User Reviews

What's with the recent spate of British urban thriller movies set in and around abandoned inner city tower blocks? In 2012 we've had CITADEL, TOWER BLOCK, ATTACK THE BLOCK and now COMEDOWN.

COMEDOWN is the least creatively accomplished or inventive of the trend so far. It relies on the slasher movie staple of wayward teens targeted by a serial killing maniac. They have to fight for their lives, and you just know that for most of them it's a losing battle.

Audience sympathy is not enhanced by the fact that the teens in question are portrayed as a barely literate group of alcohol-swigging, drug taking hooligans with low IQs, criminal tendencies and repugnant personalities. Their nemesis is equally as unattractive, subhuman and just as unsympathetic, so there's really no one to root for. Rather than hoping for anyone to survive or prevail, I found myself wishing for them to hurry up and get killed so that the film could move more quickly towards its (foregone) conclusion.

If someone has a mind to make this sort of movie, at least have the sense and common decency to attempt some level of character development and provide the audience with some individuals they have a chance of identifying with or emotionally investing in. I can't imagine even the most depraved brain-dead inner city delinquent hoodie scumbag finding anyone in this film in the least way appealing. What chance, then, have the rest of us got? It looks cheap – probably because it is – but the tower block itself is well rendered in all its decaying grotesqueness, and some of the death scenes rise just slightly above the mundane whilst still remaining largely uninspired.

Finally, COMEDOWN is probably an apt title. The film feels just like one.

Six friends break into the tower block they lived in as kids, now deserted and condemned, to rig up a pirate radio station, and party.

When one of the group goes missing, her friends begin to search the dark interior of the tower and soon realise that they are not alone.

A resident psychopath lurks in the shadows and is hunting them down, taking them out, one-by-one....

What sounds like a good idea, is ruined by the awful script, and the equally awful dialect that the characters spout out every other minute.

There are so many troupes in this film, guy comes out of jail to do right, friends try and turn him back to the criminal ways he had, and the friend who is a bit mental, but really weak.

The cast are good, Deacon plays the same character he does in every other film, and it all ends up a bit Kidulthood meets I Know What You Did Last Summer.

It's intense in parts, the initial set up is great, but when the main protagonist is vexed because of pigeons, you know you cannot take this film seriously.

The action literally takes place on on corridor, and we are treated to scenes of the villain in his torture chamber, playing with his victims, another cliché in this type of genre.

deacon is the most vile character, hence he gets the most intense death scene.

The ending is too obvious, the boy who wants to change gets implied in the killings, and we are treated to a final scene with the killer...sequel time? This time, I very much doubt it.

It's okay, but nothing worth writing home about.

This is a below par British horror film, that could have been a surprise hit.

I'm just gonna list the things I felt were wrong with the film...

Some of the actors were weak as hell, some over acting, some under acting. Made me feel asif there was a good chance that I myself could go out tomorrow and get an acting job, they were sometimes that bad.

The characters never really felt asif they clicked, I didn't understand the relationships between them so they didn't mix well, plus none of the characters were really drawn out well on their own so you just have to take the stereotype list out in order to understand them...

1) Weak white boy pyromaniac

2) Mouthy over the top mixed race guy

3) Pregnant girl

4) Sketty girl

5) Big stupid, soft at heart guy

6) Just left prison guy, getting himself in order

Literally nobody in this movie grows, or surpasses the stereotype that their characters are written as. This is something I'd be willing to forgive if the horror was there but they mess that up too.

Nothing in this movie is actually scary, except the reality check at the ending which did surprise me, they could have went down other roads, but they didn't. So I'm glad to see abit of originality where the ending was concerned.

Geoff Bell... Having Geoff Bell in the movie as the bad guy and keeping him hooded up for 90 percent of the movie barely speaking a line of dialogue is a sin on its own, if you've seen Geoff Bell in 'The Business' than I'm sure you know what he's capable of, unfortunately in this film it's asif he doesn't even exist.

Man what more is there to say, Imagine a scene where the elevator door opens, and theres the bad guy standing at the end of the hall way, drapped in darkness, running towards the lift at full speed as the kids are desperately hammering at the buttons, trying to get the doors to close, that's horror, there was nothing of the sort in this movie.

Also where was the comedy too? I like Adam Deacon but his mad ramblings were doing nothing for me here. I pictured a scene where he screams, and everyone runs to him like "what's wrong" and he's just screaming cause he's got a bit of dirt on his new trainers, stuff like that was not crafted for this movie.

Plus all of them supposedly used to live in the tower, and there wasn't even a scene crafted where one of them is in a flat that they grew up in, maybe it would have been a good scene to include a flashback, of them as children, to break up the movie a bit, maybe it would have involved the main guy and Adam Deacons character making friends again and teaming together, seeing as they were mortal enemies with no sign of ever being friends throughout the whole movie.

Where was the drug effects throughout the film, they disappeared as soon as the drugs went, also, nobody's phone worked when the radio signal was up (stupid anyway) but nobody's phone worked after it was broke either, it's the only tower in London that can't carry a damn phone signal, why couldn't they at least all have left their phones on the table and when they returned to the room, they was all gone, to explain for the fact that they can't call out for help, maybe a scene where they had to retrieve a phone from the dead 554 guy could have been added.

Urgh I could go on and on and on, I'm gonna have to stop, could have been a classic 8/10 movie, ended up in the trash pile.

3/10 (I'm being generous)

***May contain lite spoilers***

This film is quite good. I enjoyed it through and through, and thought that the acting was really quite remarkable for a movie of this sort. If you like slasher-themed horror flicks, this one is a must see.

The film itself is well thought out. The plot is realistic, the characters are very believable, even the slasher, and the setting is absolutely appropriate. All in all every tool necessary to make a good slasher film was there right from the beginning. ALMOST everything ties together seamlessly, with only one or two loose threads making me slap my head and say, "Why?"

Even when the killing starts, the characters make practical decisions like, "Everyone stays together," and "If we don't get someone out of the building to find help, we're all screwed." I like to see these sorts of things in horror films, because this is how people would react in real life.

Unfortunately, after about half the film, things change somewhat. The originality wears off and is replaced by the usual timeless horror movie clichés. For instance, one character runs away from the others for no good reason (what happened to sticking together?), the deaths occur in a predictable fashion, purely by order of character importance. You can literally point to who dies next. The atmosphere throughout the film is dark and brooding, even when the actors are having a "party", badly done computer effects when a few fake blood packets would have served better and would've been cheaper, and lastly, the ending is really just nothing new and has been done before in several other movies.

Still, it was well done overall. I would be happy to see a sequel.

A more appropriate description would be "six druggie street kids, including one just out of prison, break into a man's home, destroy his property then torture and murder his pets along with their unborn offspring get what they deserve". The saddest part is that they didn't all die.

It's pretty hard to feel sorry for these kids since they're all garbage human beings. This movie completely failed at getting us to care for the protagonists. In fact, I actually cheered for the "psychopath" to kill them all. Not scary. Not thrilling. Just aggravating.

I hate this movie this movie frustrates me I'm going to start with one of my biggest complaints I don't like them not only are most of them annoying but there all incredibly stupid which leads to them being even more annoying. The only reason this movie isn't 5 minutes long is because of many stupid acts getting them here the main reason this movie happens is someone lights a dudes pet pigeons on fire so he kills them all for killing his pigeons but anyways back to the characters.

Jason is by far the most annoying thing in this movie he is awful to his friends he even spiked his friends drink the friend that literally just got out of jail recently and he dies in an unpleasant way that way being shot to death by nail gun which something else I would like to point out is what I watched it on said it was 13+ but it was way more violent than that and while I'm not squeamish that death was unpleasant to watch and I wish I knew it was that messed up so I could be prepared for that because it was an unpleasant surprise.

Kelly was a tolerable character annoying to listen to but tolerable her death was fine she got pushed down this tube thing and died but although I'm not sure she wouldn't have gotten caught not long after she hid there she leaves and then she gets thrown down that thing.

Jemma is also tolerable she doesn't do much in the movie but you know those stupid decisions I was talking about she went into an abandoned building while pregnant she then eventually gets caught and a long time later gets saved which makes it even harder to get out because there also trapped in by the killer she is one of three people in that building that lives but the worst part of this character is the missed opportunity she is 3 months pregnant and it has no effect on the story if I remember correct.

Gal is the arsonist he likes fire and burned the pigeons and the way he died is probably what you expected he was burned to death which causes the building to start burning overall he's tolerable the only thing he did was kill those pigeons but something I forgot to mention earlier is these characters hate pigeons so much Jason calls them flying rats and hits some of their eggs out of his friends who he is really mean to.

Col is that friend Jason is really mean to he is the one likable character in this movie helping Lloyd find Jemma and sacrificing himself to help them he died from being thrown off the building by the killer and gets impaled on a pole. Lloyd is the dude with a pregnant girlfriend he is one of the three survivors and in the end the police presume he's the killer this all happens the same day or a bit after he just got out of prison.

The Killer kills most of the people for killing his pigeons he is the third survivor in this movie.

There were a few other characters that aren't really worth mentioning that I wouldn't be able to mention because I forget what there names were. Something that is not important that I would like to mention is the first time we see the killers face they angle the camera in a way that makes his face look as wrinkly as Deadpool's face I'm not sure if this if a failure or impressive. One death I didn't mention from earlier was one of those two dudes I don't remember the name of and therefore didn't write them down earlier in my review in near a door and a knife gets stabbed through the door and through his throat and it looks so fake and then it cuts to the side of his head and we see the knife leave his throat and although I'm not sure why I don't like that death scene.

Something important to mention that I haven't yet is all of these characters except one drink alcohol and use drugs whether they know they did or not. I feel like I should mention one of the very few good parts of this movie the inside of the building looks abandoned which helps the atmosphere which is also not bad doesn't fix the fact that the movie is a bit boring, frustrating, and the fact that most things in it are quite unpleasant but it helps. Overall this movie sucks don't watch it 1/10 or if I was giving it a letter grade I would give it a F. I Haven't Seen a Lot of Movies But This Might Be My Least Favorite.

This film starts out as a British gang movie and half way through suddenly becomes a slasher film.

A group of young adults agree to place a broadcasting antenna for a pirate radio broadcast (they still do that with the Internet?) on top of Mercy Point, an abandoned apartment building taken over by rats and pigeons. They also decide to party with mind altering drugs. When the expecting Jemma (Sophie Stuckey) goes missing, her boyfriend Lloyd (Jacob Anderson) leads a search party with the expected knife/ nail gun slasher film results.

I watched the film not realizing the slasher aspect, which made it a surprise for me and slightly more enjoyable. The film description gives this aspect away. I liked the setting and set up, although the slasher had no personality. There appears to have been some connection between the slasher and Jemma, although that was not known or developed. Likewise, we know nothing about the slasher until the end. It seems they set this film up for a sequel which will add interesting and intriguing aspects they opted to leave out of this one.

Parental Guide: F-bomb. No sex or nudity.

I wasn't even watching that closely but it seems like I'm the only one reviewing who realised it wasn't just about the pigeons? They literally admitted to terrorising the guy as kids, then the last straw was murdering all his pigeons (and from the look of the burns on Grady's face, he was in the fire too).

Now, as others have said, the characters are absolutely not likeable. Lloyd maybe gets a little pass because it seems like he's maturing. And poor Col. But honestly, that kinda works to the film's advantage. When it's the nice kids getting murdered, people have sympathy. But what if it's the bad kids? This could have been a huge moral tale, delving into the backstories of these kids and pointing out how the system is so broken it shaped them into these little terrors. But it doesn't. We get barely any backstory at all, we know they lived in the tower block, we know Grady was the caretaker. We don't know why the building is now derelict, we don't know why Grady stayed. But we don't need to know.

The ending is set out from the start, no surprises with the false accusation. If you want a happy ending, pretend that Grady gets caught in the process of trying to kill Jemma and her newborn, exonerating Lloyd and allowing them to live happily ever after. But the ambiguity works for me.

The deaths were gruesome enough. The characters at least try to escape and find every attempt thwarted. It's not like you spend the whole movie yelling at the screen because they're doing something stupid.

All in all, I liked the movie. Maybe it's a basic premise but I thought it was well-crafted, and since I live in an area surrounded by chavs... well, it wasn't far-fetched.