Eden Lake – much more than a thriller
Exactly 11 months back, last year in march I was enjoying my vacation time in Swiss…….while enjoying the scenic beauty of the Alps, we missed our train to our hotel and had to wait for another hour or so for the next train. It was almost 9.00pm.The train arrived….almost empty ….in our compartment it was just me and my wife ,a friend couple of ours and two guys who I assume were returning from their office. On the second stop, a group of kids – early teens entered our compartment making noise, singing loudly …they were about 10 to 12 in numbers …at first I thought they were just having fun which I am sure they were having, but it didn’t bother me at the start…..their “fun” was getting more and more annoying as the time passed…..then all of a sudden they starting banging chairs and the train walls ….now this was getting too much ….but we all minded our own business….the “Kids” started chanting “marijuanaaa marijuaaana ” and some other stupid stuff…..it was getting irritating ….on the next stop one of the “kids” got down….and as the train started again he blocked the door using a stick or something …the train wouldn’t move …it was getting on our nerves now …this blocking of door made the train stop there for another 5 to 6 mins ….this “kid” got back into the train and the train started ….now they started their chant again …”marijuannnaaa marijuana” …then they got physical….started fighting among themselves….having fun….they started coming around our seats …staring at us….in our eyes…shouting insanely …banging our chairs…they dropped the coffee mug on of the guys seat….he didn’t bother to argue nor did we …I was just waiting for them to get down ……. I was scared ..we were scared….yes , we were bullied by bunch of twelve – thirteen years old…thankfully they got down at the next stop and nothing happened…..we sighed with relief…
but what if one of us would have confronted those “Kids” ? what if one of us would have asked them to shut up ? what if ? we let ourselves get bullied by the kids….and that’s what is exactly shown in Eden Lake….The protagonist says “I wont get bullied by group of twelve years old” ….and the consequences he and his girlfriend faces are dire,brutal,bloody and depressing …..
Steve and Jenny are a couple who go out on a romantic weekend, away from the city into the woods.Their weekend is spoiled by a bunch of teens, intruding their privacy playing loud music …..Steve refuses to let these teens spoil their weekend..confronts them and what follows is chilling and terrfying events .The movie surprises you quite number of times….its gory at times….its emotional …but its bloody realistic …you could feel the pain and easily identify with the couple ….well ya at least I did identify with them……. The acting by all the leads was fantastic….but the young teen who leads the group takes the cake …he lives the character ..you will hate him (his character) from the first frame…..
The director James Watkins has done a great job on his debut.some of the scenes will remain well etched in your mind.In one of the scenes jenny thrusts a piece of glass into one of the kid’s neck …the kid bleeds to death in her arms …she is helpless ..a school teacher that she is , she gets emotional and breaks down…… and later when the dead kid’s mom learns about it…she blames Jenny for everything that has happened…. “they’re only children !” is what she says …
Calling Eden lake as just another horror thriller wont make justice to the movie….yes the movie is a damn good thriller as it goes…but most importantly it’s a thriller that asks lot of questions …questions on today’s society we live in, questions on youth, questions on values, questions on parenting. The end is depressing to the core…it stayed with me for sometime…it made me numb…initially I didn’t like the end I wanted it to end on a happy note…but more that I think about the end the more it bothers me …and that’s how the director wanted it to be…to bother you….
Tags: british film, eden lake, horror, thriller
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
after watching this movie and relating to your story is very scary…..this movie is not for faint hearted and is dark…….loved it….
Yes, when I saw it I was so hoping for the happy ending. Honestly it wasnt escapist at all, she could have. But if that had happened, it really wouldn’t have thrown so many questions at me. @ the kids, their parents and where all the violence stems from.
Its an extremely disturbing film. Infact every act of sadism was just there in my head for a few days after I saw the film…
Superb debut. I can understand what you and your wife must have undergone in that train then….
Eden Lake such an apt title..eden…irony of it….damn…
Def not a film for the faint hearted…Thanks for putting this up Anand…
Where did my comment go….
thanks for the comment Narendra Bendi ….yes indeed this film is not for faint hearted ..its very very dark….
Arthi V ,
Thanks.
speaking about irony …Jenny is a school teacher and she faces crime at the hands of supposedly school kids and she eventually has to kill couple of them to save herself…..its a disturbing film….just today in the news i read a thirteen year old UK teen who looks like a ten year old became a father…not that this is related to the film..but just to point out the state of uk teen culture …….
can anyone tell me where I can get this soundtrack…the music was awesome in this movie..
sorry not Eden lake, I meant Boy A soundtrack
Anand, the plot looks somewhat similiar to The Straw Dogs for me. Then the villians were the people in the British countryside, and now its the teens. I guess a comment about the degeneration of youth in UK, the Yob culture.
Ratnakar,
i have not seen The Straw Dogs so can’t comment on it ..but even if the story line is similar , Eden lake will be a diff experience….it makes very strong comments on the yob culture….
Ratnakar, this film is in a diff league seriously. Cant be compared to TSD I feel. U’ve got to watch to actually get a feel of teenage kids – what hell they can create.
Anand, ya read @ that. The father of the 13 yr old is proud though saying that his son is taking resp for this…welll….
Saw Eden Lake recently and it left me deeply disturbed. I was not sure who’s side I needed to take, by the time it ended. Been meaning to see another movie very similar to Eden Lake, ‘El rey de la monta'±a’ (King of the Hill)…
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1085862/
Haven’t seen this movie yet but will definitely catch it. But you are very right about the state of young teens today. It is no different here in Australia and more times than not you feel like getting up and smashing their head in. But heck.. we always let a bunch of kids get away!
Anyway, this reminded me of another movie called ‘Funny games’. I do not know if that has been covered on pfc ever. It is a great movie too. A couple and their kid terrorised by a couple of teens. Dark and extremely well directed. The best part is the background score – there is none!
@ Anand, ya that film too. Got the the French original but never have been able to watch it full. Its a crazy sadistic ride truly. Saw 2 scenes and it just was too much. Wondering if its kinda true or Michael Henanke is having a field time with the audience? His film Cache is good tho. It throws up a few surprises and qns too…
saw the movie today after reading this post. i was so rooting for a happy ending where jenny takes her revenge. never got one. was left very disturbed by the last scene of that smiling teen. in fact not getting the happy ending is what made me like this even more. a very well made film which i would have not seen had it not been for this post by Anand. thank you.
Thanks for recommending this movie…climax was spine-chilling
Watched the movie yesterday.Its gothic and disturbing. Thanks for the recommendation.
But the best british horror movie i have seen till now is “The descent”.That was awsome!
Aother torture movie involving children is “The girl next door”.It is too disturbing(unbearable) at times.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0830558/
Just finished it. Very disturbing.