| Eden Lake | |
| Director: | James Watkins |
| Producer: | |
| Starring: | |
| Music: | David Julyan |
| Cinematography: | Christopher Ross |
| Editing: | Jon Harris |
| Studio: |
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| Distributor: | Optimum Releasing |
| Runtime: | 91 minutes[2] |
| Country: |
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| Language: | English |
| Budget: | $2 million[3] |
| Gross: | $3.9–4.3 million[4] |
Eden Lake is a 2008 British horror-thriller[5] film written and directed by James Watkins in his directorial debut. The film stars Kelly Reilly, Michael Fassbender, Jack O'Connell, James Gandhi, Thomas Turgoose, Bronson Webb, Shaun Dooley, and Finn Atkins.[6] [7] Its plot follows a young couple spending a day at a remote lake, only to be confronted and hunted by a group of hostile youths.
Eden Lake premiered at the Fantasy Filmfest on 12 August 2008 and was released in the United Kingdom by Optimum Releasing on 12 September 2008. It is among a group of roughly contemporaneous films that deal with moral panic over "Broken Britain" and "hoodies". Some of the close up scenes were filmed at Frensham Small Pond.[8]
Jenny Greengrass and her partner Steve Taylor set off for a weekend away at Eden Lake, a remote spot in the English countryside. On the journey there, Steve complains about the recent social behavior of youths and criticizes the parenting of adults.
The couple's idyllic getaway is disrupted by a gang of rowdy teenagers, led by their psychopathic leader Brett. The next morning, Steve and Jenny discover their food supplies have been infested with insects, leading them to suspect the youths. At a local restaurant, Steve describes them to a waitress, who defensively insists her children would never harass anyone. Steve later sneaks into a house he believes belongs to the teens, but escapes upon the return of Jon, a surly homeowner.
Back at the lake, the couple discovers their jeep and belongings are missing. Returning to town on foot, they avoid a collision with Brett, having stolen the jeep. Finding Brett and the rest of the gang in the woods after nightfall, Steve threatens them only for the gang to start pulling out knives; in the scuffle, Brett's dog is stabbed, sending him into a rage. The couple tries to flee, but the gang causes them to crash the Jeep. With Steve trapped, Jenny flees as he is captured.
At daybreak, Jenny witnesses Steve being tied to a rock with barbed wire by the gang. Brett orders each of them to stab Steve so they will all be implicated. Paige, the only female gang member, records Steve's torture on her phone. Jenny manages to distract the gang so Steve can free himself but she is unable to nurse his fatal wounds, forcing her to run for help.
Jenny runs into Adam, a young boy she and Steve previously met, who informs the gang of her location. They capture and tie Jenny, along with Steve's dead body, to a pile of wood; Brett forces Adam to burn them while Paige films it. Jenny is able to escape, angering Brett who necklaces Adam in retaliation. Meanwhile, Jenny accidentally kills a younger reluctant youth, Cooper, who was actually attempting to help her. After finding Cooper's body, Brett furiously beats another gang member to death. Paige flees in fear only for her to be run over by Jenny escaping in a van.
Jenny is able to make it back to town, crashing into a backyard party. She later awakens and is comforted by a woman and Jon. The other parents are informed of the dead gang members, all of whom are the children of the adults at the house, making Jenny realize that she is in Brett's. With nowhere left to hide, Jenny locks herself in the bathroom for protection until Jon kicks the door in. Despite her pleas, Brett lies that she and Steve murdered his friends and his rottweiller, causing Jon and two other men to violently attack Jenny. Upon retreating to his room and blocking out the sound of Jenny's screams, Brett deletes the videos of his gang's crimes from Paige's phone and stares blankly into a mirror while wearing Steve's sunglasses. Jenny's fate is left unknown.
Eden Lake premiered at the Fantasy Filmfest on 12 August 2008[9] and was released in the United Kingdom by Optimum Releasing on 12 September 2008.[10]
On Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, 81% of 31 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." Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 65 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "generaly favourable reviews ".[11]
Dennis Harvey reviewed the film for Variety 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.[12] The Guardians Peter Bradshaw drew parallels with Deliverance, 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."[13]
Other critics, however, have savaged the film, denouncing it as an incitement to class prejudice against working class people in Britain. The Sun condemned the film's "nasty suggestion that all working-class people are thugs" while The Daily Telegraph concluded that "this ugly witless film expresses fear and loathing of ordinary English people". Owen Jones, in his book cites the film at length as an example of media demonisation of proletarian youth via the "Chav" stereotype. He comments, "Here was a film arguing that the middle classes could no longer live alongside the quasi-bestial lower orders."[14]
Eden Lake has been linked with other films that deal with concerns over "Broken Britain" and a fear of "hoodies," including Harry Brown, The Disappeared, Summer Scars, Outlaw, The Great Ecstasy of Robert Carmichael, Cherry Tree Lane and Heartless.[15]
| Award | Date | Category | Subject | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Empire Awards () | 29 March 2009 | Best British Film | Eden Lake | [16] |
| Best Horror | Eden Lake | [17] |