If ever there was a film that illustrated
why certain members of the underclass in our society should be prevented from breeding, this is surely it. Taking
place at an offbeat lakeside country park, a young couple go away for a weekend of camping when their romantic getaway
is gatecrashed by a group of young hoodlums from a nearby estate.
Not wishing to be intimidated by a group of unruly 12 year olds, the boyfriend (Michael Fassbender) proceeds to remonstrate with them, with unfortunate fatal consequences. Left alone at the mercy of a group of knife wielding 'hoodies', the girlfriend, Jenny (Kelly Reilly), is forced to flee into the woods, with the local yobs in close pursuit on their BMX bikes.
What follows is a deadly cat and mouse game as Jenny tries to find a way out of the forest and get help, whilst evading the local 'chav' population, who are stalking her at every turn.
Personally, I didn't much care for this one. Whilst the films premise, of a young couple terrorised by unruly locals, is hardly original, what made this disturbing for me is the fact that events in this seemingly mirrored a number of real life events that have happened in recent years involving gangs of feral kids. So anyone with an interest in current affairs may find this one a bit hard to sit through. Indeed I actually felt somewhat 'dirty' after watching this.
It is perhaps worth a watch, although it does employ a few too many horror cliches for my liking. However, the casting of relative unknowns in the lead roles actually works in its favour and it does attempt to answer that age old question "Are there any bad children, or just bad parents"?
But then, just as the 1966 TV movie "Cathy Come Home" provoked a major shake up in the way homeless people were assisted, perhaps this film will do something to promote the prevention of the scummier members of our society from reproducing and maybe when people see this they'll consider bringing back the birch for dealing with unruly children.
If anyone has seen the vigilante film "Harry Brown", starring Michael Caine, I would very much like to see a crossover movie, in which he visits the families of the thugs involved in this and guns the whole bloody lot of them down!
