Several months after witnessing a murder, residents of Tower Block 31 find themselves being picked off by a sniper, pitting those lucky enough to be alive into a battle for survival.
Directed: James Nunn, Ronnie Thompson
Stars: Sheridan Smith, Jack O’Connell, Ralph Brown
What we think: Tower Block is a pretty decent British thriller, that despite a completely transparent plot it holds the tension extremely well for the duration.
When a group of tenants witness the murder of a young boy they decide to keep quiet, no one saw or heard anything it seems and certainly no one is coming forward.
One year on and someone is still holding a grudge as a sniper starts to pick the residents off one by one from an adjacent building, towards the tower block destined for demolition.
The film will put together a group of people with a range of different personalities, some good and some bad, and as is seemingly the path to follow they must all work as one if they are going to survive the situation.
They have to put their differences to one side, something which when your back is against the wall is pretty common in film these days.
Directed by James Nunn and Ronnie Thompson, the pair have cut their teeth as assistant director and producer respectively. This is Nunn’s debut feature and to be honest he, along with Thompson have encapsulated the terror of tower claustrophobia very well.
The cast is a decent list of British talent, Ralph Brown (Alien 3), Jack O’Connell (Harry Brown) and female lead Sheridan Smith whose majority of acting has come the way of TV, all do a pretty good job.
The characters are all pretty well stereotyped, the drug dealing bad boy, the old timer, the strong willed female, and you won’t need to be inspector Morse to figure out who’s at the end of the trigger.
Tower blocks seem to be the location of choice at the moment, The Raid and Dredd both examples of eye catching terror and explosive action. So it was nice to see a film take the location but set itself away from the others in terms of story.
Instead of going up the residents are looking to get down, whether its climbing down an elevator shaft or scaling the building via fire hose, booby traps and plans going awry all stand in their way of escape.
It won’t last too long in the memory, but if you like your British B-movies then this is probably going to be one not to miss.
Strong acting, especially from O’Connell who is nothing short of the show stealer, along with some well shot scenes make this a decent edge of your seat thrill ride.
View the trailer
Visit the IMDb page for Tower Block
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