Eden Lake starring Kelly Reilly,
Michael Fassbender, Tara Ellis, Jack
OConnell, Finn Atkins
Eden Lake
British director James Watkins’s directorial debut is an overtly moralistic
thriller centering around a couple who are trapped and taunted lakeside by
a gang of teenage bullies, led by a boy named Brett (Jack O’Connell).
Warning signs to stay out of this camping area abound, in the spirit of
myriad camping-trip-gone-awry tales, like the classic Friday the 13th. The
challenge, here, is to subvert those warning signs in order to harness
some minor sympathy for the alleged victims to be. However, Steve
(Michael Fassbender) and Jenny (Kelly Reilly) are too wrapped up in
puppy love to turn around, even when their GPS signal advises them to do
so. As a gang of wayward kids pick fights with Steve and Kelly, the couple
attempts escape... at first. But Steve’s desire for revenge impels him to
search for the delinquents’ parents, which becomes the couple’s downfall.
A good portion of Eden Lake is devoted to the chase, during which Steve

and Kelly look increasingly swampy under caked on layers of blood and
mud. These scenes are well done, fast-paced, and here, enacting fear,
Kelly Reilly is at her best. But as the film progresses, one sees so many
connections between the teens’ violence and the abhorrent behavior of
their parents, that Eden Lake leaves no character interpretation up to the
viewer. Yes, bad parents usually make bad teens. But a deeper
investigation into Brett’s inner mind, or his ability to follow through with
torture and the sadistic control he exhibits over his gang, would result in
less obvious, and possibly more interesting explanations for criminal
action. Though many Dimension Extreme films are cutting edge in the
horror genre (see Inside), Eden Lake is not one of them. --Trinie Dalton
Personal Review: Eden Lake starring Kelly Reilly, Michael
Fassbender, Tara Ellis, Jack OConnell, Finn Atkins
I was drawn to the film by other recommendations, and the fact that Jack
O'Connell from the third series of Skins had stared in the feature.
Coming into this film on a whim, I was completley surprised and deeply
thrilled by the sheer horror that this brought right onto the table. It starts off
slow with the cliche couple running off into the countryside to get away
from it all to only come into a town that was filled with loud-mouth pricks.
Everything is silent for a few scenes, but when we get to the part where the
two leads are lounging by the lake, we're greeted to a group of rowdy
English chavs that come in with loud music while terrorizing a little kid seen
earlier in the scene. They end up bothering the couple, and then, all hell
breaks loose within fifteen minutes of running time.
What would've been a typical horror film, it turns into a very horrific deal of
adolescent gangster violence set upon on just the whim for "They f$#%ing
killed my dog, even though I threatened to kill them!"
For people calling this film unrealistic, I disagree. Lot's of weirder and
harsher things have happened in the world, and what's not to say that you
could get overrun with a group of twats getting ready to BBQ you alive
while bounding you with barb wire?
It's not a film for the faint of heart, and it will hit hard - especially by the
time the end credits start to roll.
Aside from the public warning, this is definatly a horror film that is heavily a
must see for any filmbuffs watch list. Be forwarned, you will be stuck with a
bitter taste for the next hour after viewing.
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