Eden Lake Review

It was only a matter of time before someone took on the Hoodie Hoodlum element of society, which, rather sadly, adorns the front pages of the tabloids on a near daily basis. Unreasonable, over confident and far too quick to escalate things to a violent and definite conclusion, this country has indeed sired a new monster ripe for the horror treatment. There's an important message to be made and a threat unmasked but "Eden Lake" is not quite the film to make it.

Rollercoaster Films' production does at least hurry proceedings along to the 'messy parts'. After an extremely lean opening we learn that school teacher Jenny (Kelly Reilly) and her boyfriend Steve (Michael Fassbender) set off on a romantic getaway to a secluded quarry, a flooded quarry miles from anywhere. To make doubly sure that we know what territory we find ourselves in, the radio chatter on the drive up North is the to and fro of the polemic blighting the nation - youth crime and gang culture. Who's to blame? Society? The parents? Such weighty questions will have to wait as the young couple find themselves in Chav Central, Middle Nowhere besieged by the local BMX-riding, mobile-toting gang.

OK, so it's a "Deliverance"-with-a-Hoodie kind of deal (Eden Lake is soon to give way to a posh condominium in a nod to the classic frightener) and there are some decent tropes wheeled out and given Gold Tops. For instance, can you really get lost on such a small isle? Well, you can if you try and in this respect the holidaying couple become accomplices in their own downfall - failing to heed the warnings of their Tom Tom. With the louts (led by "Skins" star Jack O'Connell and including "Somers Town's" Thomas Turgoose) busying themselves ruining the couple's vacation things soon get ugly when the lead thug's dog is 'stuck' by Steve during a tussle. Of course they started it first by pinching his car but either way it's just exposition for a silly chase and a faintly embarrassing retreat. What ensues is a mix of torture porn, lots of legging it around in the woods, an unsettling pyro-attack, "Straw Dogs"-style retribution and Reilly becoming the Ripley of all and sundry. The end is predictable but it doesn't stop it from being down right grim and a little distasteful.

There are moments in "Eden Lake" that apes the gore porn tendencies of more extreme imports. But, maybe through a lack of commitment, or an indelicate touch by director James Watkins, they just come across as episodes of Happy Slapping. But perhaps that's the point?! Whatever the point is, "Eden Lake" is marked by the viciousness of its bonfire scene, and not in a good or effective way. There's a good film waiting to expose the Hoodie nightmare of this country yet. "Eden Lake" is not it.