Eden Lake (2009) Horror Movie Review

Eden Lake is a good and gory horror film in spite of my moral inclination to not reward such a dark view of human life.

Written by Written by The Pastor of Muppets
December 29, 2008

Watch the Eden Lake Horror Movie Trailer



Release: January 6, 2009 (U.S. DVD Premier)
Written and Directed by: James Watkins

Starring:
Kelly Reilly as Jenny
Michael Fassbender as Steve
Tara Ellis as Abi
Jack O'Connell as Brett
Finn Atkins as Paige
Jumayn Hunter as Mark

Eden Lake is a British movie about a couple who goes camping in an old quarry-turned-resort area and meets up with danger in the form of a band of young ruffians.

There's nothing terribly interesting about the plot of this one. You already know what happens without me telling you. What's different about this film - although these devices are being so overused today that it's hard to call them different anymore - is the amount of extremely graphic carnage and the nihilistic ending. Just as in THEM and a whole slew of others, the good guys aren’t guaranteed to win in the end. In fact, the film goes out of its way to depict the baddest of the bad guys proclaiming victory and exulting triumph. I'm not sure what emotion the filmmakers were trying to evoke with that, but all it did for me was inspire an even more extreme hatred for the smug little bastard than I already had and a burning desire to hunt him down and break his neck, one vertebra at a time. Anyway...

As I said, this is an extremely graphic movie. You will see a guy tied up with barbed wire rip his flesh trying to get free. You will see a razor knife used on the inside of his mouth. You will see him set afire (luckily, after he has died of blood loss), while tied to his wife. You will see another young kid necklaced South Africa-style (although with that one the director blinked... you don't get to see him actually set alight; you only get to hear his screams). Etc. There are countless other depravities you will witness in the course of this movie, so if you have a weak stomach, steer clear. I have a pretty high tolerance for blood and violence, but by the end of this one even I was feeling a little drained.

It's hard to know how to rate Eden Lake. On the one hand, it's a skillfully made movie that does what it sets out to do very well… On the other hand, I kind of hate rewarding such an unremittingly hopeless view of life and of one's fellow man as this film depicts. In one way, it seems so over-the-top that one doubts whether any such animals as these kids could exist. But on the other hand, the characterizations are very well-done and convincing, which makes me say, ‘well, maybe there actually are such creatures running around out there’.

In the end I guess I'll have to leave my moral doubts aside and rate it on the quality of the film: A-

(I would give it an A+ if it weren't for the husband's somewhat wonky character, which bounces back and forth between macho and meekly effeminate in a rather unconvincing way.)