Eden Lake

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Eden Lake

R

Released Oct 31, 2008

1h 31m

Horror

Mystery & Thriller

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

78%

Tomatometer

32 Reviews

66%

Popcornmeter

25,000+ Ratings

During a romantic weekend getaway, a young couple confronts a gang of youths, and suffers brutal consequences.

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Critics Consensus

A brutal and effective British hoodie-horror that, despite the clichés, stays on the right side of scary.

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Dennis Harvey

Variety

An effectively harrowing Brit thriller-cum-horror pic whose yuppie protags' weekend getaway runs violently afoul of the local youth.

Nov 3, 2008

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Derek Malcolm

London Evening Standard

It is impossible not to admire the way Watkins ratchets up the tension in his debut as director (he wrote My Little Eye) and keeps his tale strictly to 90 minutes.

Rated: 3/5

Sep 12, 2008

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Larushka Ivan-Zadeh

Metro Newspaper (UK)

It's the latest proof that, when it comes to scary movies at least, the British film industry is alive and screaming.

Rated: 4/5

Sep 12, 2008

Full Review

Grant Watson

Fiction Machine

This is grossly irresponsible, deeply unlikeable filmmaking.

Rated: 2/10

Oct 1, 2024

Full Review

Casey Chong

Casey's Movie Mania

[An] uncompromisingly bleak film about a vacation goes awry.

Rated: 4/5

Sep 9, 2024

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Joe Muldoon

Battle Royale With Cheese

To call Eden Lake ‘bleak’ would be to undersell it. Characters and audience alike, very little reprieve is offered from the lurking terror, the tension often hitting the ceiling but never settling back onto the floor.

Nov 27, 2023

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Eric E

Not bad! Wasn’t expecting everything that happened. It’s your typical thriller movie like this.It wasn’t the greatest movie by any means but give it a shot. It’s not a waste of time.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

08/17/25

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John W

I liked it very much. Suspenseful and disturbing.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

08/17/25

Full Review

adam paul m

Everyone giving this movie 5 stars for having a “realistic” ending is just being pretentious. There’s nothing realistic about it at all. The writer clearly only cared about making an ending that looked different and unique, but the whole thing is full of plot holes and ridiculous moments where kids somehow do things adults can’t, which is just stupid. A happy ending could have at least saved this garbage by giving fans something decent to hold on to, even if the beginning and plot were awful. Sad endings can work, plenty of great movies have them, but this isn’t one of them. This was a complete joke from start to finish.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

08/11/25

Full Review

Don V

Aided by a script with some sharp teeth, as well as the tense action which keeps the film's pace quick, Eden Lake will linger with you afterwards.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

08/02/25

Full Review

Stoner J

Super suspenseful, brutal and bleak survival thriller. O’Connell could not act yet though, his performance was so forced and not believable. He tried way too hard to look and act like a hardened criminal

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

07/18/25

Full Review

Nye N.

Has its scares and horrors, no doubt, but the low IQ on display here (and I don’t just mean the teens) made me laugh or cringe multiple times. It is a cut below modern standards (writing in 2025) which indicates it has aged more like bread than wine. The female protagonist is the primary saving grace though not enough to truly rescue the film. Not recommended for modern-day horror aficionados, though some will surely disagree…

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

07/17/25

Full Review

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James Watkins

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Eden Lake: Trailer 1

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Synopsis

During a romantic weekend getaway, a young couple confronts a gang of youths, and suffers brutal consequences.

Director: James Watkins
Producer: Christian Colson, Richard Holmes
Screenwriter: James Watkins
Distributor: Third Rail
Production Co: Rollercoaster Films, Aramid Entertainment Fund
Rating: R (Pervasive Language|Brief Drug Use|Some Nudity|Strong Brutal Violence)
Genre: Horror, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 31, 2008, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 10, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $5.8K
Runtime: 1h 31m

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