Eden Lake
Encyclopedia
Eden Lake is a 2008
British
horror film, written and directed by James Watkins and starring Kelly Reilly, Michael Fassbender
and Jack O'Connell
.
) escape for a romantic weekend at an idyllic remote lake. They meet a young boy along the way who is reluctant to talk to them. When they arrive at beach they attempt to have a relaxing day, but a group of teenage hooligans and their dog appear. Steve stubbornly decides that he would much rather stay put, enduring their loud music and obnoxious dog, than be "bullied" by them into leaving. They stay overnight in a tent, and in the morning discover that their food has been infested with insects. Hungry, they return to the car to find someplace to eat, but they run over an empty bottle the teenagers left behind. Steve luckily manages to replace the tire, and they set off for the town. While in town, Steve sees the unruly teens riding around on their bicycles, and angrily follows them. Unable to keep track of them, Steve finally gives up, and they go looking for some breakfast. In a diner, Steve asks the waitress if she has seen the kids riding around on bikes. The waitress jokingly asks if they have been terrorising Steve and Jenny. Steve laughs, and states they have only been "hassling" them, and continues by saying that he wanted to inform their parents they had punctured his tire. The waitress then becomes strangely defensive, saying 'Not my kids'!
When they leave, though, he catches sight of a group of bikes sprawled out on the front lawn of a house, and stops the car. Jenny pleads for him to stay, but Steve determinedly gets out. Receiving no answer to his calls, Steve enters the house, but almost gets caught by the owner - the father of one of the teenagers - who returns. Steve manages narrowly to escape out of the window, and he and Jenny hastily head back to the lake.
Once back, Steve goes snorkeling whilst Jenny sleeps on the beach, but when Steve returns they realise the beach bag, containing the car keys and Steve's phone and wallet, has gone missing. Hurriedly, they go to check on the car, and much to their dismay, see that it is gone. Making their way back to town on foot, they narrowly avoid being hit by the car as the gang drives it wildly through the woods, stopping only for Brett (O'Connell
) - the leader - to smirk at the couple.
Later, Steve and Jenny come across the gang in the woods. Steve, against Jenny's will, confronts them. He demands the car keys and his possessions back, but Brett denies any knowledge. Unfortunately for him, the phone goes off in his pocket, prompting a scuffle, during which one of the boys produces a knife. Steve manages to grab the knife, but in the confusion ends up stabbing - fatally - Brett's dog. Brett evidently saddened by his dog's death, throws the car keys to the ground and tells them to leave. Steve and Jenny manage to find the car and start driving away, but get stuck on a steep slope. Meanwhile, Brett has decided he wants retribution after all, and the gang catch up with them and start throwing rocks at the car, breaking the windshield and smashing the headlights. Terrified, Steve and Jenny luckily manage to get the car moving again, but with the headlights not working, Steve ends up crashing the car. Finding himself trapped by a tree branch which has come through his window, he tells Jenny to run and to try to find help. Jenny escapes and finds somewhere to hide, where she spends the night. The next morning she cautiously returns to the car but finds Steve gone. Following a trail of blood, she comes across the gang in a small clearing, with Steve tied up with barbed wire. She watches in horror as the boys - goaded by Brett - take turns torturing Steve with their knives as Paige, the girl of the gang, is told to record the whole thing on her phone. Jenny, realising they are about to kill him, uses the bluetooth on her GPS to connect with Steve's phone. Brett notices this, realising she must be close, and orders the gang after her.
Jenny flees, the gang close behind her on their bikes. This gives Steve the opportunity to free himself from the barbed wire, and he also sets off running. Jenny manages to evade the gang, and eventually finds Steve, injured and bleeding heavily. She helps him to a shed where she tries to treat some of his wounds. She finds a wedding ring in Steve's clothing and he tells her he'd planned to propose. The gang turns up and enter the shed but they find nothing as Jenny managed to conceal both herself and Steve underneath the construction in the water. The group leaves, and Jenny pulls Steve out of the water. They decide she should go on alone, leaving Steve concealed under some leaves. Following the power lines, Jenny treads on a spike and hides for fear her screams have alerted the gang to her location. She comes across Adam, the little boy she and Steve had encountered earlier. She pleads to him for help, but he instead leads her straight to the gang, who knock her out.
She awakens to find herself and Steve, who has already died, about to be set alight by the gang. Pouring petrol over them, Brett forces Adam to light the fire with a match. Again Brett commands Paige to film the whole scene with her phone. The rest of the gang are noticeably disturbed at this point. The ropes binding Jenny burn through and she escapes. Brett, in his fury, sticks a tyre on Adam and swills him in petrol and threatens to set light to him if she does not return. Jenny, though, is already too far away, and can only look on in horror as Adam is necklaced
alive.
Eventually she finds a trail map, which she removes to help her escape. Narrowly avoiding Brett and Ricky by hiding in a large bin, she arms herself with a shard of glass, but before she can go anywhere she encounters another of the gang; Cooper. Having evidently realized things have gone too far, Cooper seems as if he is about to offer her his help, but before he can do so, Jenny stabs him with the glass. Although the shock of what she has done immediately strikes her, she can do nothing but hold Cooper as he dies in her arms. Finding the body, Paige screams, bringing Brett running. Another member of the gang confronts him, and begins to call someone on his phone, prompting Brett to beat him savagely. Paige then runs off, terrified by Brett's seemingly uncontrollable brutality.
Meanwhile, Jenny finally reaches the road. Managing to flag down a van, she gets in, telling the driver she has been attacked. Worried, the driver explains he is looking for his brother Ricky, who is also in the forest. The driver stops the van and gets out, leaving the keys in the ignition. Jenny, scared that she will be caught again, resolves to steal the van, and speeds off towards town, hitting Paige as she does so.
She makes it to town, only to crash into the front garden of a house. Making her way around the back of the house, she finds a party in progress, she pleads for help and collapses. Coming to, she finds herself inside the house, with a woman comforting her. As she looks around and listens to the phone call the parents receive from their children, she comes to the realisation that she is, in fact, in Brett's house and asks to be shown to the toilet. Brett's father at this point notices the van crashed on the lawn. Finding no escape, Jenny arms herself with a razor. As the commotion builds outside, the door is kicked in and she is confronted by Brett and his father, along with the other party-goers, some of them evidently the parents of the other gang members (including the waitress from the café). Brett's father orders Brett to his room violently as he and another parent push Jenny back into the bathroom. Brett's father says "Just put her in the shower." As the film closes, Brett deletes the videos from Paige's phone and looks into his mirror as Jenny's screams ring from downstairs.
, the film is rated as "fresh", with a score of 83% based on 23 reviews.
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
. The Guardian
' s 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."
Eden Lake has been linked with other, roughly contemporaneous, films that deal with concerns over "Broken Britain
" and a fear of "hoodie
s," including Harry Brown
, The Disappeared
, Summer Scars
, Outlaw
, The Great Ecstasy of Robert Carmichael
and Heartless
.
2008 in film
This is a list of all major films made in 2008.-Highest-grossing films:Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top grossing films that were first released in the USA in 2008...
British
Cinema of the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom has had a major influence on modern cinema. The first moving pictures developed on celluloid film were made in Hyde Park, London in 1889 by William Friese Greene, a British inventor, who patented the process in 1890. It is generally regarded that the British film industry...
horror film, written and directed by James Watkins and starring Kelly Reilly, Michael Fassbender
Michael Fassbender
Michael Fassbender is an Irish-German actor. He is best known for playing Lt. Archie Hicox in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds and Magneto in the superhero blockbuster X-Men: First Class...
and Jack O'Connell
Jack O'Connell (actor)
Jack O'Connell , is a British actor, from Alvaston, Derby, England. He went to St Benedict Catholic School and Performing Arts College...
.
Plot synopsis
Nursery teacher Jenny (Reilly) and her boyfriend Steve (FassbenderMichael Fassbender
Michael Fassbender is an Irish-German actor. He is best known for playing Lt. Archie Hicox in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds and Magneto in the superhero blockbuster X-Men: First Class...
) escape for a romantic weekend at an idyllic remote lake. They meet a young boy along the way who is reluctant to talk to them. When they arrive at beach they attempt to have a relaxing day, but a group of teenage hooligans and their dog appear. Steve stubbornly decides that he would much rather stay put, enduring their loud music and obnoxious dog, than be "bullied" by them into leaving. They stay overnight in a tent, and in the morning discover that their food has been infested with insects. Hungry, they return to the car to find someplace to eat, but they run over an empty bottle the teenagers left behind. Steve luckily manages to replace the tire, and they set off for the town. While in town, Steve sees the unruly teens riding around on their bicycles, and angrily follows them. Unable to keep track of them, Steve finally gives up, and they go looking for some breakfast. In a diner, Steve asks the waitress if she has seen the kids riding around on bikes. The waitress jokingly asks if they have been terrorising Steve and Jenny. Steve laughs, and states they have only been "hassling" them, and continues by saying that he wanted to inform their parents they had punctured his tire. The waitress then becomes strangely defensive, saying 'Not my kids'!
When they leave, though, he catches sight of a group of bikes sprawled out on the front lawn of a house, and stops the car. Jenny pleads for him to stay, but Steve determinedly gets out. Receiving no answer to his calls, Steve enters the house, but almost gets caught by the owner - the father of one of the teenagers - who returns. Steve manages narrowly to escape out of the window, and he and Jenny hastily head back to the lake.
Once back, Steve goes snorkeling whilst Jenny sleeps on the beach, but when Steve returns they realise the beach bag, containing the car keys and Steve's phone and wallet, has gone missing. Hurriedly, they go to check on the car, and much to their dismay, see that it is gone. Making their way back to town on foot, they narrowly avoid being hit by the car as the gang drives it wildly through the woods, stopping only for Brett (O'Connell
Jack O'Connell (actor)
Jack O'Connell , is a British actor, from Alvaston, Derby, England. He went to St Benedict Catholic School and Performing Arts College...
) - the leader - to smirk at the couple.
Later, Steve and Jenny come across the gang in the woods. Steve, against Jenny's will, confronts them. He demands the car keys and his possessions back, but Brett denies any knowledge. Unfortunately for him, the phone goes off in his pocket, prompting a scuffle, during which one of the boys produces a knife. Steve manages to grab the knife, but in the confusion ends up stabbing - fatally - Brett's dog. Brett evidently saddened by his dog's death, throws the car keys to the ground and tells them to leave. Steve and Jenny manage to find the car and start driving away, but get stuck on a steep slope. Meanwhile, Brett has decided he wants retribution after all, and the gang catch up with them and start throwing rocks at the car, breaking the windshield and smashing the headlights. Terrified, Steve and Jenny luckily manage to get the car moving again, but with the headlights not working, Steve ends up crashing the car. Finding himself trapped by a tree branch which has come through his window, he tells Jenny to run and to try to find help. Jenny escapes and finds somewhere to hide, where she spends the night. The next morning she cautiously returns to the car but finds Steve gone. Following a trail of blood, she comes across the gang in a small clearing, with Steve tied up with barbed wire. She watches in horror as the boys - goaded by Brett - take turns torturing Steve with their knives as Paige, the girl of the gang, is told to record the whole thing on her phone. Jenny, realising they are about to kill him, uses the bluetooth on her GPS to connect with Steve's phone. Brett notices this, realising she must be close, and orders the gang after her.
Jenny flees, the gang close behind her on their bikes. This gives Steve the opportunity to free himself from the barbed wire, and he also sets off running. Jenny manages to evade the gang, and eventually finds Steve, injured and bleeding heavily. She helps him to a shed where she tries to treat some of his wounds. She finds a wedding ring in Steve's clothing and he tells her he'd planned to propose. The gang turns up and enter the shed but they find nothing as Jenny managed to conceal both herself and Steve underneath the construction in the water. The group leaves, and Jenny pulls Steve out of the water. They decide she should go on alone, leaving Steve concealed under some leaves. Following the power lines, Jenny treads on a spike and hides for fear her screams have alerted the gang to her location. She comes across Adam, the little boy she and Steve had encountered earlier. She pleads to him for help, but he instead leads her straight to the gang, who knock her out.
She awakens to find herself and Steve, who has already died, about to be set alight by the gang. Pouring petrol over them, Brett forces Adam to light the fire with a match. Again Brett commands Paige to film the whole scene with her phone. The rest of the gang are noticeably disturbed at this point. The ropes binding Jenny burn through and she escapes. Brett, in his fury, sticks a tyre on Adam and swills him in petrol and threatens to set light to him if she does not return. Jenny, though, is already too far away, and can only look on in horror as Adam is necklaced
Necklacing
Necklacing is the practice of summary execution and torture carried out by forcing a rubber tyre, filled with petrol, around a victim's chest and arms, and setting it on fire...
alive.
Eventually she finds a trail map, which she removes to help her escape. Narrowly avoiding Brett and Ricky by hiding in a large bin, she arms herself with a shard of glass, but before she can go anywhere she encounters another of the gang; Cooper. Having evidently realized things have gone too far, Cooper seems as if he is about to offer her his help, but before he can do so, Jenny stabs him with the glass. Although the shock of what she has done immediately strikes her, she can do nothing but hold Cooper as he dies in her arms. Finding the body, Paige screams, bringing Brett running. Another member of the gang confronts him, and begins to call someone on his phone, prompting Brett to beat him savagely. Paige then runs off, terrified by Brett's seemingly uncontrollable brutality.
Meanwhile, Jenny finally reaches the road. Managing to flag down a van, she gets in, telling the driver she has been attacked. Worried, the driver explains he is looking for his brother Ricky, who is also in the forest. The driver stops the van and gets out, leaving the keys in the ignition. Jenny, scared that she will be caught again, resolves to steal the van, and speeds off towards town, hitting Paige as she does so.
She makes it to town, only to crash into the front garden of a house. Making her way around the back of the house, she finds a party in progress, she pleads for help and collapses. Coming to, she finds herself inside the house, with a woman comforting her. As she looks around and listens to the phone call the parents receive from their children, she comes to the realisation that she is, in fact, in Brett's house and asks to be shown to the toilet. Brett's father at this point notices the van crashed on the lawn. Finding no escape, Jenny arms herself with a razor. As the commotion builds outside, the door is kicked in and she is confronted by Brett and his father, along with the other party-goers, some of them evidently the parents of the other gang members (including the waitress from the café). Brett's father orders Brett to his room violently as he and another parent push Jenny back into the bathroom. Brett's father says "Just put her in the shower." As the film closes, Brett deletes the videos from Paige's phone and looks into his mirror as Jenny's screams ring from downstairs.
Cast
- Kelly Reilly as Jenny
- Michael FassbenderMichael FassbenderMichael Fassbender is an Irish-German actor. He is best known for playing Lt. Archie Hicox in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds and Magneto in the superhero blockbuster X-Men: First Class...
as Steve - Jack O'ConnellJack O'Connell (actor)Jack O'Connell , is a British actor, from Alvaston, Derby, England. He went to St Benedict Catholic School and Performing Arts College...
as Brett - James GandhiJames Gandhi- Career :James Gandhi is a British actor and goes to Balcarras School.James Gandhi first appeared in My Life as a Popat at the age of 10. The show then went on to win numerous awards, including a BAFTA for best children's drama, and received critical acclaim.Gandhi then went on to star in Eden...
as Adam - Thomas TurgooseThomas Turgoose-Early life:Thomas was born on 11 February 1992 and brought up in Grimsby, Lincolnshire. He attended Wintringham School.- Career :In his first film role in 2006, he played the lead character, Shaun, in This Is England, written and directed by Shane Meadows...
as Cooper - Bronson Webb as Reece
- Shaun Dooley as Jon
- Finn AtkinsFinn AtkinsFinn Rosanna Atkins is a British film, television and stage actress.-Early life:Growing up in Clifton area of Nottingham, Atkins attended Greencroft Primary School, Farnborough School and High Pavement College...
as Paige - Thomas Gill as Ricky
- James Burrows as Harry
Critical reception
According to review aggregator Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, the film is rated as "fresh", with a score of 83% based on 23 reviews.
Dennis Harvey reviewed the film for Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
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
Lord of the Flies
Lord of the Flies is a novel by Nobel Prize-winning author William Golding about a group of British boys stuck on a deserted island who try to govern themselves, with disastrous results...
. The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw is a British writer and film critic. He was educated at Cambridge University, where he was President of Footlights.Bradshaw is a film critic for The Guardian...
drew parallels with Deliverance
Deliverance
Deliverance is a 1972 American thriller film produced and directed by John Boorman. Principal cast members include Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ronny Cox and Ned Beatty in his film debut. The film is based on a 1970 novel of the same name by American author James Dickey, who has a small role in the...
, Straw Dogs and Blue Remembered Hills
Blue Remembered Hills
Blue Remembered Hills is a television play by Dennis Potter, originally broadcast on January 30, 1979 as part of the BBC's Play for Today series....
, 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."
Eden Lake has been linked with other, roughly contemporaneous, films that deal with concerns over "Broken Britain
Broken Britain
Broken Britain is a term which has been used in The Sun newspaper, and by the Conservative Party to describe a perceived widespread state of social decay in Britain...
" and a fear of "hoodie
Hoodie
A hoodie is a sweatshirt with a hood. The characteristic design includes large frontal pockets, a hood, and a drawstring to adjust the hood opening. They are sometimes worn with sweatpants. Some hoodies have zippers on them to allow easy removal much like a jacket...
s," including Harry Brown
Harry Brown (film)
Harry Brown is a 2009 British action drama film directed by Daniel Barber and starring Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, Jack O'Connell, and Liam Cunningham....
, The Disappeared
The Disappeared (film)
The Disappeared is a British film directed by Johnny Kevorkian and starring Harry Treadaway, Greg Wise, Tom Felton, and Ros Leeming.-Plot:...
, Summer Scars
Summer Scars
Summer Scars is a British feature film produced and directed by Julian Richards in 2007 and is based on a hostage situation that Richards experienced during his childhood....
, Outlaw
Outlaw (2007 film)
Outlaw is a 2007 action-crime-drama film written and directed by British filmmaker Nick Love. Outlaw stars Sean Bean, Danny Dyer, Bob Hoskins, Lennie James, Rupert Friend and Sean Harris.The film is set in the United Kingdom in 2006...
, The Great Ecstasy of Robert Carmichael
The Great Ecstasy of Robert Carmichael
The Great Ecstasy of Robert Carmichael is a British-made independent film directed by first-time director Thomas Clay, and released in 2006. It features Daniel Spencer in the title role, with Lesley Manville and Danny Dyer in support.-Plot:...
and Heartless
Heartless (2009 film)
Heartless is a 2009 British horror film directed by Philip Ridley and starring Jim Sturgess, Noel Clarke, Clémence Poésy and Eddie Marsan.-Plot:Jamie Morgan is a troubled photographer with a heart-shaped birthmark on his face...
.