Community (2012) ( Final Project (Community of Fear) )

Community (2012) (Blu-Ray) (*)

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Alternate Title: Final Project (Community of Fear)
Language Selections:
English ( Dolby Digital 5.1 )
English ( Dolby DTS-HD Master Audio )
German ( Dolby Digital 5.1 )
German ( Dolby DTS-HD Master Audio )

Product Origin/Format:
Germany ( Blu-Ray/Region A/B/C )

Running Time:
90 min

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Scene Access

Movie filmed in 2012 and produced in:
United Kingdom ( Great Britain, Ireland )

Directed By:
Jason Ford

Written By:
Jason Ford

Actors:
Jemma Dallender ..... Isabelle
Elliott Jordan ..... Will
Paul McNeilly ..... Auntie
Terry Bird ..... Dumpy
Jo Dyson ..... Mac's Mum
Oliver Stark ..... Pack Leader
Ben Neagen ..... Mac
Jack Anderson ..... Freddie
Ian Ralph ..... Clifford
Jilly Harman ..... Nelly
Jason Ford ..... Ray
Kal Aise ..... Lloyd
Darren Kent ..... Hoodie On Bike
Ellis Day ..... Mr. Lowman
Bob Frost ..... Bus Driver

Synopsis:

The Draymen Estate has become an urban legend. Amongst the sinister stories of unsavory's locals and brutal violence, several people have apparently gone missing. But even the police won't go there. Enter two naive student filmmakers with a well-meaning plan to make a sympathetic documentary of life on the estate. They soon discover, however, that problems of drugs and crime in this community go way beyond the norm. A community, which is about to present the students with material of unimaginable horror urning their final project into their darkest nightmare.

The Draymen Estate is a godforsaken place. Spoken of in hushed tones and all but abandoned by the authorities, the only tales to come from its confines are those of violence, abuse and disappearances. Looking to score some major filmmaking kudos, students Will (Jordan) and Isabelle (Dallender) decide to head into the Estate to make a documentary on the residents' lifestyles. A dumb move, of course, as within mere minutes of arrival (via a bus that stops serving the area as soon as it gets dark), the local kids are gleefully showing off their skills at hunting, torturing and mutilating animals. Accompanying one of the youngsters to his home in order to interview his mother, the duo discover a shocking truth about life on the Draymen Estate: The adults are in a constant drug-fueled stupor, while the younger children are uncontrollable, violent little cretins. They're nothing on the teenagers, though, whose feral natures have seen them almost entirely regress into growling, shrieking pack animals. All of this is due to the Estate's biggest industry - the cultivation and widespread use of an exceptionally addictive, insidious strain of cannabis that requires a specific kind of fertilising ingredient for its soil... With Community, director Jason Ford has crafted a particularly unsettling, and distinctly British, slice of socio-terror. The sense of menace within the estate is penetrative, with just about every interaction with the locals, no matter how benign on the surface, always oozing with threat and uncertainty. All of this is sold by an across-the-board excellent cast, filled with performance highlights - from Jo Dyson's haunted, drug-addled mother to Terry Bird's brutish Dumpy, and especially Paul McNeilly as the cross-dressing community leader Auntie, here is a film packed to the brim with distinguishable characters and laudable players. Wisely avoiding a slip into torture-porn territory, Ford toes the line between exploitation and social commentary to create a very uncomfortable viewing experience for anyone familiar with some of the kind of real-life denizens found in Britain's most notorious sink estates. Respectful of the audience and his cast, Ford for the most part eschews gratuitousness in both violence and nudity; a refreshing display of confidence from the filmmaker. Community is hyperbolic, certainly (the over-the-top growling of the animalistic teenagers only just stays on the right side of laughable) but not so cleanly divorced from reality as to be dismissed as total fantasy. Think Eden Lake on steroids, and you'll have some idea (but in turn lacking the brutal impact generated by that film's realist tone). While the transition to the third act tends to become slightly too overwrought and talky, Community remains a shocking, disturbing and impressively self-assured piece of work that will really have you wondering what is truly going on just around the corner...

Jason Ford's debut film Community finds a couple of film students on an run-down estate that seems to be entirely populated by sadistic murderers and inbred weirdos. This hoodie horror takes its cues from films like Deliverance and The Hills Have Eyes, albeit set much closer to home. Jemma Dellander and Elliot Jordan play Isabelle and Will, who set out to the notorious estate to try and find out the truth about the disturbing rumours surrounding it. Ignoring the obvious warning signs (like the fact that the last bus leaves the estate at four in the afternoon), no sooner have they arrived than they meet cat-murdering minors, monstrous mums, and hoodie-wearing teens who communicate with each other via howling. The two leads are solid enough, and Ford creates a couple of tense set-pieces as Isabelle and Will realise they are in way over their heads. He's chosen his location well and the actors are committed. But the very occasional nods towards social commentary, (such as the fact that the estate has been abandoned to fall into such a horrifying state) don't make up for the sense of leering voyeurism. And once Ford plays his hand at the end of the first act there are no more surprises. There are some grimly effective torture scenes and a rendition of Jerusalem might raise a wry smile, but there's an unpleasant freak-show element to the film. The audience expect the grim setting to deliver up the worst kind of depravity, and that's what it delivers. There's a line towards the end of the film about how people who want to know what life is really like on an estate should go and look for themselves, but it's played with a wink and a smile. It's difficult to think of the hoodie horror subgenre's outstanding, shining moment. The closest would probably be James Watkins' opinion-splitting Eden Lake, or maybe Paul Andrew Williams' Cherry Tree Lane. There's a dispiriting tendency for these films to simply use the fear of youths, and the disdain for the parents who let their children become criminals and murderers, as an excuse for 90-odd minutes of grimy slashing and screaming. It would be unfair to use Community as an example of how the subgenre can be simply unpleasant but the fact it is that it sticks to the formula fairly rigidly.
However, Ford proves to have a reasonably steady hand behind the camera and there are some effective moments in the first half. Dedicated fans of hoodie horror might find something to enjoy but, depressingly, this goes exactly where you'd expect it to.

This product was added to our catalog on Saturday 25 January, 2014.