Attack The Block





We typically think of aliens as having the shape similar to that of human

bodies with skinny arms and legs, but what about the Attack the Block alien where these

beings are pretty much animal-like. It was definitely a different take on an alien invasion

film gifted to us by Joe Cornish. Without further ado, let's jump in to what the

Force Fed Sci-Fi team discussed this week in regards to the sci-fi film Attack the Block,

touching on the how the aliens' appearances were developed, the amount of effects that

were used, and analyzing some of the characters!

Joe Cornish

Photo by Raffi Asdourian

Joe Cornish was the writer and director for Attack the Block, which was his directorial debut. The first scene shot was of the mugging of Samantha, a character who is aspiring to be a medical doctor. Cornish was actually mugged in real life, which was part of the inspiration of this film. Of course, afterwards he added his love for science fiction.

He went on to eventually write and direct the recent film The Kid Who Would Be King; however, this film was a flop and only made about half of its budget up through its box office earnings. More positively though, Cornish did contribute to the writing of the successful films The Adventures of Tin Tin and Marvel's first Ant-Man film.

Special Effects and The Appearance of the Aliens

Amount of Effects Used

Due to this being a low budget film, the amount of special effects are very limited, and you could say extremely limited for being a sci-fi film. About only 100 effect shots were used.

This is definitely a complete opposite of the film that was talked about last week, George Lucas' Star Wars: Episode I - Phantom Menace which had used close to 2000 of on-screen effects.

So where were most of the effects used for Attack the Block?

Creating the Attack the Block Alien

Most of the on-screen effects were used for the look of the ravaging aliens in this film. Before we talk about the effects that altered the aliens appearance though, let's briefly mention the basics that were used.

So, gorilla-type suits were built for two people to get inside and use. Our hosts mention in our podcast episode what a pain that would most likely have been as it most likely got warm in those suits. Meanwhile, the jaws on the suits were animatronic. These were the basics that were dealt with while filming.

The appearance of the aliens came from graphics and effects later. The spiky fur was added along with the "no reflection black" the alien creatures possessed. Now, all of us here a FFSF think that these effects on the aliens were done well. For our hosts Sean and Chris, they claim they couldn't tell that the "no reflection black" was an effect added later. I respectfully disagreed with them :) In my opinion, it's pretty easy to tell the blackest of black colors used and seen were obviously digitally added, but maybe I'm just the smartest out of all of us ;) kidding of course.

Finally, we get the illuminating color of the aliens' teeth. We think this was a nice add-on as it was the only color added to the appearance. For crying out loud these creatures didn't even ha...