Community

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.

We're all used to the group of annoyingly-attractive American college kids who take a roadtrip and end up falling foul to a band of psychotic locals. The teens run, they scream, but, try as they might, they can never seem to get out of that backwater town they stopped for gas in.

This is one of those films... only it seems to be set in the inner city. Some might find that a bit hard to believe - that people have no way out of somewhere crawling with people. However, that's not the worst of Community's crimes.

It's about two college kids who are making a documentary on a notorious housing estate, allegedly filled with the dregs of society. One point in the film's favour is that - based on that setting - it could have been a 'found footage' film. It isn't. And that's one of the main reasons I kept watching.

Guess what? The two teens get more than they bargained for when the locals turn psycho on them. Cue the running, the screaming, the capture, the escape, a bit more running and lots more screaming.

I've read some of the other reviews on here and it's clear that this film is taking a lot of harsh criticism. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's a masterpiece, just that it follows a tried and tested pattern that's been done so many times before that there's nothing new here to truly enjoy. The acting and gore is a little suspect at times, but that could be forgiven if the films was a bit more original.

All you have here is another Texas Chainsaw style film, albeit in a different location to the middle of small town America.

Also, if you check out some of the 10/10 ratings for this film, I can't help but be sceptical about whether the film-makers are getting their friends to review the film. Most appear to be from authors who only review this and either one or no other films. Hmm. Am I being too cynical?

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.

Don't know why so many people have given this bad reviews, maybe they like the typical Hollywood schlock.

I just found this very refreshing.

I'm not really a fan of writing wordy reviews so I won't say too much here but it's definitely worth a watch for the uniqueness of it.

There's suspense, gore, intensity and fun. It's not a costly blockbuster so don't expect loads of flashy sets and explosions but because it's low budget the whole look and feel of it is just perfect. Raw.

It's low key but in your face and keeps it more 'real' than some glossy movie on the cover of Empire mag. If you like something a little bit different then I say it's worth taking a chance on.

A cheeky little number.

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.