Eden Lake – 2008 | 91 mins | Horror | Colour

Plot Synopsis

The debut feature from director James Watkins is a fierce, thought-provoking survival horror that follows a feral gang of youths tormenting a sweet couple on the brink of getting engaged. It recalls earlier films like Straw Dogs, in which a smart townie couple are brutalised by rural locals and plays effectively on contemporary tabloid headlines about the erosion of the social fabric of Britain and fears of anti-social behaviour. But this is no exploitive shocker; the film explores the complex dynamics of anti-social violence and peer-group pressures,before ultimately reaching a genuinely shocking downbeat ending.

A young couple, nursery school teacher Kelly Reilly and well-heeled boyfriend Michael Fassbender, leave London for a holiday in the remote idyll of the countryside. Things start to go wrong when they are menaced by group of feral teenagers with a ghetto-blaster and a boisterous Rottweiler. An attempt to be civil and tolerant deteriorates into verbal confrontations, joy riding and knife-wielding violence. Following the the accidental killing of the dog, the couple are hunted through the surrounding woods in a violent game of cat-and-mouse.