Eden Lake - Written and directed by - James Watkins(2009)

Zimmer F

IF YOU GO DOWN TO THE WOODS TODAY...............


You're hopefully not going to run into our, hoody wearing, coke snorting scallies out to happy-slap you, and wreck you're romantic camping weekend!
But if you're our hapless, unlucky, 'loved-up' city folks, Jenny (Kelly Riley) and Steve  (Michael Fassbender), then this weekend, your luck might be about to run out.

This tasty little Brit shocker from James Watkins ( writer of 'My little Eye', and 'Descent 2') sees middle class primary school teacher Jenny, and her doting boyfriend Steve, leave the 'big smoke' and head out on a romantic camping weekend in one of Steve's favourite beauty spots, set in beautiful woodland ,surrounding a picturesque lake. But it's not only scuba diving in the lake, and under canvas frolics that the handsome Steve is after. He is looking to propse to his schoolteacher girlfriend, and has ring and bended knee at the ready.

Steve is shocked to find that his idilic camping spot is now the subject of a proposed building development 'Eden Lake', a kind of gated urban set up. Building work hasn't started yet, but the area is surrounded by high security fencing, and an ominous sign explaing the future plans for the site. Unperterbed, the couple ignore the sign, with added grafitti warnings, and find away into the site via a 4 by 4 gap in the builders fencing.

The couple then find themselves caught up in a terryfying fight for survival with a bunch of 'feral', dangerous dog weilding hoodies, led by the scary Reece (Bronson Webb). What follows is a relentless asault of savage barbarity which, drawing on the popular urban fears of, not only the 'daily mail' view of 'underclass' British youth, but wrongly many of the rest of us. It grabs hold of this fear of urban 'hoodies' and  launches them into the centre of this unrelenting and often shocking film with satisfying, and often excrutiating violence.

Add to that the 'table-turning' revenge thrills, the excellently twisted performance of Bronson Webb (of 'Skins' fame) as Reece, and the satisfyingly black and 'unhappy' ending, Eden Lake is shockingly British, and a film deserving of more than it's 'sleeper' status both here in the UK and the rest of the world.