This is of a theme with the 00's European horror films. A fear of youths. Hoodie horror I've heard it called. Its roots are steeped in "The Last House on the Left" and "I Spit on Your Grave". Men get it here too. Growing up and becoming square is the ultimate evil.
This movie and its ilk are clearly made by men who have grown up and haven't quite come to grips with how old they are yet. They feel young inside but are afraid of the actual young because they don't recognize them or their interests - they have nothing in common anymore. It's all the same from generation to generation but this generation just so happens to be the first truly weened on pop culture - specifically movies and TV telling them how important and special their childhoods were (see the 80's nostalgia parade that just won't end).
There's a lot of good tension here but it's all in service of pure torture (also an 00's theme). Eden Lake is hurtful and mean and unrelenting in its nihilism. This is both good and bad. If it had more to say it might be good, but it's really a genre exercise about a final woman outsmarting these terrible kids (their inexplicable brutality just suddenly happens with little build-up or explanation - it lacks the surreal unknown of "Them (Ils)").
It all works but to what end? At a certain point you just start rolling your eyes when the main character does something like bury herself in a pile of poopy sludge.
This movie and its ilk are clearly made by men who have grown up and haven't quite come to grips with how old they are yet. They feel young inside but are afraid of the actual young because they don't recognize them or their interests - they have nothing in common anymore. It's all the same from generation to generation but this generation just so happens to be the first truly weened on pop culture - specifically movies and TV telling them how important and special their childhoods were (see the 80's nostalgia parade that just won't end).
There's a lot of good tension here but it's all in service of pure torture (also an 00's theme). Eden Lake is hurtful and mean and unrelenting in its nihilism. This is both good and bad. If it had more to say it might be good, but it's really a genre exercise about a final woman outsmarting these terrible kids (their inexplicable brutality just suddenly happens with little build-up or explanation - it lacks the surreal unknown of "Them (Ils)").
It all works but to what end? At a certain point you just start rolling your eyes when the main character does something like bury herself in a pile of poopy sludge.