EDEN LAKE
(Review)

Like Ils, Vacancy, and The Strangers, Eden Lake follows the travails of a couple who run afoul of violent and murderous rascals, who terrorize and stalk their hapless prey to a bloody end.
Unlike Vacancy though, this one doesn’t wuss out at its climax.
And of all the films mentioned above, though Eden Lake is closest to Ils, writer/director James Watkins has made it a point to provide his work with a thematic backbone which serves as a subtle commentary on today’s youth and their relationship to violence.


Kelly Reilly and Hunger’s Michael Fassbender are Jenny and Steve, the unlucky couple this time out, who plan to spend the weekend at Slapton Quarry, before it is shortly to fall prey to real estate development, and become part of the gated community, Eden Lake Executive Homes.
It’s a simple and familiar set-up, which soon takes a turbulent turn, as Steve and Jenny realize that they must fight for their lives if they intend to make it back home.


What makes Eden Lake stand out from its ilk is our view of the couple’s stalkers, allowing us glimpses into the possible roots of the violence we see unfold onscreen.
And while the inexplicability of the events in Ils and The Strangers may heighten the thrills and tension, Watkins’ script takes the time to illustrate how the young really are sculpted by their environment and upbringing, infusing Eden Lake with an additional layer of relevance absent from its cinematic brethren. (The fact that this was released in England in 2008, where there was a rash of murders involving young perpetrators, is also a gruesome footnote to its chilling narrative.)


If I haven’t quite made it clear, allow me: Eden Lake doesn’t pull its punches.
While it may not reach the bizarro heights of certain examples of French extreme horror (at the moment, no one’s doing it quite like the French are), Eden Lake is still a particularly brutal bit of horror, which takes place in a world where justice—worldly or cosmic—does not seem to exist, and where the comeuppances happen to those who, arguably, deserve it the least.


Parting shot: Reviews of Ils, The Strangers, and Vacancy can be found in the Archive.

(Eden Lake UK quad and images courtesy of shocktillyoudrop.com.)

A Rundown of the 13 Best, Most Recent Horror Movies I’ve Seen
[12 of 13]
THE STRANGERS (May 2008)


… Bryan Bertino’s debut feature is one taut, nasty little motherfrakker. Once the thrills kick off, they don’t really let up.

Read the entire review here.

(The Strangers OS courtesy of impawards.com [design by Ignition Print].)

THE STRANGERS
(Review)

What you are about to see is inspired by true events.
According to the FBI, there are an estimated 1.4 million violent crimes in America each year.
On the night of February 11, 2005, Kristen McKay and James Hoyt left a friend’s wedding reception and returned to the Hoyt family summer home.
The brutal events that took place there are still not entirely known.

So The Strangers tells us right off the bat, before effectively setting the stage with a 911 call, then winding the clock back to the night in question, and the “brutal events” that led up to that call.


Now, for the record, Bryan Bertino’s debut feature is one taut, nasty little motherfrakker. Once the thrills kick off, they don’t really let up.
We’re thrown right into the middle of Kristen (Liv Tyler) and James (Scott Speedman) on the night in question, and clearly, there’s been some incident, an argument, perhaps, or something more; we find ourselves in the middle of a strained, awkward moment in their relationship.
It’s this initial section of The Strangers, where we spend time with the couple on a particularly troubled night, that involves us in their lives, and their emotional dilemma, Tyler and Speedman delivering performances engaging enough to keep our attention.
It’s also this initial dramatic section that serves as an excellent counterpoint to the intensity and suspense that take hold, once things take a turn for the worse.


The thing is though, I’m not a huge fan of these kinds of movies, the ones that purport to be “inspired by true events,” where we see people suffer and, more often than not, die, while the film itself doesn’t really illuminate anything beyond the adage “sh!t happens.”
When this sort of movie is done right—as Bertino’s The Strangers is—it’s thrilling and keeps the audience at the edge of their seats, their collective breath held, their eyes riveted to the screen.
But it really isn’t “entertainment,” not in the sense of an experience I’d look forward to repeating by watching the film over and over again.
Regardless of how close or distant the film is from the reality it’s purportedly based on (on many occasions, the “inspired by true events” tag is more marketing ploy than a genuine indication of the film’s narrative being based on any specific murder case), there’s no denying that this is still the kind of situation that can actually happen. There are no cannibalistic mutants in this, no zombies or vampires or parasitic aliens. Just psychos with really sharp implements.
Bottom line, I always feel ill at ease watching this sort of movie. (Of course, that could be Bertino’s entire point.)


Taking all of that into consideration though, this one’s definitely a gut punch, and Bertino structures the narrative well, while handling both the drama and the thrills with a deft hand.
I’m certainly looking forward to the director’s next effort. (He’s reportedly got three lined up, including Green Eyes, with producer Scott Rudin.)

“I think what scary movies allow you to do is you can take any character that has a background and cut them to the core. Like, at the end of the day, no matter whether they're a good person or bad, we're all going to react instinctively and I love the concept of being able to do that.
“What I love about horror films is if you go to see a great drama, you're going to leave emotionally exhausted. You go to a great horror film and you're going to leave emotionally exhausted, so when I decided to make something like this, I said, ‘What if I took both and put them together?’ Could that reach people even more? Because I don't think people do it enough.
-- Bryan Bertino

Parting shot: Reviews of David Moreau and Xavier Palud’s Ils (which presents a similar scenario) and Michael Haneke’s Funny Games U.S. (which is a statement on these kinds of movies) can be found in the Archive.

Parting shot 2: After seeing The Strangers, I came upon a Bertino interview where he basically says that the depicted events in the film aren’t actually based on one particular real life crime, so the “inspired by real events,” at least in this case, indeed looks to be more marketing tool than anything else.

(The Strangers OS courtesy of impawards.com [design by Ignition Print]; images courtesy of bloody-disgusting.com and shocktillyoudrop.com.)

ILS (THEM)
(Review)

Like Open Water and Wolf Creek before it, Ils (Them) is a short, savage little number based on a true story.
In it, a French couple, Clementine Sauveur (Olivia Bonamy) and Lucas Medev (Michael Cohen), recently relocated to Snagov, Romania, are terrorized in their home by unknown assailants.

For anyone who’s read my review of Open Water (reVIEW 23; see Archive: September 2007), you may very well come to the conclusion that these sort of films don’t particularly float my boat. These are the sort of films that, even as the end credits begin to roll, I nearly always find myself asking, Well, what was the point of it all?
Here, the assailants are portrayed decidedly as Other, since the narrative’s focus is locked onto Clementine and Lucas. And since the film covers only the event itself—the aftermath limited to short blocks of text before the end credits—we don’t really get to delve into the motivations, the “why” of it.
So the film’s end-all, be-all is the tension engendered by the action onscreen. This is, perhaps, its point: to make our pulses quicken and keep us on the edge of our seats. (And on occasion, get us to jump out of those aforementioned seats.)
And if this is Ils’ point, it’s raison d’etre, then its existence is justified.

The film itself is a tense little bugger, and the credit for that achievement should go to co-directors David Moreau and Xavier Palud. It’s because of this skilled handling of the narrative’s suspense that I found this a better cinematic experience than either Open Water or Wolf Creek.
In addition, the fact that the next project of Moreau and Palud is the upcoming English-language remake of Khon Hen Phi (The Eye), gives me a healthy sense of anticipation for it. And yes, I am aware that Jessica Alba headlines the redux, so for me to actually say I have “a healthy sense of anticipation” for The Eye should say volumes about just how impressed I was by Moreau and Palud’s achievement on Ils. (I’m also extremely grateful that Parker Posey and Alessandro Nivola are in The Eye, so I can at least be assured I’ll be seeing some good acting.)
With The Eye, Moreau and Palud will have more of an actual plot at their disposal, and I’m curious to see how they handle a story (as opposed to the situation presented in Ils).

In the meantime though, what we ultimately have in Ils is a sobering and unnerving thrillride. After all, as with Open Water and Wolf Creek, this is the dramatized version of an actual event, with the fates of real people up on the screen for us to see.
As I said in my Open Water review, this sort of material isn’t “entertainment” in my books. To witness actual persons in this sort of context seems somehow wrong for me.
If, however, you’re up for this sort of horror, then Ils is definitely your ticket.

(Ils DVD cover art courtesy of amazon.com; Them OS courtesy of bloody-disgusting.com.)