This movie is very reminiscent of early Troma films, before they went for the buckets of gore and back when they relied more on the shock value of the story itself. The characters in this film were very 'Rob Zombie's House Of 1000 Corpses' oriented in that they were believably trashy and appeared honestly completely insane. I was hesitant going in due to the 3.9 user rating, but was delightfully entertained and pleased. I'm giving it a 6 for it's harsh and unashamed originality and execution.