Jenny and Steve are off for a romantic weekend away at Eden Lake, a very secluded place or so they had hoped until a group of unruly teens are about it spoil everything they had planned.
The first 20/30 minutes of the film just appear to be normal, a happy couple spending a nice weekend away together. Steve had planned on proposing to Jenny and therefore starting another chapter of their lives together. This was all ground to a halt when the teens led by Brett decide to make the weekend a living hell instead.
All kicking off when they decide to take their car and personal belongings. All they did was ask them to turn the music down, I guess this is actually the scariest part of the film in all honesty. The fact you cannot even ask young people to turn music down without them being unbearable and so nasty towards you. Really does show how society has shifted and changed, the attitude of young people seems to just get worse and worse as time goes on. Not that I am by any means saying what happens next in this film is a weekly occurrence but the attitude towards people certainly is!
When Steve starts a heated argument and an event happens which then sparks everything else it still didn’t seem as though it would go as far as it does. Brett certainly does have a lot of issues going on and even his “friends” don’t agree with everything he ends up doing. But the fear of it happening to them certainly takes over at times. The film shows a sadistic nature and leading to torture of others, which is very graphic at times and certainly answers to why the film was rated 18 in the UK.
Something that I thought was strange was that the film is classed as a horror, I would have probably placed it more as a thriller to be completely honest. As the cat and mouse chase that occurs feels more like that, as while the teens are horrible they don’t actually feel like monsters which I guess makes it even worse thinking about it like that!
I will admit that I watched this film because Michael Fassbender was in it, I seem to be having a few days of things with him in going on at the moment. I do still like that he has been in plenty of different film types and styles, something you have to admire him for. The bonus which I did not realize before watching the film was that Jack O’Connell was also in it, which seems to be his first big role. He was impressive and that was pretty good to see as I have seen him in more of his recent roles. So nice to see he started off in this British film. Kelly Reilly was also impressive as the woman who shows that you can really fight as hard as possible to survive. I thought she had the stronger character in all honesty as she really did her best to stay alive, and attempt to protect and look after herself.
I guess this film is trying to show just exactly how sadistic and crazy people can be. It certainly doesn’t make you want to rush off for the weekend at any lake or woodland area, you know just incase!
