Horror comes home

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Ahhhh! It�s Pee-wee Herman! (CP)

More suitable Halloween viewing this week includes:

Attack the Block

FERAL aliens with bible-black fur and glow-in-the-dark teeth land like bombs in a London housing project in this excellent under-the-radar comedy-thriller from Brit writer-director Joe Cornish.

First, a runty alien critter interrupts the mugging of a nurse (Jodie Whittaker) on the mean streets of North London. Moses (John Boyega), the leader of the hoodlums, takes it upon himself to kill the toothy critter and take the corpse to the fortified apartment of a grow-op operator (Nick Frost) in the building where he and his mates live.

But when larger, meaner aliens come crashing to Earth from the sky, they seem to single out Moses and his gang for attack, which means that soon the entire block is under siege.

The lads, armed with baseball bats, samurai swords and whatever weaponry they can muster, find themselves up against both the beasts, the police, and a particularly vicious drug dealer named Hi-Hatz (Jumayn Hunter), who somehow holds them responsible for the inconvenient alien invasion. They discover their best shot at survival when they join forces with the nurse and a scientifically knowledgable pothead (Luke Treadaway) also trapped in the building.

While the DVD cover proudly boasts this film is from the producers of Shaun of the Dead, it does not have that film's pastiche sensibility. It's certainly funny at times (love the two juvenile gang wannabes who dub themselves "Props" and "Mayhem"), but it's also an exciting and wholly original take on the alien-invasion genre.

The Blu-ray DVD has a fascinating doc titled Creature Feature about the making of the aliens, who are not, as you might expect, digital creations. 'Ö'Ö'Ö'Ö

Todd and the Book or Pure Evil: Season One

THE shot-in-Winnipeg horror-comedy series (it airs on Space) is surprisingly rude, but droll, in its puerile way. Todd Smith (Alex House) is a benign high school headbanger who runs afoul of a satanic tome that grants wishes to whomever possesses it, except the wishes are usually of the Monkey's Paw variety in that they tend to turn on the recipient.

Todd joins up with science nerd Hannah (Melanie Leishman), bad girl Jenny (Maggie Castle) and his one-armed best friend Curtis (Bill Turnbull) to track the book before it falls into the wrong hands, specifically, the hands of an evil guidance counsellor (Chris Leavins).

The DVD set includes the original short film by Craig D. Wallace that inspired the series. 'Ö'Ö'Ö

The Pee-wee Herman Show on Broadway

IT may not be scary, but no one embodies the crazed/dressed-up/sugar-buzzed spirit of Halloween quite like Pee-wee Herman.

Paul Reubens' man-child creation did a brief but successful stint on Broadway last winter, reproducing the wonderful setup of his fabulous Saturday morning kids show, Pee-wee's Playhouse (1986-1991).

It's one thing to assemble the cast of puppets, talking chairs and bodyless Genies for a weekly TV show, but it's something else again to make it come together seamlessly as a Broadway show.

It works fine, even if Pee-wee courts potential disaster with things like a protracted balloon trick, which simply consists of Pee-wee blowing up a balloon and making rude noises with it as he releases the air.

Consider that a breather from the show's manic pace, which sees Pee-wee torn between his own dreams of flight and his desire to make a love match between two of his good friends. (In fact, this plot was borrowed wholesale from Pee-wee's Christmas Special.)

One actor's contribution is sorely missed (rest in peace, Phil Hartman's Captain Carl), but it's a hoot to see Jambi the Genie (John Paragon) and Miss Yvonne (Lynne Marie Stewart) back in action, even as the role of Cowboy Curtis has been inherited by Phil LaMarr. (Laurence Fishburne is now evidently too big for Curtis's big cowboy boots.) 'Ö'Ö'Ö 1/2

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 27, 2011 E12