When Jenny (Kelly Reilly) and her man Steve (the ubiquitous
and exceptional Michael Fassbender) go for a romantic weekend away to Eden
Lake, it's set to be a couple of days filled with snuggling, snoodling,
canoodling, spooning and perhaps a marriage proposal. Instead, they are
harassed by some local hoodlums, and Steve doesn't take it lying down. When the
ringleader (Jack O'Connell, who looks remarkably like my friend Esteban) takes
it personally, they are thrust into a fairly primal fight for survival, and
their basic instincts are brought to the surface. I don't want to spoil
anything just yet, but it's a weekend that none involved will likely forget.
I loved how enclosed this film was - writer-director James
Watkins chose a deliberately small scale horror grounded in believable events
and characters. While there are perhaps too few real jump scares
(understandable given a premise without ghouls or werewolves and what have
you), it stays with you long after you've shut down your laptop and moved off
to pester people trying to study. It mines the depths to which people will go
when pushed, and the couple's desperation is both justified and eminently
relatable.
The leads share strong chemistry, and while their early
banter is maybe a little clichéd in its scripting, they look very much like the
pair in love. They know each other's flaws and are comfortable with them, and
there's a sense of depth to their history usually not granted to people who
find themselves in horror films. But the show is very much fingered by the
younglings, in particular Jack O'Connell and Finn Atkins (who - despite her
name - is a girl). The whole troupe seem so ragged around the edges that their
actions are fiercely believable, and pulled in by the magnetism of O'Connell's
ferociously dominant Brett, their harrowing descent from aimless kids bunking
off and causing mischief to juvenile delinquents torturing strangers is almost
unwatchable. There is an overawing sense of commentary here about the state of
Britain's youth, but more on that when I feel prepped to hand out some
spoilers.
The ensemble behind the camera is peppered with names we've
come across before - editor Jon Harris and production designer Simon Bowles
from The Descent, David Julyan who marvellously scored The Cabin in the Woods,
producer Christian Colson from Slumdog Millionaire, and the director Watkins
who co-wrote The Descent Part 2. It's a very solid effort from all involved,
particularly the relatively unknown (only when considered in the company of his
comrades) Christopher Ross who shot this gloomy and grim cocktail as
cinematographer within an inch of its life. The editing from Harris is also a
highlight, and his pace and knowledge of horror tropes is matched only by the
taut symbolism generated within some of the cuts he manages. Its lack of
glamour is a further strength - when people die, bleeding out from box-cutting
instrument wounds, they do so in an extremely realistic and matter-of-fact
manner. There is no sense of enjoyment garnered from what the audience had
inflicted upon them. It's messy but it's real. Also - top marks for the stunt
and practical effects teams - it's believable and all the more powerful for it.
AND NOW FOR SOME SPOILERS. CARRY ON AT YOUR OWN PERIL. It's
fairly fucked how this number turns out - yeah, our protagonists die, but not
before their own values and principles are transformed to the point that you
can no longer relate with them as characters. They get stripped of their
humanity when Jenny makes her first kill, and though her actions are fairly
acceptable, it's damning to see her take a life. Honestly, there's a point at
which you as an audience kind of realise that it's weird how vehemently your
hoping a group of teens get killed by the characters you know, and it turns
from there. When the small boy gets necklaced (a horrific scene - so
mind-blowingly messed up), it's no holds barred from there. And the finale -
never have I felt so violated at the hands of a generally polite looking
British family. It's destructive, potent and crushing - you will not forget it
for a while, and the last shot is so cheeky is hurts. Britain's kids must be on
another level of hooliganism if this statement was necessary, but totally
divorced of the director's feelings, it's still an emotion and a glance (almost
breaching 4th wall) that will hold long after the credits have rolled their way
up.
And now, our boy Albert von Hammerschmidt returns from the
depths of child sex offending to offer us his opinion of Eden Lake.
Albert von Hammerschmidt's contribution:
The set producers of Eden Lake originally contacted me and
requested the use of my lake for the filming of the movie. I agreed for a puny
sum and they began scouting the area for good locations. Unfortunately they
were attacked by a pack of vicious dogs and their remains were never found.
Luckily for me I was able to keep the original sum as well as another $500,000
as I sued them for unnecessary blood loss on my property. It's amazing what a
good team of QCs can achieve. Hence forth the script was re-written as a large
sum of their budget was lost to this lawsuit. What was originally an
action-adventure movie starring Johnny Depp, became a chav horror piece that
offers an effective degree of chilling realness to the genre. A colleague that
I saw this with got angry with me after watching this as he was that deeply
disturbed with it. I told him to grow a pair. However this demonstrates the
kind of movie this is.
A hearty recommendation (if your into this kind of thing):
4/5
So yeah, well worth catching - not terrifying, but simply
dauntingly painful. I'd recommend watching it with friends. For its efforts, I
hand it 6 out of 7.2 relay batons, and when I can get an acceptable copy of The
Woman In Black, I await viewing Watkins' Take 2 with baited breath. Great job
lads and lasses.
Have a go at the trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1QaFtd55MI
Also - apologies for my tardiness, but I just completed my
uni exams today. I hope to have a new review every day of the next week.
College. Peace and love.
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