Youth Representation of…

‘Eden Lake’ begins by introducing us to Jenny and Steve who clearly

represented as middle class (Jenny is a primary school teacher, Steve has an expensive car, they are about to

get engaged).

They are contrasted with the working class teenagers who are initially shown engaged in anti-social behaviour – listening to loud music, swearing.

The film uses the conventions of the horror film to portray working class teenagers as monsters. The film plays on the fears of the middle class.

This escalates into them hunting and killing the middle class characters.

Collective Identity Traits

Smoking

Stabbing – Knife ViolenceChavs

Hoodies, low class parents – one in particular who has a “not my kids” causing trouble attitude.

Drinking Drug Use Mobile phone usage

Joyriding

Stealing

Gang Culture/Peer Pressure

The gang leader Brett making Cooper sniff a substance to wake him up as he was moaning he was tired.

At the start around their little camp fire.

Stole car phone and glasses.

Lower class parents almost on their side (breaking convention).

The gang all cutting “Steve” while he’s tied up in barbed wire. Or the threatening before the dog is accidentally murdered.

The stealing of the car which they drive quickly around the “forest” in front of Steve and Jenny

Riding together on bikes, being bullied into cutting Steve deeply by Brett, being forced into setting the couple on fire.

All the particularly violent acts are filmed on a mobile – until the end of the film where Brett deletes the footage (evidence OMG!!)!

Newspaper Articleshttp://collectiveidentity.posthaven.com/posts.atom?tag=Eden+Lake

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/nov/05/british-hoodie-films

http://vanillaexctracts.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/eden-lake-analysis.html

http://www.puremovies.co.uk/columns/the-working-class-have-been-purged-from-our-screens-time-to-put-them-back/

http://www.filmnav.co.uk/2012/06/03/eden-lake-a-disgrace-to-the-uk-film-industry/

“Left wing writer Owen Jones, in his book Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class cites the film at length as an example of media demonisation of proletarian youth via the "Chav" stereotype. He comments, "Here was a film arguing that the middle classes could no longer live alongside the quasi-bestial lower orders.“” – the Wikipedia page!

Theorists Hebdige- Youth seem as trouble • The burning

• The slashing• The drug taking• The harassing • The murdering

Acland – reinforcing hegemony Typical lower class families, drinking, not looking after kids aggressively.

Steve and Jenny are very typically hegemonic with their jobs and the ways the dress.

Giroux – youth becomes and empty category and reflects adult concerns

The very aggressive and violent representation of youth – literally drawing the parallel to monsters – is obviously some attempt at fear mongering that may be an over the top view of older generations concerns.

Gramsci(per) Willie – naughty youth representations reinforce the social ideals & portrayals set about by middle class ideologies.

Obviously negative reflecting adult concerns.

Althusser – dominant ideology of working class people  No father/mother , small terraced houses, angry defensive aggressive, every penny counts, drinks, doing nothing, groups, smoke, unemployed  

 defensive parents, drinking, doing nothing, not accepting their kids crimes, smoking and so on…

Gauntlett – media influences how people understand identities  Media shows youth in working class to be aggressive and so on…

The working class are OTT aggressive – literally being murdering and cutting up the middle class.

Gerbernerbernerbernerber – Cultivation Theory Has this movie very negatively effected how people think about youth?

Weird…. Possibly Interesting Points…

Some of the younger members of the gang try to resist partaking in the violence i.e. Paige runs away and then gets run over by Jenny without a real reason/motif.

What did the parents do to Jenny at the end of the film… is it any worse than what their kids are doing?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eden-Lake-Michael-Fassbender/dp/B00ESQC7CQ

http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/70110615

putlocker.is/watch-eden-lake-online-free-putlocker.html

On demand links to watch it…