So harsh, bleak and intense it achieves a level of raw power. A sordid little nightmare of contemporary England.
Comment
09/12/08
Eden Lake (2008)
83
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:23
Fresh:19
Rotten:4
Average Rating:6.7/10
Consensus: A brutal and effective British hoodie-horror that, despite the clichés, stays on the right side of scary.
Runtime: 1 hr 31 mins
Genre: Horror/Suspense
US Box Office: $0
Synopsis: Like a bad dream turned worst nightmare, Eden Lake is a “relentlessly tense and immaculately paced” (Twitch Film) horror-thriller about modern youth gone wild. When a young couple goes to a... [More]
Starring: Kelly Reilly, Michael Fassbender, Thomas Turgoose
Director: James Watkins
Reviews for Eden Lake
It doesn't fight shy of a truly frightening final twist, which makes it not only bleaker but also more truthful than virtually every other movie in this genre, which all too often is over-populated and under-humanised.
09/12/08
It’s not long before the claret starts to flow. And it won’t be too long before you start eyeing the exit sign.
09/12/08
For all the brutality of the confrontation with knife-weilding, car-nicking local scum - think Stanley knives gouging out tongues - it's never far off ludicrous.
09/12/08
You don't watch it, you survive it. A battering experience, and the hardest Brit horror in years.
09/09/08
Top CriticWell acted, well directed, and totally intense, 'Eden Lake' is the best horror film to come out of the UK in years.
12/22/08
if it gets people talking about youth violence, class conflict and the gulf of social inequality in Britain, then all the better - and if it does not, at least it will give them a frightening, albeit derivative, ride.
09/05/08
It's not your typical "wooded horror" movie, but Eden Lake works exceedingly well, and will probably stick in your gut for a little while.
11/06/08
Eden Lake: pursuit, persecution, violent death.
09/12/08
This looks to me like the best British horror film in years: nasty, scary and tight as a drum.
09/12/08
Top CriticDaily Mail scaremongering? Possibly. But formidably well-made, all the same.
09/12/08
...while Eden Lake is effective, something feels not quite right about cheering for prepubescent kids to get their fatal comeuppance.
10/13/08
A gruelling, grimly effective British chiller.
10/18/08
Has some seriously haunting themes torn right from the headlines, giving us something thoughtful to chew on. Besides our fingernails.
09/04/08
Dispiriting and unpleasant, a trip to Eden Lake will leave most viewers feeling the need for a hot shower and a tetanus jab.
09/12/08
It is not often that The Sneak feels like walking out of a movie. But this exploitative, patronising and nauseatingly violent take on Britain’s yob culture had your critic eyeing up the exit.
09/12/08
Instead of Deliverance's deep backwoods hicks we have now backwoods chavs who live a life unscrutinised by cops or anyone. Watkins has consumed all those tabloid hoodie tales and regurgitated a horror.
09/11/08
It is impossible not to admire the way Watkins ratchets up the tension in his debut as director (he wrote My Little Eye) and keeps his tale strictly to 90 minutes.
09/12/08
The film’s one major fault is that Reilly’s character repeatedly acts in ways that serve the plot, but which run contrary to rational human behaviour. By contrast, the shattering downbeat ending is well earned and genuinely shocking.
09/12/08
It’s a claustrophobic marvel, and an impressive debut by Watkins.
09/12/08
Top CriticLatest News for Eden Lake
September 16, 2008:
Eden Lake (2008): Hooded horror trailer 
More...
September 12, 2008:
UK Critics Consensus: Pineapple Express is smoking hot; If in Eden Lake, DON’T Hug a Hoodie
This week we have the stoner action-comedy The Pineapple Express, with Seth Rogen, James Franco and new boy on the comedy block Danny McBride, plus My Little Eye writer James... More...
August 27, 2008:
essentially Deliverance, but with the rednecks replaced by a gang of British teens...
More...
August 22, 2008:
Further Reading: Hammer Horror's MySpace Revival Stumbles
Does a new collection of webisodes hosted on MySpace and featuring tabloid teen favourites Jamie Dornan and Lois Winstone constitute a revival of the Hammer Horror film? Not so,... More...
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