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Welcome to my blog, BA_Harrison's Horror Rants, where I intend to discuss the wonderful world of horror movies, along with any other weird stuff I deem worthy of posting. Enjoy!

Monday 12 December 2011

My deleted review for Eden Lake

Eden Lake (2008)
Hoodie horror!, 27 November 2008
9/10
(This review was deleted by IMDb based on an abuse report filed by another user)

I watched Eden Lake last night and now I'm angry.

Not because the film was bad (on the contrary, it was very good); not because the nastiest character was called Brett (when surely it's common knowledge that all blokes named Brett are extremely nice); not because I had to watch the film on my portable DVD player while the wife watched 'I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Outta Here!' on the telly; and not because a rather silly ending spoils what might have been an otherwise perfect piece of entertainment.

No.... I'm angry because, with Eden Lake, I've been shown the terrifying truth about one of the biggest evils currently plaguing the UK (I'll give you a clue: it likes to wear Burberry and has lousy taste in music!).

That's right: I'm talking about Chavs!

If, like me, you find that yob culture makes your blood boil, then you too will be absolutely seething by the end of this excellent film, which cleverly taps into the viewer's fury, fear and frustration with loutish teenagers who are free to terrorise the innocent because the law lacks the power to punish them.

In Eden Lake, Director James Watkins presents a harrowing fictional account of one such incident in which a couple are subjected to unbelievable pain and humiliation by a gang of nasty young thugs. The sickening atrocities perpetrated by Watkins' lawless delinquents are terrifyingly real (reports on similar real-life events can all-too-often be found in today's tabloids) and serve only too well to highlight just how far our society has sunk in recent years.

A taut, well constructed script packed with believable characters and credible dialogue is brilliantly brought to gut-churning life by its novice director, and a superb cast make this film completely compelling, despite the harrowing subject matter. The film's victims, Jenny and Steve, are well played by the gorgeous Kelly Reilly (wow, where has she been hiding?) and Michael Fassbender, but it is the younger cast members who play the Chavs who really impress: they all give thoroughly chilling performances, with Jack O'Connell, as Brett, delivering one of the most memorable and vicious villains ever! If this guy doesn't go on to greater things, then I'll eat his Burberry cap!

As I've already mentioned, the film isn't perfect, with a few contrived plot developments and an unfortunate finalé that takes a little too much swallowing, but on the whole, this is one of the most exhilarating, frightening and infuriating (in a good way) horror films to come out of the UK in years.

In fact, I enjoyed this one so much, I'll turn a blind eye to the last five minutes when rating it: 8.5 out of 10, rounded up to 9 for IMDb.

2 comments:

  1. I also thought Eden Lake was a pretty good film, but I think it is a more sensationalised version of events that occasionally occur in the UK right now.

    Not sure why it was removed from IMDB, it's an honest review.

    Thanks for your comment on my 100 word review blog. Feel free to "follow" it. I try to get a review done every couple of days.

    Thanks

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  2. I am just a young (23) new husband and father and watching his movie made me RAGE. You know the reason the kids are shitheads is because their parents are twats, the educational system is in the piss, and the law let's gets get off and the institutional system is broken instead of guiding, teaching and rehabilitating prisoners we just set them loose amongst each other and basically "ground" them, eventually making them worse and set them loose with an inability to get a decent job (whose going to hire an ex-convict honestly?) to give them some sense of purpose and they end up fulfilling their role as a delinquent. Society has screwed up, something is not right. And maybe this is an over exaggeration but it is something that clearly could happen. I know it's supposed to be parents jobs to teach children morality and responsibility and about choices, which I intend with my son, but obviously parents are too busy wallowing in their own screwed up lives to give a damn about their kids. The educational system needs to stop teaching such useless B.S as dinosaurs and the lineage of the queen and focus on teaching kids about real human values that they can actually apply to their not so far off adult lives. And I agree the ending was hard to swallow but I saw it coming. Many cases if a parent's child does wrong they will then decide to be there for their kid, ugh this movie sickened me and that's why it's a great movie, to provoke such a reaction doesn't happen to often.

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