‘Yellowstone’s Kelly Reilly Fights for Her Life in This Absolutely Pitiless Survival Horror

Before Kelly Reilly’s whirlwind entrance into the world of Yellowstone as the unpredictable Beth Dutton, she was part of an insanely graphic and controversial British survival horror in 2008. In Eden Lake, Reilly plays the complete opposite character from Beth with Jenny. The movie opens up with a scene of Jenny donned in a pastel sundress, softly shushing the children and later giggling nervously with her boyfriend as they make fun of the locals during their vacation. But unfortunately, the movie takes an immediate sinister turn when the couple meets a gang of teenage boys.

As far as survival films go, Eden Lake is particularly known for its pitiless brutality, from the constant onslaught of graphic images to the barrage of emotional horror that keeps the characters at the point of complete mental exhaustion. This terror is directly transferred onto the viewer, especially with the merciless realism that shakes us to our core as we realize that we could very easily be in their position.

Eden Lake

A couple seeking a peaceful escape at a secluded lake finds themselves in a violent confrontation with a gang of teenagers. The situation rapidly spirals out of control, pushing them into a desperate struggle to make it out alive.

What Is ‘Eden Lake’ About?

Eden Lake follows a sweet young couple, Jenny and Steve (Michael Fassbender), who decide to go down to a lake for a romantic vacation. They are quickly rendered slightly unlikable as they make fun of the locals, making them seem like condescending city folk. They cross paths with a gang of teenage boys, who are your typical loud and boisterous bullies that think they own the place. While the couple is irritated by their behavior, they generally leave them alone until things come to a head when the gang steals their car. The face-off reeks of testosterone as Steve squares off against the group’s leader, Brett (Jack O’Connell), unexpectedly escalating when a knife is drawn and Brett’s dog is killed. The seemingly innocuous situation of a couple being annoyed by a group of teenagers suddenly turns menacing.

Distraught, the group begins to fervently hunt down the couple in a cat-and-mouse chase throughout the woods, leading to a car wreck, physical torture, and a snuff film. Being strongly outnumbered and far less comfortable with violence, the couple desperately flees only to be hunted down at every corner. The film has no mercy for the characters nor us, as it keeps all our nerves frayed with each resounding beat. While the film initially centers around the couple, the focus quickly shifts to Jenny as the protagonist as she leads us through the harrowing chase and towards the gut-punch in the finale that no one could ever anticipate.

Michael Fassbender and Kelly Reilly Are Tortured in ‘Eden Lake’

The harassment from the gang of youths in Eden Lake is very drastically accelerated, starting strongly with the graphic image of Steve tied up to a stake with barbed wire and black blood leaking out of each stab wound. By kicking the hunt off with such a terrifyingly memorable visual, Eden Lake sets the violent tone for the rest of the film, letting us know that it will not be holding back on imagery and cruelty. The entire scene is visually repulsive and shocking, especially as Brett not only taunts Steve but also his fellow gang members. He forces each of them to unwillingly participate in wounding Steve, videotaping each heart-pounding stab as blackmail. This is accompanied by the visceral fear and torment on each of the young boys’ faces, really amplifying the already tense atmosphere.

By adding in the gang members’ explicit reluctance, Brett’s actions become far more psychotic, as he vengefully and sadistically takes pleasure in Steve’s blood-curdling screams. This is echoed in a later scene, where both Steve and Jenny are tied to a bonfire, waiting agonizingly to be burned alive (at least one of them anyway). We see the flames painfully engulf the screen and also witness the death of Adam (James Gandhi), a young boy who led a fleeing Jenny to the group as some sort of twisted initiation to get in, only to be rewarded by being doused in fuel and viciously burned alive. With such graphic scenes that become scorched into our minds, Eden Lake earns its notoriety as being a controversial horror movie.

The visually graphic nature of the film isn’t only limited to violence, but also the vulnerable display of pure emotional terror by the characters. Steve in particular, who had donned a “macho” attitude in the initial confrontations, is quickly reduced to a broken screaming wreck. This is amplified in the first graphic scene, where Jenny hides in the bushes, barely breathing in fear of being discovered and also choking on her tears and undulating fear. We are very easily put in her shoes, as the camera quickly switches back and forth from Steve’s torture to Jenny’s helplessness as she witnesses her loved one in pain. With both the visual and mental avenues of horror being checked, Eden Lake gives us no escape from its brutality, almost as if it relishes in it.

Kelly Reilly’s ‘Eden Lake’ Character Is Paralyzed With Fear

As Steve is quickly and brutally killed off in the film, the bulk of the emotional turmoil is left for Reilly to convey, and she absolutely nails it. The second Steve becomes incapacitated, Jenny’s desperation and panic takes over, leaving us tumbling through the emotional rapids with her. From being wracked with silent tears in the bushes to resolutely holding Steve up in the water under the boathouse, Reilly pours gritty determination and overwhelming fear into every facial expression, tremor, and stagger. But the height of her performance in Eden Lake that delivers the most gut-wrenching impact is when she inadvertently kills one of the younger members of the gang in a reinvigorated, vengeful rage.

After hours of relentless torment and running, Jenny clambers out of her temporary hiding spot in a dumpster and falls into the mud below. She drags herself up with rage, frustration, and delirium bubbling up in her, leading to a vengeful revitalization as she demarcates her face with more mud. Grabbing a makeshift weapon, she furiously stares at her disheveled reflection on a park information board, just as one of the young boys hesitantly approaches behind her, causing a knee-jerk reaction from Jenny and the child’s death. With all this heightened emotion and tension, the sudden silence after realizing what she had done is deafening. As she holds the dying child in her arms and sobs, grief is thrown into the mix of terrifying emotions all of us are already feeling. This transformation from high school-teacher turned child-killer cements the emotional carnage of this film, quickly shutting down any hope of a revenge storyline with the death of a child.

There is a constant rise and fall of hope and disappointment throughout the film, including when Jenny meets Adam, only to be turned in to the gang; she finds her mental footing, only to be torn down by grief; she finds a ride with a compassionate stranger, only to discover he is the sibling of the child she killed; and finally, she reaches civilization, only to realize who the homeowners are. This emotional roller-coaster is not only exhausting, but increases the hopelessness of the situation. We keep hoping to catch a break, but with that widely unanticipated finale, Eden Lake triumphs in toying with our feelings and expectations of a survival horror.

The Most Terrifying Part of ‘Eden Lake’ Is How Real It Feels

Aside from the haunting visuals and emotional torture, the most terrifying part of Eden Lake is its stark realism. What’s particularly damning is the chance encounter aspect of the entire ordeal. It could have literally been anyone. Before the violence was truly underway, many of the interactions between the couple and the gang were fairly innocuous and mundane. From asking them to turn down their music at the beach to being annoyed that they had slashed one of their tires as an admittedly inconvenient, yet still harmless prank.

This is especially tied into the allusions to “Broken Britain,” which was a term coined in the year prior to Eden Lake‘s release that described the increasing youth crime and gang violence in the country. While this term was also affiliated with class divide issues as well, really these kinds of teenage groups are found everywhere in the world, lending to the universality of the fears the film plays on. These sorts of “chance encounters gone violent” situations are also prominent in many female-led survival horrors, where women become the target of aggressive men. However, Eden Lake sets itself apart by focusing on a fear that can target both men and women, ultimately creating a stomach-churning realism that adds to the already nerve-racking viewing experience.

‘Eden Lake’ Proves Female-Led Survival Horror Doesn’t Need Sexual Violence

Despite how graphic the physical violence in the film is, Eden Lake never veers into the territory of exhibiting graphic sexual violence. Many female-led survival horrors have relied on painfully drawn out sexual assault scenes (I’m looking at you, I Spit on Your Grave), to elicit more sympathy for the character to fuel a “good for her” revenge storyline. Eden Lake‘s more general graphic physical and emotional violence mixed with Reilly’s performance is enough to sell the ephemeral revenge storyline we get when Jenny furiously climbs out of the dumpster.

Even with all the explicit violence, Eden Lake is still as ironically tasteful as it is terrifying. From the very instance of violence, Eden Lake maintains its pitiless pursuit of scarring both the characters and the viewers through bloody visuals, emotional terror and morbid realism, all without resorting to the typical violence inflicted upon female protagonists in survival horror. Reilly may be a bloodthirsty businesswoman in Yellowstone today, but she will always also be the tragic school teacher who navigated us through the stuff of nightmares.