Eden Lake

Representations of class and gender

By Selina Argyrou

Representations of Class and Gender in ‘Eden Lake.’

Eden Lake is a horror film which starts of showing a white, middle-class, stereotypical couple from London who are going on a romantic holiday into the rural area, Eden Lake, a place which has now been taken over by hooligans. The film starts of by setting up the characters, both Jenny and Steve and these characters develop and change over the course of the film.

Representations of Class and Gender in ‘Eden Lake.’

Steve

Steve is seen as the ‘perfect man’ who has a perfect relationship, a well-paid job seen by the Land Rover they drive in and also a good sense of humour when Steve makes jokes with Jenny. Steve is also sensitive, but try’s to maintain his masculinity from the beginning when Jenny mocks him for not using the Satnav. Steve’s manly pretentiousness is also explored when he first sees the

hooligan’s cycle through a red light, disturbing his driving, and when they are on the beach playing loud music, again disturbing the couple. This aggressive heroic behaviour is not only to protect his masculinity, but is also to please his girlfriend, Jenny, by standing up to the bullies and not just running away, which for the film was not a sensible idea.

Steve’s behaviour changes however when he is tortured. His manliness is beaten down and you see him cry from the gang of hooligans. This shows Steve's sensitivity and fear which he always tries to hide in front of Jenny.

Representations of Class and Gender in ‘Eden Lake.’

Jenny

With Jenny’s character, she starts of as a caring and sensitive primary school teacher who like Steve, has a good sense of humour and a relaxed mood. However, as a negative, she is seen as naive and simpleminded when she believes that Adam, a young boy not part of the gang, is trying to help her escape when in fact he leads her straight to the people trying to kill her, and watches her boyfriend being tortured. When Jenny is seen and caught, she escapes but leaves Adam behind to be burnt to death by the gang. This is when we first see Jenny’s character develop from a naïve school teacher to a survivor.

The next character development is when Jenny climbs into a bin full of disgusting and horrible things, in order to hide from the gang. This makes Jenny dirty, and removes her middle class status as she is now doing anything she can to survive. This is further shown by the gory scene of Jenny taking the nail out of her foot. Jenny has to force pain on herself in order to survive which shows Jenny’s intelligence and masculinity growing. Also, Jenny’s character is a primary school teacher so she therefore has the maternal instinct to look after children; this is contradicted when Jenny avenges her husband’s death, killing Connor, a member of the gang before he could offer his help to her. Finally, when she escapes in the van she stole, she does not hesitate to run over the innocent member, Paige, which shows Jenny becoming a killer in order to save her own life.

Representations of Class and Gender in ‘Eden Lake.’

Class

Class is also a huge theme in this film, with the contrast between middle class (Jenny and Steve) and the lower class, the locals at Eden Lake. Although the lower class are represented in an obvious and horrid way, it also shows how middle class people see themselves as above lower class people. On the beach, Steve mocks the hooligans

with the way they talk and the accent they have. Also, Steve’s annoyed when the gang cycles through a red light, but then does it himself, as if they have more rights than

the lower class people. Lower class people are shown through the stereotypical identities of the locals; the pub owner who is sexist, the mothers who shout and

aggressively at their children and the father who says “not my kids!” not believing anyone but his own family. Also, the representation of the lower class teenagers as

hooligans, with nothing better to do than torture people.