Eden Lake reviews

http://genetickits.net/youll-be-sleeping-with-the-hid-kit-light-after-viewing-these-new-european-horror-movies/

You’ll Be Sleeping with the HID Kit Light After Viewing These New European Horror Movies

Posted by admin on Jun 4th, 2010

A list of a few groundbreaking and exciting new European horror movies that show that American directors have some competition when it comes to terror and frights. You’ll have to sleep with the hid kit light on after viewing these films.

“Eden Lake”

The plot of “Eden Lake” isn’t anything groundbreaking: a couple set out for a romantic weekend at an idyllic and remote lake that the boyfriend grew up near. Once there they are hassled by a group of young kids who insult the couple and pop the tire on the couple’s jeep. Things only continue to escalate when the boyfriend confronts the kids again in the woods. While it may not be the most original idea, it is played out with the utmost realism and the British setting gives it a unique spin, with the acting by Michael Fassbender and Kelly Reilly will give you chills.

http://didimiss60b.blogspot.com/2010/06/review-eden-lake.html

Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Review: Eden Lake
Eden Lake is quite an impressive little horror film. For starters, the movie is beautifully shot. Daytime is brighter than bright, reminiscent of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Hills Have Eyes remakes. I quite enjoy looking at pretty pictures and Eden Lake, is at times, a very pretty picture. Of course, when s$#! starts hitting the fan, it's a whole different story.

Boyfriend and I were completely horrified while watching the film. Why? Because this could actually happen in real life (see also: The Strangers). Freddy, Michael and Jason are not that scary, because they are 'fantasy monsters' (non-human and keep coming back to life). Who hasn't encountered annoying little s$@%$! who think they're so cool and that they're allowed to do anything they want? Seriously, some people should not be allowed to have children.

*BEWARE OF SPOILERS* As we see towards the end of the film, some people REALLY should not be allowed to have children. I quite liked the ending and don't mind the Last House on the Left-ness of it all with the parents taking 'revenge' on poor Jenny. Of course, I would have rather seen Jenny survive, but I think the end works looking at the way it's been set it up. Brett, the leader of kids, has an abusive dad and acts out (or doesn't know better) towards others. At the end, we see the dad peer pressure another dad into killing Jenny, similar to the way Brett peer pressured his friends into stabbing Steve. It's an effed up world we live in. */SPOILERS*

Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds) and Kelly Reilly give strong performances, as well as the kid who plays Brett. The script does not always make sense, but overall it's not too annoying. The writer/director, James Watkins, was also responsible for the scripts of My Little Eye and Gone, so he has a pretty good track record in my book. He's one to watch. Eden Lake, a 4/5.
Posted by Gwen at 11:28 AM

http://thevaultofhorror.blogspot.com/2010/06/lucky-13-week-four-gore.html

Fandomania's Paige MacGregor on Eden Lake

I can’t say that I chose to watch Eden Lake the first time because I’m a fan of the director or because the plot piqued my interest. In fact, I’d never heard of James Watkins and I decided to watch Eden Lake before I even read a plot synopsis. I can’t even credit my burgeoning interest in the academic side of the horror genre for turning me on to Eden Lake. The reason that I was so determined to watch this movie is both simple and embarrassing, and can be summed up in two words: Michael Fassbender. Little did I know how gruesome and disturbing my latest foray into the world of one of my favorite new actors would prove to be—nor did I expect that I was about to discover what has become one of my favorite horror films—when I popped the movie into my DVD player. In fact, by the end of the film’s 91-minute run-time I positively despised Eden Lake. It was only later, after reflecting on the profound effect the film had on me, that I realized how brilliant Eden Lake really is. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Although the violence and gore featured in Eden Lake initially turned me off, it is that very gory violence that made such a lasting impression on me and later made me realize how well crafted this movie is. It’s true that films like Eli Roth’s Hostel and Hostel II are exceedingly gory and arguably highlight violence for the sake of violence (although yes, an argument can be made that there is purpose behind the violence in those films—but that’s a conversation for another time), but many films of that nature lack a certain degree of authenticity, which Eden Lake possesses. The brutal depravity displayed by the adolescent antagonists in the film is both horrifying and at the same time disturbingly realistic, a fact that contributes to the polarizing nature of the film.

The horror genre has a long history of exploring the concept of children as dangerous or frightening, and Eden Lake takes this notion to a whole new level. Inevitably some viewers will dismiss the actions of the youths in Eden Lake as unrealistic, but in my opinion nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact, antisocial personality disorder (the clinical terminology for sociopaths) is diagnosed in individuals over the age of 18 based in large part due to their actions in childhood and early adolescence. In other words, just because viewers might not want to believe that kids are capable of willfully and purposefully slicing and dicing someone like Steve doesn’t mean that it can’t or won’t happen—and it does so much more frequently than you might think, too.

As a person with a profound interest in both psychology and film, Eden Lake satisfies my interests on multiple levels. Not only is the film entertaining for viewers looking for nothing more than some gore and a good, suspenseful chase, but it will also speak to individuals on an intellectual basis—if they’re open to it, that is. Aside from its previously mentioned characteristics, Eden Lake is an excellent example of the unspoken preoccupation with the penetration and mutilation of the human body so inherent in the horror movie genre, especially in the gore subcategory that we’re examining this week. When you consider what gory horror movies like Eden Lake would be without violent, gruesome, or brutal penetration of the human body, whether with a machete à la Jason Voorhees, an axe, or a utility knife like that used by Brett and his followers in Eden Lake, the only conclusion is that the sub-genre would cease to exist altogether.

In summary, Eden Lake might not be the goriest of gory horror movies, but it succeeds in hitting several of my hot buttons, and therefore earned its place as my favorite gory horror film—and after only one viewing, too! I highly recommend that every horror fan check it out.

http://newfilmblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/beware-yob.html

Tuesday, 15 June 2010
BEWARE THE YOB!
Indescribable... Indestructible! Nothing Can Stop It! It’s… it’s... the Yob!

Possibly a bit over dramatic but you know where I’m going with this. It seems these days the biggest thing we fear in our country (of England not America) isn’t nuclear war, or the economy but the yob culture. After watching film such as Eden Lake, Harry Brown and more recently Heartless I began to think about if this is such a national fear we all share?

Spoilers ahead

In Eden Lake, a group of teenagers terrors led by none other then Jack O’Connell, haunt a happy couple played by Michael Fassbender and Kelly Reilly as a beautiful day turns to hell by the evening. Whilst the movie as a whole is unbelievably flawed the performances are good (as expected from O’Connell and Fassbender) and you do actually fear O’Connell’s character. He shows so little care for human life and forces his followers into committing horrendous acts. The fact that they tie up Fassbender’s character and stick a utility knife in his mouth, over the death of a beloved pet is horrible to even think about. That scene still haunts me.

Then you look at Harry Brown in which an O.A.P (in this case Michael Cain) is so scared to walk down the street after the death of his friends that he has to fight back.
The yobs in Harry Brown are really threatening to society in one pointless scene two yobs circle a mother with child before gunning her down. It’s scene like these that make me wonder where the writer got the inspiration. Sure, you hear enough about it in the news but now that it’s seeping into our contempory British cinema shows that we as a society no long fear organized gang warfare but it’s the kids we fear most.
Also Harry Brown unlike Eden Lake is actually well told but still pretty unbelievable.

And then you arrive at Heartless which has the most interesting thoughts on yobs in the East End of London. Jim, the birth-marked photography who spends most of his time alone, stumbles across a gang of yobs one night around an open fire (typical Friday night) only to discover they are actually Lizard Demons. The new reports about their brutal murders and sacrificial ritual that it is just normal kids in masks however our hero knows. It’s this which leads him to descend into hell and back. The facts that the demons walk around in hoods and track suit bottoms really was an interesting twist on it.

What I believe is that the Yob culture in Britain is actually having an effect on the mental stability of the people in our society. We (the non-yobs) see them as a threat but also as animals that are reckless and naive and so carless for human life.
Is this a reflection of our current society? Or is it just over exaggerations for propaganda against them? Who know, but all we can do in the mean while is run and hide under a rock.
Posted by New Film Blog at 09:27

http://wildclawbloodradio.blogspot.com/2010/06/dr-acs-rec-of-week-e.html

Eden Lake (2008)
A couple (Kelly Reilly, Michael Fassbender) seeking a weekend of isolation and romance find themselves locked in a war of wills and retaliation with a group of rebellious adolescents. What distinguishes James Watkins’ film from the wealth of “survival” movies is that the escalating violence between the protagonists and antagonists feels justified, truthful and well-charted, rather than simply a case of “we hate outsiders.” Brutal and gripping, with a chilling climax all the more disturbing for its implications than for any onscreen bloodletting.
Posted by Dr. AC, Fool for Blood at 4:38 AM

http://ctcmr.com/2010/07/08/eden-lake-2008/

Eden Lake (2008)
July 8, 2010

by Aiden R

VERDICT:
7/10 Tire Fires

About as brutal as they come.

Eden Lake is about a British couple who head out to the countryside for a romantic weekend getaway and everything goes just peachy for all of five minutes until they start getting accosted by a gang of dickhead teens who eventually vandalize their car and leave them stranded in the woods for no real reason at all. So the lovely couple confronts the daft punks, the meeting does not go very well, the s$#! immediately hits the fan and they find themselves fighting for their lives.

It’s the debut effort by one James Watkins, I don’t think a whole lot of people saw it to begin with, but when it comes to horror movies, this evil bastard is hard to forget. It probably falls somewhere in the vacinity of Hostel mixed with Children of the Corn, only all the kids wear tracksuits, say the C-word a lot and probably watch Kids a lot.

See, this here isn’t a scary movie, this is a horror movie. It’s twisted, it’s effing vicious and what it lacks in scenes that pop out of nowhere and make you scream like a little bitch (or is that just me?), it goes all-out in the jaw-on-the-floor department. Watching adults torture adults can be bad enough, and adults torturing children is a whole ‘nother sicko ball game, but children torturing adults/children torturing children can prove to be a pretty unsettling medium when you push the envelope to the point of tearing it right in half.

I can’t give away any of the specific scenes here that made my good buddy Fred have to re-evaluate me as a non-homicidal maniac after suggesting he sit down to watch it with me, because that wouldn’t make me much of a bloodhungry film critic worth turning to, but trust me, this stuff is Bonkers. In one aspect, it’s kinda hard to like this movie and even go so far as to award it a 7 given some of the deviant s$#! it brings to the table, but all its qualities that might trigger your gag reflex are also the ones that make it work as well as it does.

And therein lies the drawback to Eden Lake, that it’s almost too damn nuts for it’s own damn good. If our protagonists were running from ghosts, goblins or leprechauns, whatever, it’s just a movie, but since it’s all human-on-human violence that’s continually upping the ante on itself, it feels a lot more realistic than I expected it to be. There is a point, actually a couple points, where I can imagine viewers turning this off and immediately booting up a Care Bears DVD in the hopes of balancing out what just destroyed any last trace of innocence lingering around in their souls, but for those of us with iron stomachs and a healthy confidence that England’s youth aren’t actually this warped, you might just see the appeal.

Our man gal is played by Kelly Reilly and considering the stuff she gets put through by Watkins over the course of 90 minutes, she ends up being pretty convincing as a borderline badass by the Third Act. Never seen her in anything before, but she’s A-okay.

And we’ve also got good ol’ Michael Fassbender as her fiancee-to-be, and even though he’s fine here, I’m turning into quite the Fassbender fan. That dude kicks ass.

But, folks, Eden Lake is no effing joke. It’s definitely not for everyone, but if you’re jonesing for some funked up s$#!, this is gonna whet your appetite like Thanksgiving dinner. I don’t tend to have conversations about movies the way I did in the wake of witnessing this bloodbath, but they were short, sweet and I couldn’t help but feel like everyone hated me a little for introducing it to them even if they all liked it. So see it, be appalled by it, recommend it to your sicko friends and revel in the terror. That right there is the mark of good horror.

http://horroraffair.blogspot.com/2010/07/eden-lake-rview-and-trailer.html

Eden Lake Review and Trailer
Saturday, July 10, 2010 Posted by Drew kearns

Release Date: 12 September 2008 (UK)
Director: James Watkins
Screenwriter: James Watkins
Starring: Kelly Reilly, Michael Frassbender, Jack O'Connell, Thomas Turgoose
DVD Rating: 10/10
Rated: 18
Official Website: Not Available
This film could easily have just been some chavs bullying people, but it is much more then that. I have watched many horror/thriller films and they have rarely effected me the way this film did. From the beginning the mood is set of this extremely happy couple living in their bliss and as most of you will know before watching this the film is not about their happy relationship. The first thirty minutes of the film are more easy going then the rest, but still captivating. As the film continues it shocks you beyond belief, I expected gore but I didn't expect how the tone of the film would make me feel.

If you have an uneasy stomach or sometimes get emotional, prepare yourself for this film. It is gruesome but some scenes are a little too realistic which is what makes the film different. A lot of horror films similar to this lack realism so the audience cannot connect with the protagonist as easily, but Eden Lake has
been made with a great deal of empathy for the couple and hate for the young kids. Seeing as there is a strong connection between audience and the characters there is a great deal of emotion involved which is unexpected, but this shows that the film has been made very well and that the actors do their job perfectly.

The young actors who play the chavs are fantastic, and i'm not going to say fantastic 'for their age' because they are truly talented actors regardless of age. Jack O'Connell (Also played as "Cook" in the UK Hit T.V show Skins) plays the ring leader of the group Brett, and he really shines. Playing a merciless hateful character is not the easiest thing to do, but if you didn't know better you would think that is how he is in real life because he is just that good. I have been a big fan of Thomas Turgoose since he was in This is England because he is also a very talented and realistic actor and he doesn't disappoint in this film either, but he isn't in it as much as I would like. The other actors in the group are equally as talented. As for the couple they were perfectly cast and they have great chemistry, I have been a fan of Michael Fassbender (who plays boyfriend Steve) for a while but I had never really noticed Kelly Reilly before (who plays girlfriend Jenny) but she plays the character very well and hits the right emotions at the perfect time.

All in all the film draws you in, keeps you captivated, shocks you with the gore and blows you away with emotion. The best thing about it and what makes the movie special and better then most other similar films is just how real it is. You almost feel like this is happening to you, and their reactions are also real human reactions too. The film is truly great and one of the best of its genre, very impressive all around.

http://goofybeast.wordpress.com/2010/07/24/dont-take-the-shuttle-to-eden-lake-2/


Don’t take the Shuttle to Eden Lake.

July 24, 2010 at 6:39 pm (Uncategorized)

Here’s a complaint. I do like a good horror movie. I think that it can tell me something about human nature by putting its characters into a difficult or even impossible situation of life and death. Many stories do that, sure, but a horror movie takes the direct route to our subconscious and starts digging. It seems to know exactly where to dig, and how deep. What happens to the characters on screen seems to refer to us personally.

I have to admit that the last decade or so of horror movies has set me at odds. I’ve seen Hostel and Saw, and those are just slasher porn. That’s something I don’t mind seeing once in a blue moon, but I really prefer characters I can care about, because it makes that movie just that much scarier and memorable, while stuff like the Saw series, Hostel and many others are, well, disposable horror. They can be watched and then forgotten.
There are two horror movies that have stuck with me because they are abysmally bad not because they are such bad horror movies, but because they try to be more than just horror movies and become ruthless and sometimes careless about their characters, and even reveal some latent racism.

The first one is a British flick called Eden Lake. It is a disgusting film, steeped in sexism, racism and overall misanthropy. The fact that it tries to sneak out of its responsibility makes it also a cowardly film.
Here’s the first half of the plot from Eden Lake in a nutshell. (And don’t get me started on spoilers – here’s a movie you really shouldn’t see.) There’s that couple, Steve and Jenny, who plan on spending a few quiet intimate days on the shore of Eden Lake, in the midst of a large forest in Buckinghamshire, England. Steve plans to propose to Jenny. On the way to the lake, they stop at a roadside inn, where there are parents who verbally abuse their kids and then stare Steve and Jenny down when they look at them in frowning disbelief. They get out of there and camp at the lake shore. It would be a great love getaway for them, if it weren’t for those kids with their boombox and their dog. It’s almost a sideline when those kids hassle another kid who is in the woods collecting insects. They spit, gloat, shout, smoke, drink beer and feel provoked when Steve tries to tell them to keep it down a little. The kids trail off, but slash a tire of Steve’s car. Now Steve is provoked, while Jenny tells him to let it go, change the tyre and leave. Back in the village, they come across the home of the leader of the kids’ gang, Brett, and Steve jumps to the occasion to confront Brett, but finds himself in an empty home, with Brett’s dad coming home from work or a beer run. Dad isn’t pleased that his offspring has punched a fist-sized hole in his front door, and wants to shout at him some. At that point, it struck me that maybe dad has been doing time: beer, tattoos, mean attitude, cruel towards children, especially his own son, who is busy imitating his old man’s behaviour. The movie doesn’t tell, and that is all the psychological depth or motivation you are going to get from this flick. Steve escapes over the roof of the house. Back at the lake the next morning, the couple realize that a bag with their car keys has been stolen. They have to walk back, but come across the kids, and Steve inadvertently kills their dog. Escape scenes follow in which Jenny and Steve have to hide from the knife-toting gang. Eventually, they get their car back, but crash it, which leads to a sequence where Steve is taken captive and tied to a tree stump with barbed wire.
So far, it’s vintage horror, but there is that moment where Brett makes every member torture Steve. That violent moment is where my problem with the movie starts, and for two reasons. First, each member of the gang is egged on by Brett, but Brett seems very reluctant to torture Steve himself. And yet, Brett succeeds in making them do it. Later in the movie, there are numerous moments where any of the kids could have quit and run away. They don’t. Some of them are picked off and killed, some just disappear from the film without explanation. Brett is the charismatic leader who makes his gang do his bidding, but is a coward himself. That is an odd character build-up at best. Eden Lake shows a lot of graphic violence, but at the same time apologises for it by showing most of the kids being bullied into it against their will, while the bully himself is of two minds about his own orders. Once I subscribe to the violence in a movie, I don’t expect the movie to chicken out and apologise for it. If it does, the violence becomes gratuitous, the very thing it pretended to avoid. Eden Lake has no idea what its stance on juvenile gang violence is, but is all about exactly that. I don’t want to be confronted with torture and slice’n’dice scenes and then be told that, sorry, that is just the way it is with pissed-off idle teenagers today. Eden Lake would be well-advised to not fake any character motivation at all than to shrug its shoulders about the violence it shows.

The second problem is an ethnic one. The only character who seems eager to cut Steve’s face is the kid with African-American background, and he does not have any lines at all. Doesn’t it make you angry that the guy with the most inclination for violence is black? There is one other kid with a minority background, and that’s the bug kid with Indian background that the gang harassed earlier on. His name is Adam, and he is bullied into luring Jenny into a trap. He succeeds, and Brett says thank you by pulling a car tire over his head and setting him on fire. While one non-white kid is a mute slasher, the other non-white kid is a helpless nerd who is used as bait and then set on fire. Oh, and did I mention that there is a girl in the gang who apparently serves two purposes, namely that she can complain that Steve is staring at her boobs and later film all the violence with Brett’s cell phone?

Steve dies at some point, which leads to Jenny running, hiding or clutching the defensive weapon of opportunity to her copious cleavage. The camera makes a point of showing off her blood-soaked, gunk-stained cleavage in her bra-less summer dress. Now I know that the maiden lost in the woods is one of the oldest set pieces of horror stories, and I don’t have a problem with the female form, but the movie accentuates Jenny’s breasts from every possible angle so that I felt like a voyeur, a situation I don’t feel comfortable with. Jenny’s breasts are hardly the point of the last half hour of the movie, but while she has to slash her way back to safety, it sends a sexist message: have a look at Jenny disembowelling some juvenile delinquents in self-defense, but do not miss out on her capacious cleavage. And learn this: Jenny’s psychological dilemma seems to be that, as a teacher, she likes kids, but now must overcome her fondness by slashing some miseducated specimens.

If you think this review is full of spoilers, bear with me. Jenny finally finds her way back to the village and tries to get help from some people at a garden party who turn out to be the parents of some of the kids – and the very parents who verbally abused their kids at the roadside inn. The point here must be that in this village, there is not one single good person. Brett is also at the party, as if it was the evening of another day out with the gang. He is the one who tells everybody in the room what Jenny must have done: She is responsible for the death of some of the kids whose parents are at that party. And let’s not forget the dog, who apparently was one of a set of two bloodhounds. Do the parents question Brett how he knows who Jenny is? No, they start threatening Jenny and want to make her pay for killing their kids. They make clear that no-one will call the police, and one older guy, I think it’s Brett’s father, forces Jenny into the bathroom for a shower. The implications are obvious: we are going to give you a bath because once you are clean, we will abuse and rape you for what you have done to our offspring. (Note that the women seem to, if not to partake, then at least to greenlight, the gang rape the men in the room are about to commit.) The movie doesn’t show us any such scene, but cuts to Brett who is standing alone in front of a mirror, looking first at himself and then at his cell phone. Oh my god, is that remorse? No, of course not: he erases all the snuff files on his cell phone. The implications are also clear here: Brett erases all the traces of knowing Jenny and might, in all likelihood, join in the abuse. Here, the film fades to black, and the credits roll. For the last time, the movie chickens out of its own violent implications.

I have nothing against extreme violence in horror movies, or any other kind of movie, for that matter. Only here, in Eden Lake the unclear stance on violence sabotages the whole story, and it clearly weakens the characters who are off-the-shelf to begin with. Eden Lake has to suffer questions about its latent racism and sexism because it inserts these issues, but pretends it is not about any of them at all.

Some movies approach human nature by carefully describing and sometimes questioning all those things that may make us human. Horror movies zoom right in by undermining any certain answers to what makes us tick by taking away some aspect of a person: common sense, health, empathy, and twists that lead to something uncanny. Done the right way, that’s the source of a horror movie’s scariness. At a very basic level, Eden Lake left me stranded because I didn’t know what to make of the characters. There is precious little to go on to start with; if a movie undermines everything that it has set up, it cannot be taken seriously. If it also makes an issue out of questions of race and gender without somehow consciously taking position on them, it goes beyond lazy filmmaking and introduces questions about race and gender it feels it does not have to answer. There is no humanity in this movie: every single character either kills or is killed, sometimes both. That would be the key ingredient of film noir, but Eden Lake doesn’t seem to know that, either. There is a thin line between horror and disgust, and sadly, Eden Lake really only gets the second one right.

Shuttle is an American production, but with two British actors starring as baddies. It raises similar questions as Eden Lake: It’s about a group of young travellers who catch the red eye back from Thailand or somewhere. There is no bus and no underground, it’s raining, the airport is just too drab, and the next shuttle will be in a few hours. Help turns up: there is a private shuttle offering them a ride home for less money. The teens eventually accept. Big mistake. They get picked off one by one, only to find that the driver of the shuttle has to let the two girls survive, make them bleach their hair blond and stand in white high heels and white underwear in an empty subterranean garage, where an anonymous guy comes and has a look and decides which one of the girls is to his liking. The movie does not tell us who this man is but, once again, can he be anyone else but some perverted creep with a fetish for the very bright end of the colour spectrum? The audience is left with implications as to how that man will make use of the surviving girl; Shuttle, like Eden Lake, stops short of being consequent and veers away from the thing at the bottom of the rabbit hole. That’s cowardice. The last plot twist is that the driver takes some kind of twisted pity on the girl and, instead of delivering her into the serfdom of some fetishist, puts her in a box with food and kitty litter and has her delivered to Asia in an overseas ship container. She might get to live.

The end of Shuttle seems to suggest one of two things. The first one seems to be the driver’s perverted pity of deciding the girl’s fate by locking her up and hauling her halfway around the world after a torturous journey that will take weeks if not months and might very well kill her. The second implication is a more personal one, and I don’t have solid evidence that the movie really wants to purport this message, but it seemed to me that Shuttle, with its very last shot, tries to comment on human trafficking. See, the Western world seems to import a lot of Asian women for prostitution, which is so wrong, so why not have a Western girl shipped the other way around?

There are curious familiarities between the two movies. The driver from Shuttle is played by Tony Curran, who has starred in a movie called Red Road. Its director, Andrea Arnold, has directed another movie called Fish Tank, starring Michael Fassbender, who plays Steve in Eden Lake. Fish Tank is a good movie, and I can recommend it as a social drama, but there is also Red Road, which can be taken to be a very good horror flick, but it is certainly more than that. See it if you can.

http://www.geekjane.com/?p=5072

Posted on 25th July 2010Comments (0)
Rental: Eden Lake

Release Date: DVD 2009 UK
Rating: R- strong violence, gore, language, nudity and drug use
Starring: Kelly Reilly, Michael Fassbender and Jack O’Connell
Writer / Director: James Watkins

I know I am way, way behind the review buzz on this movie since it is over a year old but since I have had a nasty case of the summer-flu for the past week I have been catching up on my horror rentals. You may recognize Kelly Reilly from last years Sherlock Holmes bromance starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. Reilly plays the prim and proper fiance of the mild mannered Watson, Mary Morstan. Her name on the cover was one of the reasons that I decided to rent it, along with Michael Fassbender’s name who I loved on the show Hex (BBC) as the fallen angel Azazeal. I felt I should probably say that since slasher films aren’t typically the types of films that I would pick up on a whim.

That being said, the film isn’t your typical slasher thriller even though you would imagine it to be from the generic genre poster and description. I found the movie to be much more thought provoking than most blood-soaked suspense horror films of it’s kind. The general premise surrounds a sweetly unsuspecting couple who chose to vacation on Eden Lake. Little to their knowledge a gang of torture-happy teens has decided to setup their clubhouse on the lake where they drink, smoke and wield sharp objects. Reilly and Fassbender are really a sweet couple in this film with genuine chemistry which makes their fate all the more horrifying and mildly depressing.

Jack O’Connell plays the psycho gang leader named Brett. He was very reminiscent of other killers like John Ryder in The Hitcher with just pure mindless cruelty that has no explanation or purpose other than pure sadism. I guess in the end you kind of get an explanation as to why Brett is so royally effed up but in my mind he was going to be a psycho no matter what the excuse/reason. The unfortunate couple seem to make nothing but bad decisions no matter how much I kept hoping they would get some kind of revenge. I don’t want to spoil the ending, which was pretty good, so I will just stop there. I recommend this film to any survival-killer horror film fan who can handle plenty of torture and gore. Worth the rental I’d say.

– It’s better than Bacon

http://artofthrowingstones.blogspot.com/2010/08/whats-up-netflix.html

Eden Lake- 4 stars- I rented this movie for one reason and one reason only: Michael Fassbender. He is delicious! Also starring Kelly Reilly (Pride & Prejudice), it's a pretty typical horror movie. Young couple try to get a away for the weekend to go camping in the woods (always romantic), but they run afoul of a pack of teen thugs who terrorize and torture them. What gave this the extra star (which Fassbender already rendered) were the great performances, writing, and general lack of too much silliness. The kids talk the way kids talk, the couple speaks the way a long term love would, things just make sense. What would you do if in this situation? Personally I was raised not to taunt the lion, so to speak, so would not have ended up in this movie, but if I did I think I would respond (mostly) similarly. I love human horror movies, those flicks about the atrocities we inflict upon each other. The scare factor is so much higher. For fans of horror or shirtless Michael Fassbender.

shirtless Michael Fassbender hot

The only reason I watched it

http://flowersoffleshandblood.horror-extreme.com/?p=134

Thursday, August 12, 2010 02:28
Eden Lake (2008) (Dir. James Watkins)

It’s taken me a bit of time to get around to watching Eden Lake – despite usually making an effort to support homegrown horror pretty early on. It seemed to receive a wide release, and so I suppose it never seemed like there would be a rush to track it down. But, finally, after doing just that, I watched the film last night.

Going back to my efforts to support the British horror industry…this felt like a peculiarly British film in many ways, loaded as it was with lots of British anxieties and issues. It plays well on familiar flashpoints in British society: the clannishness of certain families and estates to the exclusion of all other concerns; issues of class, and how middle-class expectations of behaviour might jar against the behaviour of working-class (read: underclass) counterparts; the conflict between a ’stiff upper lip’ which brooks no nonsense and ‘a quiet life’ which does anything possible to avoid conflict; the belief that certain groups of people have no concern for law and order; and, last but not least (and something which may feel alien to those in other countries) the distinct lack of space in Britain. I remember heading to a Neolithic burial mound deep within the island of Anglesey some years back; it was a reasonable drive through (what seemed like) deserted minor roads. When we arrived, lo and behold, sitting atop the burial mound was a gang of chavs drinking White Lightning cider. There is no escape from the good old British thug. I couldn’t help but think of comedian Bill Bailey’s description of the British: “as a nation we are infused with a subtle melancholy, leading to eccentricity, binge drinking and casual violence.”

In the film, Young Professional Couple Jennie (Kelly Reilly) and Steve (Michael Fassbender) are heading out for a weekend break to the now-named Eden Lake, a new development alongside an existing village (which will one day form part of an executive retreat with luxury flats, pretty much like every green space in this country). Steve plans to propose to Jennie on this break, but their idyll is soon spoiled by an encounter with a gang of teenage ne’er-do-wells, armed with a ghetto blaster playing drum and bass and the prerequisite Rottweiler.

Here comes the first conflict between keeping the peace and showing a bit of backbone. Steve soon cracks and asks the kids to turn the music down. He’s greeted, of course, with verbal abuse, and when the gang retreat they deposit a broken Smirnoff bottle behind his back wheel, which causes a puncture. Things then escalate, as Steve feels he oughtn’t back down, and when the gang return that night to steal his car, he finds them, demanding his keys back.

Knives are pulled (naturally) and the situation becomes an all-out war when Steve accidentally stabs the dog, which happens to belong to lead chav Brett (Jack O’Connell). Young Professional Couple tries to flee, pursued by the gang, and in the melée their car leaves the road. The gang now has the upper hand and they want their vengeance…

The film gets a firm handle, then, on many current concerns. The Eden Lake gang will be recognisable to many of us Brits – with the use of mobile phones to record incidents, the musical tastes, the pack behaviour and the knife-happy nastiness all familiar in some combination either from our own experience (if we’re unlucky) or from the incendiary newspaper articles which greet us every day. It does all of this, but it falls down hard – and why?

Eden Lake becomes riddled with clichés. One or two could be forgiveable, but it’s soon mired in so many age-old horror clichés that all of the pertinent, fresh social realism is lost. I soon found myself more angry at the female lead than I was at the murderous gang; all my sympathy dissipated as one example of ‘I bet she’s going to…’ piled upon another. I’m aware that people do stupid things under extreme pressure. I am. But there is surely a variety of stupid things that people do, rather than the small range expressed in certain horror films.

I was also somewhat lost by the push-pull in the film which wanted to humanise the gang to an extent, but also to present them as amoral. I don’t know that I liked that the film gave Brett and his cronies any justification for pursuing Jennie and Steve, via the death of Brett’s dog. It just seemed unnecessary somehow. The horror of people like this is that they’re just s$@%$! – they don’t need to wait for just cause.

Anyway, having described what I feel were the film’s strong points, I’ll outline some of the things which absolutely lost me as an audience member.

* Female lead: if you escape from a violent gang who you believe intend to kill your kidnapped spouse-to-be, don’t hide under a tree until it is light, slowly approach the gang in plain sight, watch your boyfriend being tortured, and then try to Bluetooth his mobile from yours.
* Steve: don’t alert the gang to the whereabouts of your girlfriend, even if they do somehow miss her (see above), by yelling her name and looking in her direction.
* When being chased, hiding in the only available structure might be a bad call. Have you not seen any horror films?
* You will step on something fearfully sharp while you’re running, obviously, but be consistent on the whole ’screeching and gasping’ when you put your foot to the ground. Don’t crawl for ten yards in agony and then go back to normal.
* Be prepared for the fact that you WILL at some point be tied up – usually to a chair, but the point is that everyone in films seems to have the means to tie people up! Does everyone carry rope these days?

If a filmmaker could reverse some of these hackneyed motifs then I would be very happy. Of course, many do. In this case though, if it had been made more explicit that people act like s$#! without motive, and that people act in surprising ways both without repeating everyone else’s mistakes or f#%@#&! up in the exact same way as the people who made those mistakes, then the powerful positives of this film might have made it through intact. Gah, not every survivor of An Awful Incident gets to peer, bloodstained, into a shaft of light. In fact I’m sure many don’t.

Eden Lake has sound production values and the ability to tap into some uncomfortable modern anxieties, but it flounders by slipping into something more comfortable very early on. A more gutsy, more decently dark ending provides some redemption, and the film has much to its credit, but sadly it doesn’t quite deliver.1

http://www.popbunker.net/2010/08/300-word-review-horror-double-feature-eden-lake-bikini-girls-ice/

[300 Word Review] Horror Double Feature: ‘Eden Lake’ & ‘Bikini Girls on Ice’
By
Dale Cooper
– August 12, 2010

Release year 2008
Rollercoaster Films & Aramid Entertainment Fund

Directed by James Watkins

Starring Kelly Reilly and Michael Fassbender

Rating: 2.75/5

Eden Lake has been on my list of movies to see for a long time, but I put it off due to the rash of similar movies that were made around the same time that I’ve already seen. I thought two years would be enough of a buffer so I eagerly looked forward to this movie that got a fair amount of critical praise.

Eden Lake is an extraordinarily well made movie with great acting from the two leads, Kelly Reilly and Michael Fassbender, as well as from the youth actors in the film. The problem is that I knew the entire arc of the story and could predict scenes and situations after twelve minutes. That is not so much a limitation of the movie as it is this particular sub-genre of young kids who do bad thing to outnumbered adults. Ils, The Strangers, and The Children are all similar movies with The Children being the only one that mixes the genre up a little to make it less predictable.

All of these films are more or less inspired by the events surrounding the Ukrainian killings in 2007-08 and similar headline grabbers.

Eden Lake tells the story of a young couple looking to escape to an idyllic spot for the weekend. Everything is splendid until the couple have a run in with a gang of youths. Each encounter with the gang escalates to a higher level of violence until things get out of control for both parties.

The end of the movie tries to force in some apple-not-far-from-the-tree angle which falls flat and detracts from the overall effort. The result of the film is that it is no better than the other films I listed, though I liked The Children a bit more than the rest.

http://www.devon-cornwall-film.co.uk/2010/08/23/a-hand-picked-selection-of-retro-reviews-brit-flicks/

To some horror fans, the idea of a well-trodden rural rampage slasher movie could seem too quaint for comfort. Impressively, James Watkins’ stomach-churning debut movie Eden Lake (Optimum) redresses the balance with a savagely contemporary foray into the age-old sub-genre. In fact, Eden Lake’s trump-card isn’t its grab-bag of bloodstained horror traits, it’s its artful manipulation of modern fears regarding feral children with no moral boundaries… The narrative sees Steve (Michael Fassbender) whisk his girlfriend Jenny (Kelly Reilly) away to an idyllic woodland retreat before the developers move in. However, he doesn’t reckon on a posse of juvenile delinquents who have strayed onto the same patch. A minor confrontation spirals out of control, and the duo are forced to fight for their lives in time-honoured fashion.

Staggering in both its brutality and its plausibility, Eden Lake is a harrowing survival movie that will haunt you for days after viewing it. With a succession of gut-wrenching set-pieces that will make horror fans question their own blood-lust, Eden Lake is a post-modern horror movie splattered with 70s horror quirks. Furthermore, the cast is uniformly excellent, with the radiant Kelly Reilly clearly on her way to bigger things. It may plumb new depths of horror and depravity, but Eden Lake is much more than just a gore-soaked shock-fest. By welding modern-day fears onto a visceral survival movie template, James Watkins has made one of the most disturbing horror movies of recent years. Are you brave enough to go down to the woods today?

http://bitchinfilmreviews.com/eden-lake/

Eden Lake
August 25th, 2010 by Blake

If you’ve seen Hunger, you can understand why I feel such allegience to Michael Fassbender. He’s outrageously talented and I look forward to all of his films. His upcoming project with Neil Marshall is particularly exciting. I haven’t gone through his back catalog yet however. And I should. So when my friend Miss Topanga from Breathing Movies reviewed the film Eden Lake, and recommended it, I rented it post haste.

Eden Lake is a remake of a French film called Them. I haven’t seen Them, and now I probably will not. Fassbender plays a man named Steve, whos’ taking his girlfriend Jenny (Kelly Reilly) to a secluded lake for a weekend to propose. A particularly cruel group of teens and preteens create tension between Steve, Jenny and the gang. It escalates quickly to violence, and the children, not seeing a way out, decide to kill the two and cover it up. The rest of the film is a ‘will they escape or won’t they’ cat and mouse game.

This theme in film has become prevalent recently. Films like Them, of course, and The Strangers come to mind. Michael Haneke seems to have started it all with his film Funny Games. But where Haneke’s talent comes in building tension while keeping the majority of the violence off screen, director James Watkins decided that in Eden Lake it’d be best to show it all. In a particularly disturbing scene, a nine year old shoves a box cutter in Steve’s mouth and wiggles it around for a while. This comes off a lack of confidence in Watkins’ ability to create and sustain tension. Of which, there wasn’t much. Sure, I cringed, and made sounds of disgust during the torture and violence, but I didn’t particularly care what happened to Jenny and Steve as their characters were not developed. The outcome of the entire situation seemed completely clear a third of the movie in. Which also took away from any sense of intrigue concerning the plot.

Fassbender’s performance was quite good, as was Reilly’s. But without a sound story and direction behind these performances, the film logs and uninteresting entry in the torture porn genre, and actually would have benefited from some sort of political subtext or moral finger wagging.

Bitchin' Stars: ★★☆☆

http://averagejoelists.blogspot.com/2010/09/10-best-foreign-horror-films.html

9.03.2010
The 10 best foreign horror films.
If you know me at all, you will know my love of horror movies. But, I can't just do a "best horror movies" list, that would leave off too many movies. So, I'll be breaking them down into different categories, starting with foreign horror movies. WARNING: Some of these have clips, and some of those clips will be very bloody or disturbing. Also, the clips will have spoilers.


3. Eden Lake (United Kingdom, 2008)
Directed by: James Watkins
Stars: Kelly Reilly, Michael Fassbender

Plot: Refusing to let anything spoil their romantic weekend break, a young couple confront a gang of loutish youths with terrifyingly brutal consequences.

Best part: I don't want to give anything away, but the ending to this movie is probably one of the most frustrating, anger-inspiring, yet perfect ending to a movie that most people will hate. Since I don't want to show the whole ending, here's the trailer.

P.S. This is a great movie to talk about with people who have seen it. It is one of the few great horror movies that makes you think.

http://ashleigh-walmsley.blogspot.com/2010/09/psychotic-teens-celebrating-fs-release.html

Tuesday, 14 September 2010
Psychotic Teens: Celebrating F's Release
Featuring at London's Frightfest at the end of August, British horror F hits cinemas nationwide this week, pitting the teachers of a school against the gang of murderous kids that have infiltrated the building during after hours. In light of it's release, i look back at some other recent flicks displaying the best in sadistic, psychotic teenagers.

Eden Lake (2008)

Us Brits truly do know how to shock. Proving that theory was James Watkins' Eden Lake, starring heroine Kelly Reilly battling a group of local deviants that gate crashed her romantic getaway with boyfriend Michael Fassbender (300, Centurion). Thieving their car and tying up her man with barbed wire, Jenny's fight for survival was one of the most extravagantly intense and nail-gnawing experiences of that year, with a surprising script by Watkins himself hurtling him into the limelight. The somewhat unexpected ending is shocking enough to leave you tightening your fists with fury - a very good sign that the film was entirely successful.

http://supermarcey.com/2010/09/18/eden-lake/

Eden Lake

3/5
The first thing which comes to mind about this film is, extremely annoying. I don’t think I have felt this annoyed by a film since the remake of Funny Games. Both for pretty much the same reasons, and I will explain why in this review. But first off I will tell you what this little horror film is about. A young couple (played by Michael Fassbender and Kelly Reilly) decide to go on a weekend get away, however their good time gets put in jeopardy when a group of mostly teens start to harass them, and things only get from bad to worse.

For me it sounded like a good premise, couple getting terrorised in the middle of no where essentially. In this case they are out in the (surprise) woods, where there is a nice lake (where the title comes from). But what really annoyed me about all this, was the teens themselves. They hardly seemed that threatening at all, and I could no buy that they managed to do what they did to this couple so easily. Michael Fassbender’s character was a bit of a coward to start with, but he slowly grows balls, but apparently not enough. He is much bigger then these kids, and he is quite well built (the shirtless scenes were very nice thank you), he could easily have taken them on, even in their numbers. These kids are what I believe are called ‘chavs’ over in the UK, and we have these types here in Australia too, I see them all the time, and they hardly seem threatening. In my personal experience when they start to cause trouble, raising your voice and pulling and evil face seems to shut them up. But in this film, they were like this unstoppable force, and it was just too silly to buy into. I had this very same problem with Funny Games, I had a hard time these two skinny boys could terrorise the family so easily. I guess being in a threatening situation, you might act differently then you think you would. But in this film, a slap across the face probably would have got rid of these kids.

On the acting side everyone was rather solid in their roles, there wasn’t a bad performance amongst any of the characters including the kids. Kelly Reilly I thought was excellent as Jenny, she’s beautiful and very much a likable character. I hated seeing anything bad happen to her, and her character at least tried at times to fight back. When she does it has some horrible consequences. Michael Fassbender had a bit of a douche character to play, but he did well anyway, he’s a good actor. They made for a believable couple, however his character Steve was not as likable. All the kids were just horrible, they were so easy to hate. I got excited to see Thomas Turgoose (from This Is England) in the opening credits, however he is really under used. I would liked to have seen more of him then the others to be honest, however they still did their job.The parents were also just hideous characters but played quite well, above all else the characters were just infuriating with how awful they were.

The look of the film is also a strong point, the washed out look really suits the film, especially when things really get rough. The setting was perfect for what they were going for, I certainly wouldn’t want to be lost in those woods. Although I would take on those teens if I knew where I was, but these woods definitely had that lost and frightening feel to them. I thought they did a great job showing this small town, and a rather unfriendly one at that. Perhaps they were unfriendly to outsiders, but it felt cold to me, which was affective. This film did have something I really like with horror films, an ending which does not end on the note you might expect. I got to give it props for having the guts to go down that route. It isn’t an easy film to recommend, there are better ones out there to see, but you can certainly do worse.

http://www.suite101.com/content/three-alternate-british-halloween-horror-dvd-releases-a293384

* Eden Lake (United Kingdom)
* Director: James Watkins (The Descent: Part 2/ 2nd Unit Director)
* Starring: Kelly Reilly, Michael Fassbender, Jack O'Connell
* 2009

Eden Lake is a horror film with a decidedly nasty edge. It does as most of its ilk do and leads us, the viewer, down an obvious path, one that we all surely know will end in blood. But in Eden Lakes case the evil that lurks is one that it is not impossible to imagine reading about in your local paper. It is this earthy attention to grounding the subsequent slash and chase in an all to real scenario that gives it a smarmy, bitter and septic alternate angle.

There is something about a group of loudmouthed miscreant teenagers that provides just the right catalyst for a tale of terror laced with unknown violent potential. Again, there will be little here that avid followers of the genre will not have seen before but it is handled in a way that certainly deserves a look-see. Watch out for Jack O'Connell as the box-cutting leader of the rat pack with sneering spittle perpetually at his lip, a signature villain that surely needs no franchise to dull his affect. 3/5

http://horrorcultfilms.co.uk/2010/10/eden-lake-2008/

You know the type? The ones that hang about in packs outside shops in your town centre, shout obscenities, vandalize things etc and there is nothing you can do about it apart from walk past and try not to aggravate them. Say hello (or in this case ignore) the chav/ the ned, the growing trend in youth of today. Toleration is the power the law abiding citizen in the UK has against the plague that has been allowed to fester in every village, town and city in our country over a number of years. You might decide that more can be done at schools to support/ change the minority that fail to conform and adapt to the normal social standards in the classroom, with neighbours etc, or, (like me) that we should use heavier handed techniques to punish (financially etc) the lack of family core or ethic that uninterested parents are unwilling to develop.

But what if none of these so-called solutions work? The heavy handed technique just drives the wedge further between troubled kids, their families and society, while the softly-softly approach encourages the kids to behave even worse as they know that they will get more attention invested on them and get away with it as ‘they don’t know any better’.

We live in a society where kids are paid to show up at school, where a criminal that has inflicted unspeakable acts on law abiding citizens sits in a cosy cell in conditions better than most retirement homes and where someone is prosecuted trying to defend their property against ‘god know’s who’ that has broken into their property……………………………………………. Welcome to Britain.

Nothing is more intimidating than the uncontrollable threat that is closest to you and that is why Eden Lake (2008) hits home so hard. The violence in this project by director, James Watkins is sickening, heartbreaking and devastating. Every act of violence is followed by dire consequences and nothing is glamorized here. The acting is first rate with likeable performances from Kelly Reilly and Michael Fassbender as the middle class couple and a terrifying turn from Jack O’Connell as sadistic gang leader, Brett. The director even evokes some sympathy and reasoning for the awful actions of Brett when you meet the horrendous brute of a father that has created this monster.
Group Cohesion is explored by the movie’s most agonizing scene (of which there are many) where Steve is tortured by the youngsters and the gang leader pressures each of the gang members into inflicting wounds on the man while the female of the pack films it all with her mobile phone.

This is a modern classic but overwhelmingly grim.

http://www.rowthree.com/2010/10/12/the-horror-so-far/

Eden Lake (2008 – James Watkins)
Certainly the most disturbing film I’ve seen this month. It actually shares a lot of commonality with Confessions, Japan’s submission for the upcoming 2011 Oscars’ Best Foreign Language Film. Neither seems to show a great deal of confidence in the youth of today and their ability to be concerned with anything or anyone but themselves. “Eden Lake” does cover a wider swath, though, as it examines the main male character’s (Michael Fassbender) concerns about his own masculinity, the role of parents in their own children’s attitudes and even a smidge of class warfare. The story focuses on Steve and Jenny as they get away from the city to spend a weekend of camping out near Eden Lake – a spot that is destined for new housing and suburban malls. They meet and then get on the wrong side of a group of teenagers and things spiral down from there. These aren’t just your typical punks though…These are pretty much the worst kids EVER. It’s a tough watch at times as it just sinks lower and lower into a depressing view of our future generation. I can’t say I enjoyed the experience, but I sure was unnerved at times.

http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/52228549.html

Monday, October 18, 2010
Fright Fest: Parlez-vous horreur Psychologique?
Yesterday I mentioned my fear of dolls when I was a child. I've out grown it (to some extent; adults with china dolls is odd) and upgraded to more reality based fears. The ghoul under the bed has been replaced by an intruder, dolls replaced with ghosts, and people as predator. The human condition and psyche scares me a hell of a lot more than Pinhead (though don't tell him that on the safe side). With adulthood also comes a deepening respect for films outside the English language. I always liked foreign films, I was raised in a household that believed that to be important, so I never had to overcome the hurdles that others find difficult to leap over. Reading subtitles is second nature to me and I could wax poetic about the films that get it right and those that get it wrong. I love the intimacy in foreign films, how they push boundaries and discuss complex and often controversial topics. I love how quiet they are.

So without further adieu, my list of the best foreign and psychological films for you this Halloween:

"Eden Lake" - A young couple hope to get away from the hustle and bustle of London by going camping at a favorite lake. Things go from idyllic to devastating when a gang of teens starts to harass, stalk, and terrorize them.

Let me admit right off the bat that the only reason I rented this movie was because it starred Michael Fassbender ("Hunger", "Inglourious Basterds"), may new film obsession. I'm also a big fan of Kelly Reilly ("L'Auberge Espagnole", "Pride & Prejudice"). It sounded really hokey, and it is believe me, but it's also a great story about the evils of man and the power of love (gag). I also love when the woman is the voice of reason and the smarter one in the story. It's so rare I just eat it up. You will never guess how this ends, but it's devastating. That must be my new word of the day- devastating. I need a thesaurus.

http://liam-j.posterous.com/eden-lake-with-to-long-synopsis

October 18, 2010
Eden Lake (with to long synopsis)
Title: Eden Lake
Director: James Watkins


Staring: Jack O'Connell, Michael Fassbender, Kelly Reily

Date Released: 12 September 2008
Genre: Horror

This British horror starts of with the loving realationship between Jenny and Steve (Kelly Reily and Michael Fassbender) were they have decided to go camping by Eden Lake were they planed to share a romantick weekend. when they arive at sed lake things take a turn for the worst as a gang of yobs ringleader being Brett (Jack O'Connel) apear to be using the lake and its surounding forest as their hideout. Steve is relluctant to be bullied away from this romantick vacation and stays overnight in a tent.

in the morning steve and jenny set of in the car to find brekfast and find the kids have punctured a tier. Steve fixes the tier and affter folowing some kids on bikes and loosing them he stops by a diner were he asks the waiteress if she had seen kids riding around on bikes and as soon as he mentions meeting the parents about paying for the tier the waitress instantly replys on a serius tone "not my kids". When they leave steve catches sight of a group of bicycles out on the front lawn of a house and he stops the car. Jenny begs for him to stay inside, but Steve gets out. After no answer at the front door, Steve enters the house and almost gets caught by the owner who is the father of Bret. Steve manages to escape out of the window, and he and Jenny head back to the lake.

Steve goes scuba diving whilst Jenny sleeps on the beach and when Steve returns they realize the bag holding the car keys and Steve's phone and wallet has gone missing.When they go to check the car it is missing and stolen. Walking back they avoid being hit by the car, which the gang has stolen. Later in the night Steve and Jenny come across the gang in the woods. Steve confronts them and he demands his possessions back. However Brett keeps repeating he has no idea where his posetions are and has nothing to do with them. Steves phone then goes off in Brets poket causing a fight, and one of the Chavs pull a knife. Steve grabs the knife, but in the chaos stabs Brett's dog. Brett is devistated by this, and he throws the car keys on the floor and tells them to go away. Steve and Jenny find the car and start to drive away, unfortunately get stuck on a slope. Meanwhile, Brett has decided he wants revenge, and the gang catch them and start throwing rocks at the car, breaking the windshield and smash the headlights. Steve and Jenny manage to get the car moving again. Steve ends up crashing the car in the darkness and panic. Finding himself trapped by a branch which has gone through the windscreen, he tells Jenny to run and find help. Jenny finds somewhere to hide and she spends the night their.

In The next morning she finds Steve gone. Following a trail of blood, she finds gang in a small clearing with Steve tied up . She watches in horror as the yobs egged on by Brett tortutre Steve as Paige, the girl of the gang, (Finn Atkins) is told to record on her phone. Jenny to stop this uses the bluetooth to connect with Steve's phone. Brett sees this, realizing she must be close and orders the gang after her. Jenny runs and the gang chase her on bikes. Steve frees himself. Jenny evades the gang and finds Steve bleeding heavily. She takes him to a shack where she treats his wounds. The gang enter the shack but they find nothing as Jenny managed to hide herself and steve under the shak in the water. The group leaves, and Jenny pulls Steve out of the water. Steve tells jenny to leave him and run to find help jenny comes across a small boy then who she asks to help her but insted takes her to the gang. She wakes up tied to steve dead and coverd in petroll. Brett forces the little boy to set them alite. And tells Paige to film it on her phone.The ropes binding Jenny burn and she escapes. Brett, covers the small boy in petrol and threatens to set light to him if she does not return. Jenny is now far away, and can only look as he is burnt alive. Jenny arms herself with glass and acidently stabs one of the gang members who offers to help her as he realised it has gone to far. When Brett and Paige stumble on his corpse brett is confonted by anouther member of the gang who brett brutily kills and paige runs off screaming. Jenny finally reaches the road flags down a van, she gets in and tells the driver she was attacked. Worried, the driver explains he is looking for his brother, who is also in the forest. His brother a member of the gang killed by Brett. The driver stops the van and gets out, leaving the keys in . Jenny steals the van, and speeds off towards town, running over Paige as she does so.

Jenny makes it into town crashing into the back garden of an house witch turns out to be bretts where a party is taking place and she is comfetted at first untill bret comes home and explains the events from his point of view making Jenny out to be the killer and Jenny is loked in the toilet by one of the parents and hears the parents deciding in order to protect themselfs from prosicutio they would have to kill her. The end scene is Brett deleting the evidnce on Paiges phone and smilling to himself in the mirror as Jenny screams gets beaten to death.

I found this a very good british horror film which contained fantastick acting, directing and an origional idea. i thought it to be one of the best horror films i have ever watched and it contained many of the classic aspects of horror films. It as set in the middle of a forest far away from help and a dark and gloomy enviroment. The wepons yoused by bret and his gang of Yobs were sinistor and painfull knives, barbed wire, dogs, and petroll/fire all which comonly apear in horror films. The fact that Jenny was perhaps the main charictor who we roughted for throughout the film gave it the aspect of last female standing often seen in horrors. however this horor film gave a strong conection between the audince and the charicters as many people have been harrased by youths this film is a possible situation of what might happen and this gives the film a sense of realisim and can be emotional when it gives a verry brutal ending.

http://www.dippedincream.com/brittanis-5-movies-to-celebrate-halloween/

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31Oct/100
Brittani’s 5 Top Movies To Celebrate Halloween!

It's the PREDATOR Pumpkin!!

If you're going to be staying in tonight, and you don't want to watch Halloween 6 again, here are a couple of movies to get you into the Halloween spirit and scare the hell out of you...or maybe this CAT will scare you!

Gaaaah!

1. EDEN LAKE


This film starts out innocently enough--don't they all? A couple decide to spend their vacation at remote lake, things are nice and peaceful until they are interrupted by some obnoxious, chavy teens. After Steve (Michael Fassbender) accidentally kills their dog, after the teens had stolen their Jeep, the kids decide to take their revenge and terrorize the couple. I won't tell you anymore than that. Jenny, played by Kelly Reilly, is one to root for.The ending is brutal and unfair. So if you're in the mood for something that will keep you on the edge of your seat,watch this!

If you want to see more of Michael Fassbender, check out BLOOD CREEK too!