EDEN LAKE (Lake Eden - GB 2008) by James Watkins
SHEET FILM and Steve Jenny, young lovers, beautiful and in love, decide to spend a romantic weekend, camping on the shore of a lake, in the English countryside.
For reasons entirely futile, end up as victims of bullying and vandalism of some local teenagers, real hooligans in the grass, arrogant and rude.
to the reaction of the couple followed by a crescendo of violence that will drag players in a whirlwind of madness and blood.
Eden Lake is a solid and engaging thriller that, despite some little ingenuity and some narrative solution might seem forced ("flaws" which, after all, have always been the trademark of this kind of film ), succeeds in its primary intent, that, in other words, to lead the viewer into the story told, pushing him to empathize with the protagonists. Difficult, in fact, do not identify with Steve and Jenny, a couple like many others, suddenly plunged into a nightmare and inevitably absurd and appalling. Who has never found myself having to deal with a bully, maybe a park or condominium for a fight? Who has not seen or bullied? Who has never been forced to "act" simply to avoid the risk of being a "rabbit" in the eyes of his wife?
However, leaving for a moment by the one or two tricks, cleverly used by Watkins (who also wrote the script) to drag the viewer, the real interest of this film (without which it would simply one of many thriller "Bucolic" in circulation) counts, in my opinion, the different interpretations that can be applied to the film and used to understand what lies behind a story, or trivial (or, at best, derivative).
one that immediately jumps to the eyes is, of course, the theme of dualism civilization and nature (or in this case, city / country). Theme that, in film, can boast of illustrious predecessors, "Straw Dogs" by Peckinpah to "A quiet weekend of fear" by Boorman, via "The Hills Have eyes "of Craven. Consequential to this kind of issue, turns out to be than the one of the city man, bourgeois, civil, convinced that everything can be resolved with reason and words which, suddenly, to defend himself and his condition (of father , husband, etc.) drops the mask imposed by society and becomes little more than a beast, in all respects similar to their persecutors. Violence and, specifically, a return to so-called "state of nature," then, as the only weapon to fight the barbarism, stripped, however, characteristic of all romantic, noble and pure.
One may push further, defining the battle depicted in the film as a reflection of the conflict Watkins (seen as the only way to go) between bourgeoisie and proletariat. However, the risk you take when applying this kind of interpretation, so obviously sleeves, very high. The risk is to lose sight of the deeper meaning of the film (or at least what seems to me that), which is in opposition to the bourgeois, civil, educated and progressive, the proletarian incattivito and intolerant, but in the picture (with limits and the merits of a genre film) a battleground over the current namely that which is between "civilization" and "ignorance."
It is hard to miss, killer of teenagers in the characterization of the film, those elements that bring to mind the disturbing incidents of blood, just in the United Kingdom, have played a key role maladjusted children, ready to stab me for a trifle.
The factor that separates and contrasts the protagonists, then, is not detectable in both the generation gap or arising from belonging to different social classes, the difference in the level of civilization, education and tolerance.
The answer suggested by the film, compared to the origin of this barbarism, it is clear and precise. These adolescents, carriers of violence and intolerance, which is based on boredom and indifference, therefore without any (possible) connotation ennobling, are not such as they have seen too many horror movies or too much trash TV. The root must be sought elsewhere, and more specifically, in families (which, at the end of the film show to be much worse than their little ones) and, therefore, the primary behavioral patterns followed by these adolescents.
Intolerance rudeness and arrogance inherited directly from their families, as if the young criminals who, for some years now, filling the front pages of British newspapers with their crimes, were not hooligans but the children of the '80s.
Eden Lake is a film for nothing conciliatory: the dramatic end of the story you will understand immediately and, personally, it reminded me not a little pessimism el'ineluttabilità distressing tragedy, found in many horror films of the '70s. Inevitable parallels the usual literary or film. Some efforts' Lord of the Flies "by Golding, and even Serrador's masterpiece," But how can you kill a child? ", Even if the film of" Chico "suggest a positive motivation (in my opinion more reassuring) semi-social rather than supernatural, to explain the explosion of violence.
The only film that I personally came to mind seeing the movie Watkins (in the final minutes of the film) The Last House on the Left "Craven (parent like Rape & Revenge) which is made a curious homage to the contrary. "
Kelly Reilly, track and field star, is remembered primarily for his film "L'auberge espagnole" which obviously must have been a breeding ground for would-be queens of horror, as the cast was also attended by Cristina Brondo (HIPNOS "," Do You Like Hitchcock? ") and Cecile De France (" High Anxiety ").
I wanted to write a post about kaiju Eiga but, for once, I leave aside the reassuring paper mache and rubber monsters, to make room for monsters much more real and much closer.
MEISTER Steiner says: 7
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