Tower Block Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		2.5

Tower Block Blu-ray Movie Review

O brave new world, that has such killers in it.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 1, 2013

Though she probably wouldn’t have preferred it, Kitty Genovese’s name has become synonymous with the so-called “bystander effect”, something that also rather ironically become known as the Genovese Syndrome. In 1964, Genovese was savagely murdered in her apartment in Queens. Though subsequent reportage has disputed many of the contemporary accounts, at the time of the killing, information was widely disseminated that Genovese has repeatedly cried for help and that none of her neighbors responded. Though it’s since become clear that the ostensible apathy of Genovese’s neighbors was at the very least exaggerated, if not an outright fiction, the killing has become a symbol (rightly or wrongly) of the supposed indifference of an urban society where “if it ain’t happening to me, it ain’t happening”. Tower Block, an occasionally riveting 2012 British thriller, starts with something akin to the Genovese killing, but then takes it one step further, by positing the question, “What if someone were to hold the apathetic neighbors responsible for their lack of concern?” What plays out is a sort of quasi-disaster film where a gaggle of people aren’t attempting to escape an overturned luxury liner or make their way out of a flaming skyscraper, but instead have to deal with a deadly sniper who is targeting their crumbling public housing tenement building. As writer James Moran mentions in his rather entertaining commentary included on this Blu-ray, the film is less of a “whodunit” (since the identity of the sniper remains a mystery until the closing moments of the film) than a “will they survive it” (a term Moran insists is his now and which is deserving of royalty payments).

Tower Block begins with a brief textual prelude which purports to put what we in America might call tenement housing (or at least something close to it) into proper historical context. There probably were massive idealistic dreams spawned by the ashes of World War II that a new kind of society could be forged, one that would help lower income families live in at least reasonable accommodations, but as the film makes rather clear from the first actual sequence, whatever dreams there once were have long since dissipated under the harsh glare of decaying infrastructures and perhaps even more importantly fraying social bonds. The film begins with a visceral depiction of a kid running from pursuers. We don’t know why, we don’t who, we only know we’re in media res, and the story is not a happy one. The young man is eventually caught in one of these tower blocks and is pummeled mercilessly. He screams for help, pounding on a variety of apartment doors, to no avail, with the exception of one young woman, who ventures forth into the hallway, only to be viciously pummeled herself. Through her semi-conscious haze, she sees the attackers dragging the victim to his certain death as they toss him from an outside stairway several stories up.

The young woman who tried unsuccessfully to help is Becky (Sheridan Smith), who is later interviewed by the police and, along with the rest of the floor’s residents, is basically upbraided for not having helped more. The residents in return are either unwilling or unable to share much information and it seems like this is going to be a cold case since no one can identify the attackers. The film then segues forward three months when very few residents are left in the building due to an impending demolition order. Becky is enjoying a peaceful breakfast with her fiancé when tragedy strikes—that horrifying “red dot” appears on her boyfriend’s head, and within a second, a bullet from an unseen assailant has been fired, to tragic ends. The film then cartwheels through a variety of other residents on the floor who suddenly find themselves target practice. Some of them survive, some do not. That then catapults the film into its longish second act, where the survivors have to figure out a way to get to safety.

Tower Block is undeniably effective at times, but it’s also incredibly contrived. The film posits a bunch of people in a once crowded tenement building which is now mostly deserted and which has no phone service or any other way to call for aid. The survivors bicker, work together, bicker some more, and occasionally get picked off by the phantom assailant who is firing from some distance away, but who seems to have impeccable aim which is able to penetrate not merely exterior windows but sometimes interior rooms to eventually find his (or her) targets. The film tends to become sillier as it goes along, with the survivors becoming increasingly desperate to somehow either take down their nemesis or at least find some way to reach the outside world.

The film is actually more effective in detailing the interrelationships between the final residents of the building than it is in creating a sense of impending doom or even mystery. That’s both a plus and a minus. The whole sniper gambit is a huge McGuffin, especially when the denouement reveals a killer whose identity is laughably ludicrous on any number of levels (screenwriter James Moran’s first inclination for who should be the killer, which he talks about in his often amusing commentary, was a much better idea, and his protestations that it would have taken too much explaining are debatable, especially since the logic of who turns out to be the killer actually defies explanation if you think about it for even a moment). And as much as Moran doesn’t want this to be a “whodunit”, for better or worse, that’s exactly what the film ultimately becomes, by virtue of its structure at least if not its actual intent. What that leaves is the characters in the low rent housing building, thrust together in precarious circumstances and forced to survive. Here the film actually finds much surer footing, detailing a rather interesting assortment of down on their luck types who ultimately are able to build a new kind of society amongst themselves, at least for a little while. Sometimes facing a common enemy will do that.

Tower Block Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Tower Block is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Shout! Factory with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. This digitally shot feature has been intentionally desaturated, leaving the bulk of the film awash in slate grays and cool blues. This tends to give a somewhat bland look to much of this presentation, which remains clear and precise but never really "pops" in a traditional sense. In fact, perhaps ironically, the biggest "pop" comes from some of the early violence, when shots ring out and find their victims in relatively well lit locales. Once the survivors move to the hallways and bowels of the building, things become more and more bathed in darkness, with occasional moderate loss of shadow detail, especially in backgrounds. Contrast seems to have been intentionally dialed down at key points in order to make some of the proceedings even more shaded.

Tower Block Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Tower Block's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is surprisingly immersive given the often claustrophobic confines of the film. The opening sequence is a case in point. The panicked footsteps of the pursued nicely echo through the sound field, and once the assault and battery are taking place we get very well placed discrete effects in the side channels as various inhabitants react to the carnage. Later, once the sniper starts the main rampage, there's some very nicely detailed blasts of sonic energy when the various shots ring out (along with some effective, if kind of gory, foley effects when the bullets hit their targets). Dialogue is very cleanly presented, and there's a nice air of the suffocating stillness that pervades some of the nooks and crannies of the building before mayhem strikes once again. Fidelity is excellent and dynamic range is very wide.

Tower Block Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary With Writer James Moran. This is perhaps the first commentary I can ever recall that comes replete with a textual introduction informing us it was recorded specifically for fans of the film. Well, all righty, then. Moran is pretty cheeky at times here, cracking jokes at his own expense but detailing what he wanted to achieve with the film. Some may find some of the comments, specifically with regard to how "realistic" the plot is, as a bit self-serving, but this is overall a very enjoyable commentary track.


• Original Behind the Scenes Interviews (480p; 6:21) offers some on the fly interviews with various cast members.


• Trailer (1080p; 1:40)

Tower Block Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Moran may have had the best of intentions in not wanting Tower Block to be a traditional "whodunit", but let's face it: when you have an unseen sniper picking people off one by one, at least one of the overriding questions most audience members are going to have is "who the heck is doing this, and why?" The answer to both of those questions ends up being almost laughably idiotic. Where Tower Block tends to do much better is in little character beats—a harried mother who hasn't been particularly nurturing to her children, a street tough who exacts protection money from the residents—that allow a very game cast to explore some nice moments of people under pressure. As a thriller, Tower Block is questionable at best. As a sociological survey, it's really rather compelling.