David O'ConnellEDEN LAKE @ The Melbourne International Film Festival
August 6th 2009 03:56
It’s the turn of the Brits to step behind horror’s darkest curtain and delve into its nastiest sub-genre: torture porn. Writer/director James Watkins has made a decent stab at recreating the taboo-flirting lows of Hostel and its ilk with this nasty piece of celluloid. As grim and genuinely disturbing as Eden Lake is, however, there’s not a single original idea to hold the whole thing together.
A madly-in-love couple, Steve (Michael Fassbender) and Jenny (Kelly Reilly), head out of the city on route for the scenic wilds of Eden Lake. After a few scrapes with some of the primitive locals they head for remote sandy dunes, ensconced in the woods, thinking they’ll have the place to themselves. Before long, however, their sun-baking session is interrupted by a squad of loud, unruly teenagers and their vicious mutt. Led by the insidious Brett (Jack O’Connell), they set about antagonizing the couple for kicks before disappearing.
The next day becomes an instant replay and this time Steve and Jenny discover their car keys missing after a dip. The inevitable confrontation after a trek through the woods leads to Steve inadvertently stabbing their advancing dog in self-defense. Mayhem and retribution ensue as the angered Brett swears revenge for the loss of his precious dog’s life. And a ruthless and confronting sort of revenge it turns out to be!
Cue a series of hunt-downs through the woods leading to graphic scenes of torture, followed by unlikely escapes and more hunt-downs - all ending in grisly fates for a choice few, including immolations, stabbings and hit-and-runs. Yes, you've guessed right - this will not end well. If you’re optimistic by nature, you’ve come to the wrong place.
Imperiled strangers out of their element and confronting enemies with a home-ground advantage (The Strangers, Ills, Straw Dogs, Deliverance, Funny Games etc) is hardly treading new cinematic ground, but you can’t escape the fact that Watkins is ultimately following in the footsteps of far superior genre-dwellers. Conventional and unlikely plot twists plague his second-rate writing, but Watkins assured direction, which cultivates a genuinely noxious, palpable sense of menace, does help offset them to a degree.
The film certainly works its central idea into the pit of your stomach with some venom despite recurring frustrations of the genre. I mean, does every person fleeing death in horror movie history have to stumble, thus causing a debilitating injury? Here it’s Jenny who steps on a spike which, in a ludicrous moment of self-surgery, she ends up pulling out through the other end of her foot before later sequences of alternating limps and charges at full tilt, curiously unaffected!
Fassbender, so brilliant last year as Bobby Sands in Steve McQueen’s astonishing Hunger, is a cut above this cast. Actually, more than a single cut as you’ll discover if you make it to the end. Reilly, after some unconvincing work in the early scenes actually gets better once her role becomes more physical and she isn’t asked to emote.
Of the teenage torturers, the conformist bit-players fail to make any impression, even This Is England’s Thomas Turgoose. However, O’Connell’s one-note romp as their psychotic leader - whose hold over his cronies consumes the occasional flickering glint of remorse in their eyes at the horrors they’re actively forced to participate in – is admirable for its lack of nuance and restraint, bringing his director’s darkest intentions to contemptible, diabolical life.
I’m not sure it’s possible to enjoy this kind of material but seeing a director, bereft of new places to go, push the envelope in select scenes earns the kind of admiration you admit to only with real reluctance, and never to people you know well. Nihilistic, disturbing, and with a coda that rubs salt into the wound of your bleeding soul, Eden Lake won’t be remembered a year from now, but it’s a slick and twisted little adrenaline jolt while it lasts.
A madly-in-love couple, Steve (Michael Fassbender) and Jenny (Kelly Reilly), head out of the city on route for the scenic wilds of Eden Lake. After a few scrapes with some of the primitive locals they head for remote sandy dunes, ensconced in the woods, thinking they’ll have the place to themselves. Before long, however, their sun-baking session is interrupted by a squad of loud, unruly teenagers and their vicious mutt. Led by the insidious Brett (Jack O’Connell), they set about antagonizing the couple for kicks before disappearing.
The next day becomes an instant replay and this time Steve and Jenny discover their car keys missing after a dip. The inevitable confrontation after a trek through the woods leads to Steve inadvertently stabbing their advancing dog in self-defense. Mayhem and retribution ensue as the angered Brett swears revenge for the loss of his precious dog’s life. And a ruthless and confronting sort of revenge it turns out to be!
Cue a series of hunt-downs through the woods leading to graphic scenes of torture, followed by unlikely escapes and more hunt-downs - all ending in grisly fates for a choice few, including immolations, stabbings and hit-and-runs. Yes, you've guessed right - this will not end well. If you’re optimistic by nature, you’ve come to the wrong place.
The troubled youth of today
Imperiled strangers out of their element and confronting enemies with a home-ground advantage (The Strangers, Ills, Straw Dogs, Deliverance, Funny Games etc) is hardly treading new cinematic ground, but you can’t escape the fact that Watkins is ultimately following in the footsteps of far superior genre-dwellers. Conventional and unlikely plot twists plague his second-rate writing, but Watkins assured direction, which cultivates a genuinely noxious, palpable sense of menace, does help offset them to a degree.
The film certainly works its central idea into the pit of your stomach with some venom despite recurring frustrations of the genre. I mean, does every person fleeing death in horror movie history have to stumble, thus causing a debilitating injury? Here it’s Jenny who steps on a spike which, in a ludicrous moment of self-surgery, she ends up pulling out through the other end of her foot before later sequences of alternating limps and charges at full tilt, curiously unaffected!
Fassbender, so brilliant last year as Bobby Sands in Steve McQueen’s astonishing Hunger, is a cut above this cast. Actually, more than a single cut as you’ll discover if you make it to the end. Reilly, after some unconvincing work in the early scenes actually gets better once her role becomes more physical and she isn’t asked to emote.
Jenny (Kelly Reilly) with poor Steve (Michael Fassbender)
Of the teenage torturers, the conformist bit-players fail to make any impression, even This Is England’s Thomas Turgoose. However, O’Connell’s one-note romp as their psychotic leader - whose hold over his cronies consumes the occasional flickering glint of remorse in their eyes at the horrors they’re actively forced to participate in – is admirable for its lack of nuance and restraint, bringing his director’s darkest intentions to contemptible, diabolical life.
I’m not sure it’s possible to enjoy this kind of material but seeing a director, bereft of new places to go, push the envelope in select scenes earns the kind of admiration you admit to only with real reluctance, and never to people you know well. Nihilistic, disturbing, and with a coda that rubs salt into the wound of your bleeding soul, Eden Lake won’t be remembered a year from now, but it’s a slick and twisted little adrenaline jolt while it lasts.
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