children are evil. straight up. william golding knew it when he stranded a bunch of british tweens on an island in lord of the flies; yukio mishima knew it when he imagined the "absolute dispassion" of a gang of nihilist japanese middle school students in the sailor who fell from grace with the sea; you knew it when you pretended to be sick so you could stay home from elementary school the day the class bully threatened to kick yr ass.miscreant youth are ubiquitous in both fantasy and reality, which doesn't make for an especially original premise for a 2008 horror flick. given its already rich cinematic history - from children of the corn in the '80s to as recent as ils/them - kids gone bad seems rather generic fodder for the horror canon. and yet somehow, this film makes it all seem terrifyingly new.
eden lake is relentless. the siege laid by the teenaged fallout of a jilted generation against a plucky young english couple is agonizingly protracted and utterly without reprieve. you hold yr breath waiting for the tension to dissipate so you can return to normal respiratory function, but every moment of peace is snatched away by these sick bastards in children's clothing. and while yr praying for everyone to die just so it can be over, the film withholds even that catharsis. it just. doesn't. stop. children of the corn warns us that the amish believe we don't inherit the land from our ancestors but borrow it from our children, and maybe they wanted it back. eden lake is far more bleak: these kids just want to have friends.
