Critic Reviews

• Sam Bathe, Fan The Fire

  Thanks to the muddled plot motivations Tower Block really struggles in the final third.

• Rich Cline, Contactmusic.com

  Gritty and claustrophobic, this British horror-thriller holds our interest with well-played characters rather than the wobbly plotting.

• Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall

  Contains some effective jolts and engaging characters. But after setting up the premise, it doesn't really have anywhere to go. Kind of like the characters themselves

• Derek Malcolm, This is London

  The film is efficiently made and more realist than some of its ilk, in that the desperate inhabitants seem credible. What it lacks is directorial flair.

• Allan Hunter, Daily Express

  The ending is a letdown but this is still a very promising debut from directors James Nunn and Ronnie Thompson.

• , Sun Online

  Tower Block doesn't rise high enough to match its ambitions.

• Phelim O'Neill, Guardian [UK]

  It's not a bad idea for a movie, but what we get is undercooked, with poor logic and even poorer pacing conspiring to prevent any much-needed tension to build.

• Elliott Noble, Sky Movies

  "Guilty pleasure" is pushing it, but you might develop a certain guilty appreciation for the way this slab of breezeblock Brit-schlock goes about its ludicrously contrived business.

• Roz Laws, Birmingham Post

  There are plenty of clichés, like lifts that don't work and a mysteriously disappearing phone signal. It's badly lit and rather grim, with far too many extreme close-ups.

• Jennifer Tate, ViewLondon

  Entertaining, well written thriller enlivened by strong performances from a superb cast and a decent amount of shocks, though it's slightly let down by a disappointing finale.

• Simon Crook, Empire Magazine

  An unusual, scuzzy setting for a thriller that delivers with brutal simplicity.

• Jamie Graham, Total Film

  The action and anxiety are believable, the violence sudden and the performances - especially those of Sheridan Smith as an East End Sarah Connor and Jack O'Connell as a thug-come-good - are strong.

• Anton Bitel, Little White Lies

  a tense siege thriller that uses its genre trappings to expose a blighted, beleaguered underclass of the here and now... Tower Block, however, is eventually undone by its own gravity, coming back down to ground level with a decidedly tepid ending.

• Shaun Munro, What Culture

  The interesting premise is undermined at every turn by idiotic characters and overwhelming contrivance.

Read all 14 critic reviews