Eden Lake (2008) - Watkins' survival horror debut is a relentlessly negative watch

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Kelly Reilly's light summer dress is contrasted to three menacing figures behind her on this blood-promising poster for James Watkins' Eden Lake

A young couple head out for a weekend camping by a desolate forest lake, which is soon to be upended by swanky apartments. But a group of violence-idolizing, ghastly kids and teenagers hang out at the lake ...

Eden Lake is the debut for English writer-director James Watkins (My Little Eye (2002), writer). Kelly Reilly (A Single Shot (2013)) is pretty rad here as the resourceful female lead, and Eden Lake has a certain pallid drive and a couple of great shots, (cinematography by Christopher Ross (Get Santa (2014))), but you would have to have a very special taste to not also find the film unusually unpleasant.
The plot's implicit message of not straying out into the wild nature, (where we don't belong), is reminiscent of The Descent (2005), a better English survival horror of the same period, only that film's ghoulish monsters are here nothing but physically normal human teenagers. They are led by Jack O'Connell (Home (2016), short) as a gruesomely etched youth without a shred of goodness in him.
The film is also enormously depressing and tiring, because the assaults that take place are so predictable and low-practical that one feels nudged to witness them while wishing the worst of ramifications possible for the young perpetrators and their scummy parents. Eden Lake is a fiercely negative experience.

Related posts:

James Watkins: The Woman in Black (2012) or, Creaking Galore
2008 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2008 in films - according to Film Excess 

Fassbender gives an interview about his work on the film here

Cost: Reportedly 2 mil. $
Box office: 3.9 mil. $
= Big flop (1.95 times the cost)
[Eden Lake premiered 12 August (Berlin Fantasy Filmfest) and runs 91 minutes. Shooting took place in England, including at Pinewood Studios, from July - September 2007. Buckinghamshire's Black Park Lake played the titular, non-existing Eden Lake. The film opened #93 in 10 theaters to a weak 5k $ first weekend in North America, where it was only in release for 1 week and grossed tiny 7k $ (0.2 % of the total gross). The film's 3 biggest markets were its production country the UK with 870k $ (22.3 %), France with 739k $ (18.9 %) and Russia with 668k $ (17.1%). The film's themes played into Britain's ongoing 'Broken Britain' debate, and the film drew praise and criticism for its portrayal of a middle-class couple's trials at the mercy of depraved underclass youths. It was nominated for 2 British Independent Film awards. Watkins returned with The Woman in Black (2012). Reilly returned in Me and Orson Welles (2008), Michael Fassbender in The Devil's Whore (2008, miniseries) and then theatrically in Fish Tank (2009). Eden Lake is fresh at 81 % with a 6.6/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Eden Lake?