Eden Lodge

source: Eden Lodge

Spoilers because honestly, knowing what happens in this film won't make the experience any worse for you. This is a slog. According to this page it's 80 minutes long, but feels like a full two hours with the various subplots involving various cliched horror characters. The suspect countryside folk, the jovial Australian, the warring couple and the creepy definitely-did-it-oh-wait-no-he-didn't guy. I only watched this, as most people did I'm sure, because the title, branding and style tricked me into thinking it had anything to do with the older, but far better 'Eden Lake'. I guess the shameless gambit by whoever made the decision to veer towards copyright infringement, only to wink at the audience in the final act by ripping off 'Psycho', paid off. And about that - who rips off 'Psycho'? How stupid do you have to be to think inverting the plot of the most famous, genre-defining horror movie of all time is a good idea? Not nodding to it, not borrowing some of the tropes as many other films have done, inevitably, because of the importance of the Hitchcock movie, but just doing the exact same plot but reversing the key roles? Probably as stupid as you would have to be to give your British low-budget horror a near-identical name to one of the best British low-budget horrors of the past generation. I'm angry at this film because its elements are perfectly fine for a b-movie distraction. It's badly put together in a way that makes it less than clear who the killer actually is, and shifts your attention away so fast from murders of people you've barely got to know that it's a struggle to care, even at a point where infanticide is invoked, but neither of these things is unique in this genre. If it decided which film it wanted to wholesale rip off, and dropped the weird side story of the mindless, half-written sex interest character, it could have been a tight if uninspired thriller. As it is, all it's really possible to recommend about it is that it reminds you 'Eden Lake' exists, which luckily was also on the same streaming service I watched this half-realised idea.

Pretty decent suspense type horror, plenty of twists and turns that you would expect, and as its not a high busget film, don't expect this to be a polished film. Sure, there are some rough edges here and there, but there were a few things that I didn't expect. Basically, if you watch the film, go into it not expecting the earth, and you may be surprised. And, unfortunatly in the UK, there are plenty of B&B's called Eden Lodge, so be careful out there :)

I found most of the characters in the film pretty unlikeable. Mawky girls, quiet, simmering men, a horrible local but a very nice old lady. Much is unexpected and it takes a good while for the plot themes to start coming together. Some don't seem to have any logical connection to the plot resolution at the end, frankly. The gore is not too much for the faint-hearted, though very effective and realistic. The music is well used and has a nice depth and presence. I've seen a lot worse that this. It's a decent enough horror film and worth a watch.

It's sad how they even contrived the cover art to be reminiscent of Eden Lake. I kept thinking I'd seen Eden Lake but no, it was this movie. An amateurish and lacklustre affair that doesn't make me question why they tried piggy backing off what I've been told is the far superior movie. Forgettable characters and an annoying relationship crisis at its centre contribute to this being more irritating than scary. It's kind of painful too because they use an idea from another movie as a plot twist. It's Resovoir Dogs by the way. I wish I'd just rewatched Resovoir Dogs. To its credit, we have an adequate who-done-it set up where every character in some way seems like an obvious choice, thus making it ironically hard to pinpoint the real killer for a little bit at least. I should have seen the twist coming, it's the least imaginative plot twist you can do but I missed it. But you will be missing nothing by missing this.

If the acting was any more wooden, the cast would be crapping out MFI wardrobes.... ! It would of been better if the director had said "perform your lines, but if you want to add anything in do so as it would appear more realistic" This didn't happen and what would of been a better film was ruined because everyone was waiting to deliver their lines. What it does tell you is that anyone can become an actor and get work, regardless of if you have any talent. The premise was good but poorly delivered. It's a shame as I thought it was going to be good.

I actually enjoyed this. I am ashamed to say! It's low budget and there are probs within the film , but the story was good , script OK, actors OK , a few were a little wooden , the lead woman was great though. The one thing that let this film down was the film soundtrack , if your going to make a horror film for gods sake listen to other horror films and get with the program. You need a sound palette that reflects the genre not some kind of budget Indiana jones string soundtrack. OK so film premise is a couples car breaks down , they go to a small guest house and book a room. A lovely old lady puts them up for sixty five pounds a night and they later discover they should've never booked into the hotel , I won't write spoilers why not. I think the writer had some good ideas , film work was good , characters good and varied. For me the adventurous soundtrack just was not for this type of film , the soundtrack for a horror film needs to be ominous , sparse , full of sound effects , subtle pulsing , tension building . Sound creates the feeling of dread and despair when you have a scene in the dark , you need a soundtrack that reminisces john carpenters old films done in an updated style. Anyway I enjoyed it and it had some good bits and was well watchable.

Adam Michaels (Ben Gardner Grey) and his determined-to-be-miserable wife Rachel (Cyd Casados), along with baby Alfie (Georgio Costa Houtris) stay the night at Eden Lodge, unaware of the slate of carnage that erupts around the place. A rambler is killed, her friend is imprisoned and tortured – and shortly after this everyone the couple meet are either dismembered or killed. The only two other survivors appear to be lovely landlady Mrs Wilkes (Ellie Dickens) and her reserved son David (James Killeen). From the offset, Wilkes is represented as deeply religious, which appears to earmark her for suspicion. David is an awkward, ungainly fellow, and so he, too, should be considered a suspect. Although highly likely to be red herrings, it materialises toward the end that they must be guilty, because everyone else has been killed. Except there is a twist – David committed suicide ten years ago, and his mother is the only one who sees him. Rachel discovers the real David is a long-dead cadaver safely tucked up in clean sheets, in the top bedroom of Eden Lodge. As is often the way with these things, there are plot questions. It is ten years since David's death – are we to suppose that his mother has only now decided to carry out her twisted revenge – and if so, why the wait? If not, and she has been making these seemingly arbitrary killings, what has happened to the various corpses - at least five people die within the few days in which 'Eden Lodge's' events take place, so by that reckoning, a large amount of corpses would have built up? Presented as a slightly more-grisly-than-usual television horror drama, some of the acting is occasionally stilted. What gore there is, is effectively conveyed and, although it never intends to stray too far from standard horror, this is nevertheless a competent and enjoyable film. One online reviewer has compared it favourably to the films of Pete Walker, with Mrs Wilkes being an ideal part for Sheila Keith. It hadn't occurred to me, but it's a convincing point of view.

EDEN LODGE is one of those low budget British horror films where nothing really happens apart from a halfway-decent sense of mood and place. It reminded me a lot of the film shown the previous night on the Horror Channel, SIREN, which had more exotic locales but was similarly light on plot and incident. The story is about a sinister bed and breakfast where the guests go missing. There's no more to it than that, and fans looking for slasher horror in the form of death and gore will be disappointed as this is very tame. Instead the viewer has to put up with the tiresome acting of unknown cast members and a major plot point that seems to have been borrowed from that '70s horror classic FRIGHTMARE. The most interesting thing about EDEN LODGE is the way the title and box art blatantly copy the earlier British horror EDEN LAKE, which was about ten times more powerful and compelling than this rip-off.

When the opening credits dragged on for what seemed like forever, we should have known that was a sign of things to come. This is a terrible film. Terrible. From the acting to the music to the script . The characters were unforgettable, apart from the baby. He was the best actor out of the whole lot. A slasher film, a horror film, a whodunit......who knows? Its one of those that you have to keep watching to see if it gets any better......it doesn't. It's an hour and a half of my life I'll be never get back.