Film: Eden Lake

[His Name Is Frank]

I don't know why I keep renting movies like this. Since Saw, torture porn has become popular again. This film's yet another couple winds up in the wrong place at the wrong time plot-driven movie. Only, the husband could have either left when the Goonies from hell showed up at the beach or confronted them by throwing their loud ass radio into Eden Lake©.

Instead, he decides to stand his ground because he and his wife/gf?? were there first. He does confront them, only to almost literally get sand kicked in his face by this little nightmarish gang, the oldest of which can't be older than 18. The youngest looked like he was 10 or 11.

They go back and forth fucking with this couple who should have left when the little bastards put a broken bottle behind their tire to flatten it. Instead, they actually go back to camp in the exact same spot later that night. Not before the guy breaks into the main little asshole's home. A scene that's only purpose is to set up for the finale.

NSFW:

Things really go to hell in a bit torrent when the guy accidently stabs the dog, who was also an asshole. I love animals. Especially dogs. But I wanted to bitch-slap that dog. Politically corrrect because the dog was, in fact, a female/bitch.

Anyway, the film takes an ugly turn when they catch the guy and tie him to a tree. Then the leader of these twats intimidates each one of them (except for the black guy....he seemed a little to eager) to cut slash and stab this man. The girl in the gang doesn't do any of the cutting, but she films it all and makes you want to punch her all the same.

Skipping to the end, it just seemed way to contrived. She escapes, drives for a while and when she crashes her car, she wanders into the backyard of a house party. The house just happens to belong to......wait for it.....the parents of the asshole leader of those fuckers from the woods.

Oh yeah. I forgot to mention that the woman stabbed one of the youngest in the gang. Turns out the kid was the asshole leader's little brother. Of course they get a phone call from the asshole right when the woman realizes who's house she's in. Right.

With all of the really evil shit that is progressively getting worse, these movies are becoming progressively depressing. Just a short time ago, these kids were luring adults and killing them while filming it. They were beyond brutal. Bashing people in the face, mouth and head with hammers. Stabbing their eyes out with screwdrivers.

Just a few months ago, a man on a Greyhound bus just calmly stood up and started stabbing this young kid who was sitting beside him, asleep. After the people ran off the bus, the man, still calm as can be, cuts the kid's head off and starts taunting the people outside of the bus with it. The police said that he was cutting off pieces of the boy and eating them when they arrived.

Too much of this is happening in the real world. I'm tired of seeing it in movies too. I know that art imitates life in almost every movie out there. But, this is going beyond beating a dead horse. At least make the fucker pay. Eeveryone else did. Even the bitch from hell got nailed by a car towards the end. But, this asshole who initiates everything and even sets a little boy on fire gets away with it? The movie was ruined for me anyway, but that was just a slap in the face. 2/5

 

[Him_Fan_86]

I've seen this one, is this where she goes camping with her guy and they come across the group of lads and then it all goes wrong?

Doesn't she pretend to be attracted to one of them at the end only to get her chance to escape and kill him? Does she kill him, now i'm not too sure?

Anyways i'f im still on track was a great film. I think sometimes people are too quick to judge a film, but then once they watch it then they actually like it.

 

[Evad]

I thought this film was really good, grim and bleak and definitely depressing but I thought it still had merit.
A lot of it was playing against the media's demonization of working class youth and chav/hoodie culture (which I suppose will not be as familiar to someone outside the UK). As for the ending:

NSFW:

That horrible slap in the face was what you were supposed to get, we just saw the creation of a monster. That smug look on his face as his posturing in the mirror just makes you seethe with rage. It's a horror film that wants to make you feel dirty and hopeless and it certainly achieves it.

IMO it's more than just torture porn and is an effective horror
3.5(rounded up to 4) out of 5.

 

[His Name Is Frank]

But the ending was so contrived, it took away from what was going on in the first place. I know it's just a movie, but come on. The real slap in the face was from the writers trying to get me to accept where she wound up at the end as credible or even remotely plausible.

 

[TheSpade]

I didn't think this was up too much. Unbeleivable on so many levels and poor acting.

The scene where the guy goes and essentially breaks into the house was total bollocks. The ending was garbage.

There's not much I can say about this it just wan't very good.

 

[Evad]

But the ending was so contrived, it took away from what was going on in the first place. I know it's just a movie, but come on. The real slap in the face was from the writers trying to get me to accept where she wound up at the end as credible or even remotely plausible.

I don't know, it's a horror film I generally have my suspension of disbelief set to high. Things happen merely to serve the plot and characters act in stupid and irrational ways. I'm seeing this as a modern, British Friday the 13th rather than anything with depth. The ending. contrived as it may be, added to the bleak claustrophobic feelings built through the whole film. Horror done well.

 

[TheSpade]

In my, oh so valued, opinion it was anything but done well. Weak as fuck.

 

[His Name Is Frank]

Seriously. Investing 90 minutes into a movie only to come away from it feeling depressed and ripped off at the end does not make for a good cinematic adventure.

I would compare this to Shawshank Redemption. If Red got set on fire and Andy escaped through the tunnel, only to pop up in the warden's home with the warden and his guards standing there waiting to fuck Andy up.