Eden Lake

[baumer]

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[baumer]

When Jenny's boyfriend Steve takes her to spend a weekend camping next to a flooded gravel pit she doesn't expect that they will be plunged into terror. As they drive out of London the programme on the radio talks of the problems of out of control children; a foreshadowing of what is to come. When they get to the lake they find an idyllic beach but it isn't long before their peace is disturbed by a bunch of loutish kids. After a brief confrontation the kids leave but the next day they return and steal the couple's car. They eventually catch up with them and this confrontation is more serious; a knife is pulled and in the struggle Steve grabs the knife and the gangs Rottweiler gets stabbed. From then on things get nasty as Brett, the gang's leader, screams his intention to kill them! They retrieve their car but as they drive away in a panic they crash and Steve is pinned in by the steering wheel; he tells Jenny to go for help but she can't bring herself to leave him and hides nearby. When she sneaks back she finds the gang torturing Steve; Brett goading the rest of them to stab him. What follows is a cat and mouse chase between Jenny and the gang as she tries to rescue Steve and get to safety; constantly being pursued by the children, knowing that they will kill her if they catch her.This is one of the most disturbing films I have seen for a long time; director James Watkins did a brilliant job keeping the tension high from the moment they confront the kids till the end. The terror is increased by the fact that the couple aren't running from a monster; they are running from a group of fairly young children, the sort of group one might see in most towns. Kelly Reilly and Michael Fassbender did great jobs as Jenny and Steve; especially the former as her character gets more and more frightened and more and more filthy and eventually does things she wouldn't have dreamed about a day or two before. The youngsters playing the gang were also impressive; making the viewer believe that they were really capable of such behaviour. This isn't of course for the faint hearted; there were lots of gruelling scenes and I must admit that I had to look away quite a few times. Of course there are a few unbelievably silly decisions made by the couple early on but you have to suspend your disbelief a bit... after all it wouldn't been much of a film if they'd just driven off home after meeting the kids the first time! Without giving details I will say that I wasn't keen on the ending but it did effectively show that the children aren't that different from their parents. If you want to be scared I'd recommend giving this a go; I don't think I'll be watching it again in a hurry though!8.5/10Only reason it is not a 9 is I found the ending to be a bit too unrealistic.