And the first thirty minutes, well, it lived up to expectations. We follow Jenny and her husband Steven (I love the plain names) played by Kelly Reilly and Michael Fassbender (admittedly a big reason I put the movie on in the first place) as they travel to a small, remote town situated on the aptly titled Eden Lake. They make sure to let us know that the towns people are a bit off, but it's all good as they advance down to the beach, get into their swim wear and start relaxing. The lake itself is pristine, and the beach is gently nestled between the water and incredibly rich forest. It's a nice locale.
Things go quickly downhill as Jenny and Steve are interrupted by a group of teenagers doing decidedly bad teenage things: they are loud, obnoxious, disrespectful and downright rude. That's an understatement, but it doesn't escalate right away to more horrible things. Steve confronts them, asks them to turn down their music and perhaps find another spot on the beach. But of course they don't, and the hooligans start actively screwing with our lovely couple, to a point where there car is stolen and I turn the movie off because I was just invited over to dinner at a friend's house.
Fast forward three weeks or so and the poster enticed me again. I pop it on and the movie has a different feel. Jenny and Steve are in for a ride of their lives, as events escalate between them and the teenagers to a horrifying degree, with an end that is sure to leave you upset. After checking out reviews, I find it's not uncommon for people to hate the movie, and I can easily see how this is the case. It doesn't end with a great note. After we take the journey with Jenny, the credits roll and we're left with a bad taste in our mouths.
Isn't this the point though? If it was run through the Hollywood cleaner, the film would be lost. What we end up with is a movie - and ending - that sticks with you for a bit, just like The Mist did years ago.
I sat there and wondered if things like this could actually happen. For a movie that is grounded in reality, it certainly seems unbelievable as you watch. But I know exactly how seemingly nothing can escalate into something, and the result is horrifying. It's happened in my life before - an event that I can't stop thinking about all the time, nearly eight years after the fact. We hear about social experiments where people are put in seemingly normal situations and things escalating into an unpredictable series of events that will leave you dumbfounded. People are crazy and there's no way to prove otherwise. Unfortunately one aspect of this film is reassuring you that it only takes one: in this case, the alpha male who acts as the ring leader in this circus of horrors. He pushes the others, and punishes any who question him or his actions. The others follow suit and do as they're told. When will they stop and help the victims? Peer pressure is an amazing thing, and I think it gets captured here, although I like to believe that people would tap out before the depictions in the film. Optimistic is something that I can pretend to be, but this movie is going to push me right back down.
It's also making me think of how easy it is to prey on "small town people." I understand that movies are made for the masses, and the masses are condensed into cities. These people - myself included - can't comprehend the life of someone who may live on the outskirts. We know what we know. And it's easy to demonize the unknown. Remotely isolated people are cannon fodder to horror movies, and this is no different: the people depicted in this film are unrealistic but serve the film for what it is. Anyway, that's all a bit of an aside/response to some things I read online about the movie after watching it.
While Eden Lake wasn't a master stroke of film making, it was surprisingly shocking and interesting, elevating it above other lesser, more forgettable movies.
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