Director Johannes Roberts has been kicking around the direct to video/DVD market for a decade, with this “fear of hoodies” horror/thriller he has found a mainline to the zeitgeist and received his first cinema/theatrical release.
English literature teacher Robert Anderson (David Schofield) is the victim of an assault by a student. A year later with his life falling apart, he has a drinking problem and his daughter who is also his student hates him. He also has a seemingly irrational fear of youths and youth crime (in other words a daily main reader) but as the saying goes: Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you. After keeping his daughter (Eliza Bennett) back for detention, they become part of a small group of people who fall victim of a gang of faceless (literally) “Hoodies” who attack the school in a sort of teenage cross between Assault on Precinct 13 and a slasher movie.
At its worst the movie looks like a cheap direct to video movie with poor overacting, predictable photography and some truly sick imagery. At its best it’s a taught slow burning and slow building thriller that is creepy and shocking. Whilst most of the violence is off camera there is some horrible imagery that is somewhat gratuitous. To the credit of writer/director Roberts the movie doesn’t pretend to be important of profound, it knows it is a nasty little horror.
Despite this sub-genre of movie The Daily Mail will be sorry to hear that England isn’t really been overrun by “Hodddies” this just like last years Harry Brown isn’t an important movie, but it is an effective horror/thriller.
Three Stars out of Five
