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.

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.

Two student film makers decide to make a documentary about the Draymen estate which is a crime ridden , violent place blighted by drugs . They are intrigued when they hear about a super strong strain of marijuana and decide to track the production factory

A rather strange type of British horror movie that is part horror , part social commentary and part thriller . Unfortunately while the horror and thriller elements are well done to a degree any pretensions and attempt at social commentary soon becomes lost as the story turns in to a British urban take on " The backwoods brutality " sub genre of horror featuring protagonists finding themselves all alone in a desolate landscape full of mortal dangers . Writer/director deserves some credit in taking a tired formula and trying to do something new with it but everything collapses very quickly when examined in any detail . It's easy setting a story like this in some remote American woodland where psychotic rednecks can abduct and murder people travelling through the location but not here . Britain is a very bureaucratic country where everyone will be on a database and the number of residents and visitors to Draymen going missing would never go unnoticed . Police would investigate , social services would investigate and perhaps more importantly Daily Mail journalists would be splashing the Draymen estate all over their front page . In other words it would be a cause celebre

You have to also stop to ask how far reaching this conspiracy is ? For example a character runs away and jumps on a bus . The driver who is no doubt in league with the cannibalistic marijuana growers lets the characters pursuers on to the bus where they hack their victim to death which is very messy . Ask yourself this though - how do the cannibals clean up the mess within a credible time frame ? The bus would have to be driven somewhere , floors mopped , windows cleaned and probably seats upholstered and yet would no passengers complain that their bus didn't turn up ? Maybe the entire bus station are in on the conspiracy but this seems unlikely . You also have to turn off your brain big time in not realising that this super strength skunk is nonsense . You fertilize it with human flesh and this some how makes it the most addictive substance ever ? I don't think so .

All this is a great shame because COMMUNITY is a low budget Brit horror flick that dares to do something a little bit different and while it does bring up a few tense and suspenseful scenes you're constantly noticing the plot holes these scenes throw up . It's a good example of no matter how well a horror film works on the surface suspension of disbelief is always needed which is why the horror genre isn't well regarded amongst critics

A couple of bad actors (sorry, amateur film makers) are making a film about a dodgy estate which seems to be occupied entirely of pot heads and their feral kids. one of the film makers has a secret which she still keeps to herself even when things start going wrong, which was really annoying. and thats about it really. all the characters are just stupid or psychotic. the films attempt to make some sort of social commentary falls flat. the script doesn't seem to know where its going and all it does is get gradually more stupid. i had to fast forward through the 2nd half because i was so damn bored. don't bother. this gives British horror films a really bad name. boring and pointless with no sex, gore or proper violence. a total failure on all counts.

Okay, this IS indeed a very low budget film; that is pretty obvious. And, usually those can be screwed up VERY easily. However, I honestly found myself quite enthralled and very much drawn into this SERIOUSlY F'd up little community.

First and foremost, I cannot say enough about the excellent use of sound in this film. I noticed a number of similar comments about this from other reviewers here. EXTREMELY effective... I personally really love it when they get super creative with the sound design in Horror films because when it is done right, it really can add to the mood and atmosphere, around which this movie is solidly constructed.

You notice that in all the positive reviews here, that just about EVERYONE mentions the word 'Creepy'...? Well, that is because that is PRECISELY the word that embodies this film. Another thing that I personally appreciated too, was that this movie could have very easily descended into the mind-numbingly boring and ineffective 'Torture Porn' territory. For my taste, I am really glad that they used a measure of restraint so that we could more fully enjoy the type of mood that they were trying to create. And, in my lowly and wretched opinion, I thought they did a very good job with what and who they had. The setting was definitely there to exploit the violence for it's own sake. But, thankfully the film makers were intelligent enough to see exactly where the strengths of this little low budget film were and emphasized them appropriately. Man, ONLY in the UK can they make films like this (ones like 'CITADEL', for example) where they create this powerful, almost otherworldly Mythology about these types of neighbourhoods that is most effective.

Also too, a person who watches this film MUST realize that at times they are using Pitch Black humour, so dark it is almost opaque. The idea, which I'm not going to go into here because it is sort of a Spoiler, but the main premise is certainly unique, something that I have never thought of before, that's for sure. So, this is one of those movies where they are building a mythology and premise that one needs to be able to accept in order to enjoy it. IF you are a hard core 'Realist' and want ALL of your movies to be FULLY realistic and if you are one to roll your eyes if ANYTHING at all strays from what is 'Believable', then you will definitely not like this film. As another good reviewer here said, you MUST be able to suspend disbelief and really allow yourself to get pulled into the story in order to enjoy it, and I completely agree...

I cannot stress this enough, but IF you are the kind of person who likes these kinds of films, then TOTALLY ignore the meaningless 3.x rating and give it a try.