Eden Lake Review

"we hate and fear our children - because they are going to kill us. Eden Lake has the same idea. The confrontation here isn't about race and not even exclusively about class; it's not about townies and hillbillies, or blacks and whites, or yuppies and chavs. At bottom, it's about older people and the young: a gang of feral children who are as powerful as adults."

This is from a review done by Peter Bradshaw for The Guardian on 12 September 2008. His opinion on the movie is that it was a very well made film, with some plot glitches but overall a very thrilling horror.  He talks about the youths and the older characters going against each other, and the divide that is within them. This may relate to the theory of cultural hegemony, because it shows the class divide between the two main groups. And how they may be frustrated with their place in society so they act out, as the youths do in Eden Lake and fight against the middle class.

"the kids? Scarily recognisable - they’re like the lot that hang outside your local Kwik Save, and they’re frighteningly good."

Simon Crook, Empire Online. This shows how the kids portrayed in this film are like the ones audiences would know in their own society and villages. They are represented in such a way that is very realistic, so much so that it may scare the audience, could cause a moral panic. This may occur because the film enhances the youths and shows their behaviour in a very extreme way, this could mean that the audience think all youths like them are going to act and behave in similar ways to the characters in Eden Lake. ‘Frighteningly good’ is a good way to describe the portrayal of youths.