A romantic weekend in the woods turns into a bloody struggle for survival when a vacationing couple finds their campsite surrounded by an aggressive gang of obnoxious adolescents in the feature directorial debut of My Little Eye screenwriter James Watkins. All nursery school teacher Jenny and her boyfriend, Steve, wanted was a quiet weekend alone, and what better setting for such a romantic retreat than a quiet lake surrounded by a vast forest? Just as Steve is preparing to propose to Jenny,
however, their blissful moment of peace is rudely interrupted when their campsite is encircled by a gang of particularly unruly teens. After the kids provoke the couple by stealing their belongings and vandalizing their car, the situation turns deadly serious as Steve attempts to confront them and suffers a terrible beating. Now it's up to Jenny to flee from her tormentors under the shroud of darkness and make her way to the nearest town, though what she finds there may well be worse than what's waiting for her back in the woods. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
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.
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.
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.
Frustratingly, there is potential in Watkins' claustrophobic, back-to-nature setting, but, in trying to play 'edgy' with contemporary anxieties, his cooked-to-formula script merely sinks to the level of the gutter press exploiting those fears.
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.
Complete waste of time.
Thought the fact that Michael Fassbender was in it might have given it some credibility...but I did not.
Ridiculous premise that just gets more and more unbelievable as it progresses (and I use the word "progresses" very loosly here).
The ONE star is an homage to the fact that it avoided the
ONLY thing that could have made it worse...a happy ending.
October 3, 2011
Robert C
Super Reviewer
Eden Lake is one of the most disturbing horror films I have seen in recent times. A well crafted horror film, Eden Lake is quite possibly the most intense horror film in quite some time. The story is simply horrifying, and the actors are excellent on screen. Eden Lake is a disturbing film that will make every viewer
uneasy as they see the events unfold before them Eden Lake is one terrific horror film that blends suspense and horror to create a horrifying nightmare of a film. . I thought that there were plenty of bone chilling moments in this film and that it was a very well done film. The film is intense and scary as it should be. This is a film that doesn't take any prisoners. The film steadily builds its suspense and horror and as you become more involved in the story, you find it harder to tear away from the screen. Eden Lake is a superbly crafted horror film that delivers the chills, and it's quite disturbing. This is one of the most memorable horror films in the past three years, and the scares delivered on screen are genuine this is an incredible horror film that is very stylish and one that you cannot easily forget. A memorable addition to the genre.
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