October 17th, 2013 
Brian Leak 
Of all the holidays celebrated worldwide, no single day is more loved by the UTG staff than Halloween. With the arrival of October, the time has finally come to begin rolling out a plethora of features and special announcements we have prepared in celebration of our favorite day, including the one you’re about to read.
31 Days Of Halloween is a recurring daily feature that will run throughout the month of October. The hope and goal of this column is to supply every UTG reader with a daily horror (or Halloween themed) movie recommendation that is guaranteed to amplify your All Hallows’ Eve festivities. We’ll be watching every film the day it’s featured, and we hope you’ll follow along at home. If you have a suggestion, contact us and we may include your favorite scarefest in an upcoming column!
Day 17: Eden Lake (2008)
James Watkins’ 2008 horror thriller, Eden Lake, is a film that’ll make you feel something, namely fear and blood-boiling anger. The reality involved is terrifying. While the initial setup may seem to be a cliché theme used in the horror genre, there are no supernatural or unexplainable events taking place, but pure evil dished out by the hand of man…or teen, rather.
Eden Lake stars Irish heartthrob Michael Fassbender (Hunger, Prometheus) who decides to take his girlfriend Jenny (Kelly Reilly) to a peaceful reservoir in the woods before it’s torn down and replaced with a executive home community. Their quiet getaway, however, is a nightmare right off the bat, plagued with bad drivers, obnoxious children, and domestic disputes disrupting their hotel stay the night prior to arriving at their destination. To make matters worse, the following day, after only being at the beach for a short while, their relaxation is once again thwarted, this time by a gang of invidious teens led by a believably barbaric Jack O’Connell (Harry Brown, This Is England). Fassy B becomes rather obsessed with being assertive with the “little fuckers” which in turn only makes them want to fuck with him and his beloved even more. What originates as a trip to escape from the woes of a taxing daily life evolves into a fight for survival and an attempt to escape unnecessary deaths, ultimately bringing to attention the fact that you should be wholly cautious of whom you choose to approach and with what intentions.
Once you get past a somewhat cheesy opening (with lots of foreshadowing), the film picks up quickly and is full-tilt intense from then on chock full of brutally disturbing scenes that will make you yell at your television. Tumblr is packed with Eden Lake gifs, fan fiction chapters, and angry/upset claims such as, “I just watched Eden Lake and I am so fucking pissed.” and “Fucking Eden Lake. I AM SO PISSED OFF SHIT.” I can’t say I disagree with them. Sure, the film suffers from your typical minor afflictions like questionable decisions from its lead, Kelly Reilly, and while I can’t say she would have been my first choice for the film, she does progress from a kind of whiny damsel in distress to bona fide badass.
If you’re familiar with or a fan of gruesome features such as Inside, High Tension, or Funny Games, then Eden Lake should be right up your sadistic alley. Despite having gone generally unnoticed in between more mainstream Fassbender features (300, Hunger, Inglourious Basterds) around that time, it’s still a film you should experience if you can stomach it. No matter your feelings at the close of the film’s final act, Eden Lake will surely be one you won’t soon forget.
You can watch the trailer for Eden Lake below and rent it or pick up your very own copy on Amazon. If you’re picky like me and want something with a little more style, you can grab the Blu-ray steelbook edition here.
Editorial written by: Brian Lion – Follow him on Twitter
Last year’s Day 17 film: Dead Alive
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