Stars: Jodie Whittaker, Luke Treadaway, Nick Frost, John Boyega, Alex Esmail, Franz Drameh, Leeon Jones, Simon Howard, Jumayn Hunter
Running time: 88 mins
Rating: ****

THE concept of the first feature from writer-director Joe Cornish – one half of TV comic duo Adam and Joe – is simple enough: aliens invade earth and only knife-wielding hoodies can stop them.

It’s certainly no ET (when did you last hear a little green fella swear copiously?) but is gloriously entertaining and a British horror-comedy movie that’s not an embarrassment to the genre.

Jodie Whittaker – last seen in TV’s Marchlands – is the nurse mugged on her way home by local hoodie-wearing youths from the London council estate where she lives. So far so predictable. Then there are strange lights in the sky and a meteor – or is it? – crash-lands into a parked car. Investigations reveal a furry, wolf-like creature with phosphorescent fangs.

The hoodies – Moses (Boyega), Pest (Esmail), Dennis (Drameh), Jerome (Jones) and Biggz (Howard) decide to kill it. They take the body back to the block of flats where the top floor drug den is run by Hi-Hatz (Hunter) and his useless helper Ron (Frost, who dealt with an alien invasion of his own in the recent comedy Paul).

More meteors rain down on the estate and soon the block is under siege from hairy creatures with glowing teeth who want revenge for the gang killing one of their number.

Attack The Block may be low budget but, shot entirely at night, it looks fabulous and the action sequences involving bicycles, concrete walkways and wheelie bins are well staged. There’s enough blood and gore to satisfy horror fans, accompanied by enough funny lines to ease the tension if only temporarily.