''Eden Lake'' is a 2008 British

horror thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...

written and directed by James Watkins and starring

Kelly Reilly Jessica Kelly Siobhán Reilly (born 18 July 1977) is an English actress. She first appeared on screen in 1995 on the series '' The Biz''. Her other television work includes starring roles in the British crime drama '' Above Suspicion'' (2009– ...

Michael Fassbender Michael Fassbender (born 2 April 1977) is an Irish actor. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Critics' Choice Movie Award, and nominations for two Academy Awards, four British Academy Film Award ...

and

Jack O'Connell Jack O'Connell may refer to: * Jack O'Connell (actor) (born 1990), English actor * Jack O'Connell (Australian politician) (1903–1972), member of the Victorian Legislative Council * Jack O'Connell (diplomat) (1921–2010), American diplomat and C ...

. The film was nominated for the

Empire Award The Empire Awards was an annual British awards ceremony honouring cinematic achievements in the local and global film industry. Winners were awarded the Empire Award statuette. The awards, first presented in 1996, were presented by the British f ...

for Best British Film. It is among a group of roughly contemporaneous films that deal with concerns over "

Broken Britain Broken Britain is a term which was used by the UK's Conservative Party from 2007 to 2010 to describe a perceived widespread state of social decay in the UK under the tenure of Labour Party Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Political usage David ...

" and a fear of "

hoodie A hoodie (in some cases spelled hoody and alternatively known as a hooded sweatshirt) is a sweatshirt with a hood. Hoodies with zippers usually include two pockets on the lower front, one on either side of the zipper, while "pullover" hoodies ...

s". Some of the close up scenes were filmed at Frensham Small Pond.

Plot

Steve Taylor takes his girlfriend Jenny Greengrass to a remote lake in the wooded English countryside for a relaxing weekend away, where he plans to propose. On the way, they meet a young boy named Adam. As Steve and Jenny attempt to wind down, the peaceful setting is disrupted by a gang of rowdy teenagers who have ridden their bicycles to a spot within a few metres of the young couple. Steve asks them to keep the noise down, but is met with abuse. The next morning, Steve and Jenny find their food supplies infested with insects and their car tire damaged by a bottle left behind by the teens. While driving into town for breakfast, Steve spots a house with bikes outside that he thinks belong to the teens. When no one answers the door, Steve enters the house and proceeds to snoop around. But on the return of Jon, the surly homeowner, Steve is obliged to make his escape from an upstairs window. Back at the lake after waking from a nap, Steve and Jenny discover the bag containing their car keys and Steve's phone and wallet is missing. They return to where they parked their car to discover it is also gone. Returning to town on foot, they avoid a collision with their own car, driven recklessly through the woods by the gang's psychopathic leader, Brett. Finding the gang in the woods after nightfall, Steve demands the return of his belongings, only to be pounced by the teens who pull out knives. In the scuffle, Brett's dog Bonnie is mortally stabbed, sending Brett into a maniacal rage. The couple grab the keys and flee, but the gang throws stones at the car, causing Steve to crash. With Steve trapped, Jenny is forced to run for help. At daybreak, Jenny stumbles upon the group who have tied Steve to a rock with barbed wire. Brett orders each reluctant teen to stab him. When Paige, the female gang member, records Steve's torture on her phone, they realise they have no choice but to kill him. Jenny acts as a decoy and the gang give chase while Steve buys time to free himself. Jenny evades the gang and finds Steve, but is unable to nurse his fatal wounds. She finds an engagement ring in his pocket, and Steve proposes to her before dying. Jenny runs off to find help but accidentally steps on a large spike and her screams get the gang's attention. Jenny runs into Adam and begs for help, but he ends up informing the gang of their location. They tie Jenny, along with Steve's dead body, to a pile of wood; Brett forces Adam to light a bonfire while Paige films it. Jenny is able to escape and Brett

necklaces A necklace is an article of jewellery that is worn around the neck. Necklaces may have been one of the earliest types of adornment worn by humans. They often serve ceremonial, religious, magical, or funerary purposes and are also used as symbol ...

Adam in retaliation. Jenny continues to evade the gang, killing a younger gang member Cooper who was attempting to help her. After finding his body, Brett is thrown into further rage and beats Harry, another gang member, to death. Paige runs away in fear. Jenny reaches a road and is picked up by a driver who is looking for his brother Ricky, another gang member. When he exits the van to talk with Ricky, Jenny drives off, running over Paige in the process. As Jenny makes it back to town, she crashes into a fence at a large backyard party and collapses. She awakes to find herself being comforted by a woman and her husband Jon, and soon realises she is in Brett's house. Jon notices Reece's van on his lawn as one of the other parents receives a call informing her of the dead gang members, who are the children of the adults at the house. A commotion begins as Jenny locks herself in the bathroom. Jon kicks the door in and is confronted by all of the party guests, as well as Brett who has returned home. Brett has convinced the adults that Jenny and Steve sadistically murdered the gang members. Jenny begs Jon to call the police and then tries ineffectually to attack him with a razor she found in the bathroom, but Jon quickly subdues her. Jon tells Brett to go upstairs, then takes Jenny back into the bathroom with two other men. Brett shuts the door of his room, blocking out her screams. He deletes the videos of the gang's crimes from Paige's phone, puts on Steve's sunglasses, and stares blankly into a mirror.

Cast

Production

Critical reception

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, a

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, 80% of 28 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 6.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "A brutal and effective British hoodie-horror that, despite the clichés, stays on the right side of scary." Dennis Harvey reviewed the film for ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' and said that it was "an effectively harrowing Brit thriller-cum-horror pic," comparing it to '' Last House on the Left'' and ''

Lord of the Flies ''Lord of the Flies'' is a 1954 novel by the Nobel Prize-winning British author William Golding. The plot concerns a group of British boys who are stranded on an uninhabited island and their disastrous attempts to govern themselves. Themes i ...

''. ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

''s

Peter Bradshaw Peter Bradshaw (born 19 June 1962) is a British writer and film critic. He has been chief film critic at ''The Guardian'' since 1999, and is a contributing editor at ''Esquire''. Early life and education Bradshaw was educated at Haberdashers ...

drew parallels with ''

Deliverance ''Deliverance'' is a 1972 American survival thriller film produced and directed by John Boorman, and starring Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, and Ronny Cox, with the latter two making their feature film debuts. The screenplay was adapted ...

'', '' Straw Dogs'' and '' Blue Remembered Hills'', and stated that "this looks to me like the best British horror film in years: nasty, scary and tight as a drum," concluding that the film was "exceptionally well made, ruthlessly extreme, relentlessly upsetting." Other critics, however, have savaged the film, denouncing it as an incitement to

class prejudice Class discrimination, also known as classism, is prejudice or discrimination on the basis of social class. It includes individual attitudes, behaviors, systems of policies and practices that are set up to benefit the upper class at the expense ...

against

working class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...

people in Britain. '' The Sun'' condemned the film's "nasty suggestion that all working-class people are thugs" while ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' concluded that "this ugly witless film expresses fear and loathing of ordinary English people".

Owen Jones Owen Jones (born 8 August 1984) is a British newspaper columnist, political commentator, journalist, author, and left-wing activist. He writes a column for ''The Guardian'' and contributes to the ''New Statesman'' and ''Tribune.'' He has two w ...

, in his book '' Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class'' cites the film at length as an example of media demonisation of proletarian youth via the "

Chav "Chav" (), also "charver", "scally" and "roadman" in parts of England, is a British term, usually used in a pejorative way. The term is used to describe an anti-social lower-class youth dressed in sportswear. * * * * "Chavette" is a related te ...

" stereotype. He comments, "Here was a film arguing that the middle classes could no longer live alongside the quasi-bestial lower orders." ''Eden Lake'' has been linked with other films that deal with concerns over "

" and a fear of "

s," including '' Harry Brown'', '' The Disappeared'', '' Summer Scars'', ''

Outlaw An outlaw, in its original and legal meaning, is a person declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn from the criminal, so that anyone was legally empowered to persecute or kill them ...

'', ''

The Great Ecstasy of Robert Carmichael ''The Great Ecstasy of Robert Carmichael'' is the first feature film from British director Thomas Clay, released in 2006. It features Daniel Spencer in the title role, with Lesley Manville and Danny Dyer in support. Plot An introverted, socially ...

'', ''

Cherry Tree Lane ''Cherry Tree Lane'' is a 2010 British drama horror- thriller film, written and directed by Paul Andrew Williams. Plot In a house at Cherry Tree Lane, distant couple Christine (Rachael Blake) and Mike ( Tom Butcher) are eating dinner while th ...

'' and '' Heartless''.

References

External links