Eden Lake (2007)

In this British thriller a young couple, Jenny and Steve, heads off for a weekend of camping around an isolated lake before it becomes another gated community for the wealthy.  Their weekend is spoiled by the appearance of a group of teenagers who at first are just annoying.  But the violence between the teens and the couple escalates when they steal the couple’s Jeep for a joyride and Steve catches up with them.  Before anyone realizes it blood has been spilt and the situation spirals out of control.  Can Jenny and Steve get out of the woods that the teens know much better than them? 

Much of Eden Lake plays out like I thought that it would and it is fairly predictable.  But that isn’t necessarily a bad thing because not every movie is going to reinvent the wheel.  The story is briskly paced and does a great job building tension and an apprehensive atmosphere.  Even though most of us have seen this kind of movie and know what is coming it is still interesting to see these characters make that journey.  That really is the difference between a good thriller of this genre and a bad one.  Even when you know what is coming next you are still interested and paying attention.  Now I was disappointed in the ending, because these movies always seem to end with the same result.  And in spite of an interesting twist at the end the results are the same.  The performances are decent, especially that of Kelly Reilly who plays Jenny.  She has to carry a portion of the movie herself and does a nice job of it. How good can a movie like this be if you don’t have good villains?  All of the actors and the actress that are cast as the gang of teenagers are good as well.

From a technical point of view this is a well-put together movie.  The camera work is nice and does a great job capturing the natural beauty of the local surroundings.  There are some shots that take advantage of the lake that are really creative and cool looking.  I also really liked how the sound was handled during the chase scenes.  Instead of some overbearing musical score we hear the sounds of the woods and the shouts of the teens that are chasing Jenny around.  This is a very minimalist but really effective and creepy approach.  While this isn’t a heavy effects movie there are a few scenes that will have the faint of heart squirming in their seats.  Most of the effects look to be practical, and if there is any CGI used I didn’t notice.  So then by default it was good. 

These sorts of movies don’t normally thrill me, but I rather enjoyed Eden Lake.  I thought the teenagers worked really well as villains and there is a disturbing realism to the movie.  Everyone needs to at least give this one a shot as a rental if not a purchase.  You can go to the Dimension Extreme website for more information about this and their other releases. http://www.dimensionextreme.com/

3 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer

© Copyright 2009 John Shatzer