Rent Eden Lake (2008)

Dreadful Film - Eden Lake review by CP Customer

We often enjoy films in the horror/thriller genre, but this was just plain nasty and awful. We stopped watching it about half way through as it was just so disgusting and gratuituously violent. We didn't need to see the rest - it was all so obvious. Who would want to spend a summer evening watching a cheaply-made, cliche-driven film like this? It's a shame there's not an option to award films no stars.

Spectacularly bad - Eden Lake review by CP Customer

From its slow moving start via the unbelievable storyline through to the ridiculous ending, Eden Lake is a superbly bad horror film.

I found the whole plot unbelievable & at times slightly disturbing.

Would definitely not recommend to anyone unless I disliked them & wanted them to be bored for a solid hour & a half!

A really nasty, horrible film but compulsive viewing, which is also scarily prescient - Eden Lake review by TB

This film, judging by the enormously divisive response to it, can be taken one of two ways: it is either a provocative & scarily effective horror film about the totally out-of-control youth who have no moral limits & taking heavy inspiration from Lord of the Flies; or a disgusting representation of the working classes, looking like the closest thing possible to a Daily Mail reader's view of the state of Britain in 2008, as well as talking inspiration from real-life criminal cases. For me, it was a combination of both, although my 4 stars is because, as I say in the title, looking at it in 2023 it has many horrible precedents with the level of criminal activity committed by minors.

Jenny & Steve are a deeply in love couple who are holidaying in a picturesque English village, camping in the woods. However, from the moment they arrive, there is tension in the air. The local youths are out of control & violent, and the adults/parents extremely defensive & almost excusing their children's behaviour. The group eventually turn their attention on and start hunting the couple, led by Brett. Jenny & Steve then find themselves fighting to survive, surrounded by the hostilities of not only the youths but nature as well.

The film itself really is nasty, filled with graphic, unflinching & horrible violence, paired with a cruelty which is in many ways worse than the savagery. And as much as it is mainly violence committed by the youths towards the adults, the dividing lines between the children is also stark: some of them absolutely revel in it, whilst others clearly are scared & simply are part of the group to prevent the onslaught being directed towards them. It is also a fact that, despite the enormous amounts of violence in our films today, it will always be shocking when youths are shown committing it.

The film however is written & directed in a much cleverer way than your standard Nick Love-style Outlaw film. The characters for a start are much more believable & sympathetic. This is also down massively to the performances by Fassbender & Reilly. This film was made before Fassbender in particular was the cultural phenomenon he has become & he is excellent. But this film belongs to Reilly. She really is amazing & you root for her every step of the way. She perfectly balances vulnerability & strength, never anything less than an iron-willed protagonist.

Unfortunately, there are also some real failures with this film, not least the extremely simplistic way the parents, as well as the working classes overall are portrayed. There is practically nothing positive shown in any way about them, aside from that they are all wilfully bad parents who can never hear anything bad about their offspring.

However, there is also a truth which, whilst it is uncomfortable & some people don't want to see it, is stark: the real-world levels of antisocial behaviour among this age-group. In my own career on the railway, I see this first hand. And the level of this is now totally out of control. So it certainly hits home & has a horrible prescience to it, which no amount of shrill screaming & claims of victimisation from the usual crowd can obfuscate.

Sign Of The Times? - Eden Lake review by CP Customer

Eden Lake is a superior British horror and one of the best I've seen in recent years. Showcasing that imagination makes up for any lack of budget, putting many other bigger films to shame. You could suggest it is Deliverance set in the Lake District or a juvenile take on the Texas Chainsaw Massacre or even a commentary on today’s youth problem in society. Whatever the comparison, clearly it deserves to be pitted against such excellent films. We follow a couple on a trip away that soon turns into a violent confrontation with local youths. Emotions run high and soon boundaries fade away with the basic instinct to survive kicking in, as the couple try to reach civilisation. The premise is far from original and features such staple clichés as no mobile phone signal. Yet the cast (young and old) are excellent and Watkins harnesses the atmosphere and sense of isolation to great effect. This is one director to watch out for in the future.

great british horror - Eden Lake review by CP Customer

great acting, makes your local youths look like little angels in comparison. Great twist at the end. don't watch if your planning a camping holiday soon .

Just Plain Nasty - Eden Lake review by Mehitabel

I'm a fan of horror films. I can even tolerate on-screen violence, if there's a point to it. But in this film the violence, which mostly takes the form of drawn-out torture scenes, with both humans and animals as the victims, is disturbing and gratuitous. I spent the movie thinking OKOK, these are nasty kids, now can we move the plot on please?? I only stuck with it because I was curious to see how they could possibly wrap up such a pointless suffer-fest. The end was predictable.

Not much else to say. The actors are uncharismatic. But then, they have little to do except snarl and growl (the baddies) or run around in ever-growing layers of blood and mud (the goodies). Apart from torturing, or gettng tortured, that is.

Perhaps it was my fault for missing the warning about torture in the blurb. But even "Saw" had a point to all the nastiness, however daft. There was no purpose to this that I could see. If it was a movie about juvenile delinquency, the point could have been made in a fraction of the time, with subtlety and effectiveness.

I've seen a lot of B-movie horrors, and they've all been duly panned. But how this load of horror-porn has been taken so seriously I know not. It's just revolting.

Misses most of the targets - Eden Lake review by RP

The story goes like this: couple set out for a romantic camping weekend, fall foul of a group of feral youths, and come off second best. Frankly, it's very predictable stuff – but it is well photographed...

Is it a thriller? Or a horror film? Or a psychological drama? A social commentary perhaps? Or just an exploitation film? I suppose it's all of those – and because neither the film-makers nor audience know what it's trying to say, in my opinion it misses most of the targets. It's not a horror film – there are no shocks, just a few nasty bits. It's not a thriller – what will happen is just so obvious. There is a degree of social commentary in that the youths who torment the unlucky couple are themselves the product of poor parenting – but frankly, this part of the film is not well done and makes for an unsatisfying ending. Not good enough to rate any better than 2/5 stars :(