Writer: Jason Ford
I don't even remember anymore why I decided to watch this - since there's no plot summary on IMDb, it must have been because of the cool poster. They say "don't judge a book by its cover", well I think that's a load of bollocks. For example, I bought what turned out to be one of my favourite albums of all time without having ever heard of the band, solely based on the brilliant cover art by Roger Dean (the album is Aura by Asia, if anyone cares). While Community doesn't quite reach that status among movies, I'm certainly glad I've seen it.
Fortunately, the official site of the production company does offer a brief plot summary, so I'll just paste it from there instead of bothering to explain it myself. Here it goes:
"The Draymen Estate has become an urban legend. Amongst the sinister stories of strange locals and brutal violence, people have gone missing there. Two student filmmakers visit the estate in the hope their documentary will land them a lucrative career. Within minutes they are introduced to a skinned dog in a shallow grave. They quickly discover that behind the awkward smiles, the adults appear to be on drugs whilst the children roam wildly, further proof that this estate is a breeding ground for the darker side of society. A society which is about to present the students with material of unimaginable horror, turning their final project into their darkest nightmare."
The way the writer/director Jason Ford translated this story to the screen is worthy of an applause. He doesn't hesitate to explicitly show violence when it's needed, but never ventures into the pointless torture porn territory. The atmosphere is great - all the time there's this creepy, unsettling feeling that something lurks in the darkness nearby and this is mainly thanks to the supporting characters, who are so convincing that it's almost disturbing. I don't know where Ford found these people and how many of them are professional actors, but the way they look... boy, that's something you've got to see. In most of the films when you have a bad guy who's supposed to be insane, you'll see him screaming, shouting, swearing or generally overacting to the point when you just want to slap him on the face and say "shut up, bitch!". But these people seem like they don't need to pretend they're insane at all - you can see the insanity on their very faces (this, of course, is not an insult to the actors, but a compliment to them and the director, I hope that much's obvious :-) )! While, in terms of mere distance, the Draymen Estate is just a short bus ride away from the civilized world, it's actually a completely different world - kind of like something from a Clive Barker story, just without monsters.
My favourite scene is when this guy stands in front of his house and starts twitching and growling like monster and it makes you think he's about to turn into a werewolf and then similar growling is heard from everywhere! And at the same time, the two main characters are somewhere nearby, with no means of escape. I won't tell you what exactly causes the insanity in adults and children alike, but suffice it to say that the members of the community are very fond of weed and they have a rather original way of fertilizing it.
While the first half of the movie is almost a pure perfection, I'm afraid I can't say the same about the rest. It seems as if Jason Ford had revealed all his cards at the beginning and didn't have a clear picture of what to do next. There are some plot "twists" that are downright predictable and the story drags in a few places. Of course, I have to stress out that the movie is never boring and that even the weaker second half is much better than most recent horror movies. So, you'd do yourself a great favour if you ignored the surprisingly low IMDb rating and checked out this cool film. And I'm adding Jason Ford to the list of people whose future projects I'll definitely check out.
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