Eden Lake
Dir: James Watkins
2008
***
Forget Aliens, Piranha, axe-wielding masked mental patients and disease-carrying monkeys, its Ferrel kids that scare me the most. Kids who don't give a flying toss about circumstances, what happens to themselves or others, who aren't scared of repercussions of their own actions and have absolutely no emotion attached to their actions or remorse. I see them every day, hanging about on street corners, London saw quite a few of them in the Summer of 2011! That is what essentially makes this film a scary one but unfortunately, they cast the wrong kids. I also think they cast the wrong leading lady, unless of course they were going for a pathetic, annoying and useless character!? Fassbender was good though, as were 'The parents' - who in some ways were even more frightening than the kids. That is also to the films credit, it blames the parents, which is fair for the most part I think. The overall message got through but the circumstances really didn't need to go as far as they did to be scary, in fact it was a frightening film until it all got a little bit silly. The finale however, was suitably terrifying, unpleasant and important  even though it might not have been everyone's first choice of ending.