Seriously bloody horrible in every particular, and uncompromisingly bleak to the very end, this looks to me like the best British horror film in years: nasty, scary and tight as a drum.
80
L.A. Weekly
L.A. Weekly
As a thriller, Eden Lake absolutely works, but feel-good entertainment it isn’t. Don’t bring a date.
80
Time Out LondonNigel Floyd
Time Out LondonNigel Floyd
The shattering downbeat ending is well earned and genuinely shocking.
80
EmpireSimon Crook
EmpireSimon Crook
You don't watch it, you survive it. A battering experience, and the hardest Brit horror in years.
70
VarietyDennis Harvey
VarietyDennis Harvey
Eden Lake doesn't feel like torture porn so much as a rural-jeopardy thriller in extremis.
40
The TelegraphTim Robey
The TelegraphTim Robey
This slice of class-baiting British ordeal horror from writer-director James Watkins is potently made. It's also exploitative trash, serving up silly levels of alarmist editorialising about kids today.
30
The Hollywood ReporterRay Bennett
The Hollywood ReporterRay Bennett
Eden Lake has the trappings of a low-IQ thriller but it's really a contemptible tract feeding the prejudices of the U.K.'s rightwing tabloids that claim the country is overrun by teenagers wielding knives.