Before Speak No Evil Remake, James Watkins Already Made This Gritty 2008 Vacation-From-Hell Thriller

James Watkins’ feature film debut Eden Lake may have been sixteen years old. But this British horror-thriller remains one of the best examples of how to make an uncompromisingly bleak film about a vacation goes awry. And I mean, terribly awry. The premise may have been simple and familiar: An attractive young couple, Jenny Greengrass (Kelly Reilly) and Steve Taylor (Michael Fassbender) are heading out of town in Steve’s 4WD for a weekend getaway to a disused quarry at Eden Lake. It was the last chance for Steve to take her there before the developers started building all over it. Not to mention he wants to use this as an opportunity to ask her to marry him.

After spending overnight at the bed and breakfast, they continue their journey to the titular lake. Despite encountering a long fence with a “Construction Site. Keep Out” sign, that doesn’t deter Steve from finding another way in.

At your first opportunity, turn around.

That’s the voice from Steve’s satnav giving instructions as if it foreshadows something bad is going to happen. Of course, both Steve and Jenny laugh it off and upon arrival, they are amazed by the picturesque and idyllic sight of the large quarry lake. They have the place all by themselves as they enjoy sunbathing, kissing and relaxing until a gang of young hooligans led by the volatile Brett (Jack O’Connell) disturb the peace. They crank up the volume of the radio and talk loudly. Steve tries to confront them and it works at first.

Things started to escalate when the same hooligans punctured one of Steve’s 4wD tyres. And it gets worse from there after they realise one of their bags disappeared and his vehicle stolen. It was a matter of time before Steve confronted them again, only to become increasingly hostile, leading to an incident that angered Brett.

From there, Watkins doesn’t slow down as the cat-and-mouse chase begins between the relentless hooligans determined to hurt them real bad at all costs.

Running at a deliberate 91 minutes that gradually tightens its grip like a hand on the neck and never let go even until the end, Watkins, who also wrote the screenplay, doesn’t soft-pedal the harsh reality of Jenny and Steve’s biggest nightmares of their lives facing the backwoods terror. What makes it scarier is who they confront with. Certainly not a masked killer often seen in the horror genre but rather a gang of wayward teenagers, particularly Brett (a then-relative newcomer Jack O’Connell in his frightening supporting role) who enjoys the taste of violence. He doesn’t flinch when he hurts or even kills someone.

The movie also hits too close to home with the happy slapping craze around the mid-2000s era, a term referring to a person or more assaulting a victim while the other records the attack using a camera phone. This is especially true with one of the hooligans, Paige (Finn Atkins) records Steve getting tortured by the rest of the gang members on her phone (one of the movie’s stomach-churning moments that doesn’t skimp on the blood and graphic violence).

Speaking of Steve, Eden Lake only marks Fassbender’s fourth acting role in a feature film at the time. But as proven in 300 and Hunger, he certainly shows his impressive acting range as a hapless man trying to protect his soon-to-be-fiancée, only to find himself suffering from an ill-fated doom dealing with the unscrupulous teenagers. The movie also benefits from Kelly Reilly’s sympathetic and engaging lead performance as Jenny, a lovely kindergarten teacher that we see from the beginning before her gradual arc, resulting in her desperate act of survival and resistance.

The most controversial part of Eden Lake lies in its pessimistic third act. The kind that you may love or hate how Watkins chooses to end his movie. But personally, I think it works well in his favour. Right from the moment Steve’s reckless action triggered Brett and his gang members, his fate and Jenny’s are sealed. Watkins hammers down the rest of the movie with a mounting sense of dread and despair, leaving little room for comfort.

Certainly not for everyone, given the deeply unsettling tone of the movie but Eden Lake sure proves Watkins’ directorial prowess in his feature film debut. He would go on to direct Daniel Radcliffe in another horror movie, albeit a supernatural genre called The Woman in Black (2012) and an action thriller Bastille Day (2016) starring Idris Elba and Richard Madden. His latest feature, Speak No Evil, a Hollywood remake of the provocative 2022 Danish film of the same name, seems like an ideal comfort zone for the director, given the movie and Eden Lake‘s thematic similarities revolving around the vacation-from-hell subgenre.