Eden Lake (2008)

This was one I'd been meaning to watch for a while and now got to it. It's a brutal, disturbing social commentary regarding youth crime, no consequences to behaviour and the fear, at the time, in Britain of the 'hoodie' culture. It's a made-up story, but reflects real concerns between the haves and have-nots, monied people and those living and being socialised by a negative culture with damaged role models.

Director/writer James Watkins' base story is about a rich couple (played by Michael Fassbender and Kelly Reilly) who go off to Eden Lake for the weekend with a view to buying a house on a new development, not yet built. When they get there, there's a bunch of local teens they clash with.

Things go from bad to worse until the teens, larking around with and teasing the rich couple to start with, turn it into more like terrorising behaviour which they are looking to shoot video of - again, the beginning of the culture of teens videoing everything on phones.

It all gets out of hand quickly and the group get to a point of no return. They have done too much and have been too nasty to let it end peaceably. So the film depicts an end-story which I won't spoil for you. Puts me in mind of films like I Spit on Your Grave, but very much British - and here.

It's very well acted by all the cast and shot mostly hand-held as the panic sets in and chase/survival takes hold. Edge of the seat stuff at times, always gruesome and eye-opening. It kicks around on various streaming services but is now on AppleTV I see. Or you might find the DVD in cheap second-hand outlets like Music Magpie.

The Running Man (2025) - A Guest Review by Chad Dixon

As a big Arnie fan, of course I've seen the 1987 film adaptation of the novel by Stephen King which amazingly is set in 2025. As a result, I was always going to be thinking of that when I first heard that there was a remake on the cards. British Director Edgar Wright (The Cornetto Trilogy), brings this version to the big screen now and is also it's Producer and co-writer. Here, the USA has become an anarchistic police state ruled by greedy corporate media networks. Most people are living in poverty with little or no access to affordable healthcare. So absolutely not a realistic timeline at all!

Trapped in the Boston slums and with few prospects, Ben Richards (Glen Powell), is a blue collar worker, with a very sick two year old daughter, struggling to make ends meet. He is currently blacklisted so cannot get a job and buy the precious influenza medicine his child desperately needs. His wife, Sheila (Jayme Lawson), is a hostess at a posh gentlemen's club but although working more shifts than she'd care to, is not making enough money on her own to support the family. At home the next day, a demoralised Ben is watching TV game shows and notes down all the possible prize monies on offer.

When Sheila finally comes home after another extended shift, Ben says he knows how to get the family out of poverty and goes to the big network building in the the city centre to queue up and try out to be on one of the many extreme game shows with determination to win the money that they need. After the many extensive grueling tryouts, a couple of other hopefuls and Ben are taken to meet slick Executive Producer Dan Killian (Josh Brolin), to be offered the chance to play in the biggest and most popular game show on TV. After much persuasion from Killian and against the wishes of Sheila, Ben signs up to be a contestant in The Running Man. The premise of which is, if successfully evading the Hunters for 30 days, a grand prize of $1 Billion is the ultimate offer!

In the original Schwarzenegger version, the scope was much smaller as all the action was more gladiatorial and took place in pre-arranged arenas. Here, there are no boundaries as Ben's evasion from the Hunters takes us all over the city and beyond, with good use of current unusual architectural locations to backdrop the futuristic dystopian cityscapes. I got well invested from the very beginning as there's no long buildup to establish the family's situation. The set pieces are well choreographed and keep the core of the film moving at a nice pace. But even though the 2 hour and 13 minute runtime seemed a tad long, I did feel a bit let down in the final act as it seemed a little hurried leading to a fairly disappointing resolution.

However, Glen Powell definitely meets the criteria of 'Leading Man' as the camera laps up his big screen persona. One is definitely swept along throughout, empathising with his struggle. There's a few other good supporting roles of note too. Colman Domingo as the charismatic showman host Bobby T in the studio is effervescent. William H Macy as Ben's first ally, Molie, gives a solid, down to earth performance and Michael Cera (almost unrecognisable with a grizzly goatee), as the kooky rebellious sympathiser that Ben encounters later on.

Ultimately I think this is one of the better remakes/updates of a 1980's science fiction action film that I've seen recently. Although I really couldn't tell you if Edgar Wright has placed his discernable stamp on it, no doubt Glen Powell will get more roles as a rugged, intrepid leading man - so it looks very much like his mentor, Tom Cruise, seems to have done a good job.

Meat Kills (2025)

Known in its home market of Holland as Vleesdag, this film has also been marketed as Meat Day too (and maybe other titles on the theme)! The point is though that it's a day full of meat! Specifically pigs and the events around a farm in Holland being watched by an Animal Activist Group.

Our story starts as we witness some grizzly-looking activities on the pig farm where the animals are being fattened for slaughter and sale. A young girl, Mirthe, schoolfriend of the farmer's son Jonathan, gets taken on part time by his dad to help out so she can earn some cash. Little did they know, however, that she had designs on exposing the farm as a place acting outside the law in terms of their practices and being cruel to the livestock.

One day, the family catch her filming the alleged cruelty on her mobile phone, fire her, smash up (what they think is) the phone in question and sling her off the premises. Jonathan is upset because he had, since school, had a bit of a crush on young Mirthe. Anyway, next thing we know is that she's reporting into the local Animal Activist group via what appears to be her boyfriend, though she seems to be more interested in a place within the group than by his side.

The group is led by Nas and Ish, a couple of ruthless and seemingly bonkers individuals who appear to be capable of stopping at nothing in order to meet the aims of the group. So they form a posse and head for the farm, pig-masks on faces! They swoop in, in order to generally disrupt things, initially by spraying slogans on the walls of the farm. However, things soon get out of hand as we see what the nutty Nas and Ish are capable of! One of the group checks out the house and finds a little girl upstairs in bed, surrounded by bottles of medicine, clearly very unwell. Neither of these characters play a huge part, but we find out later why they are there!

This is the point at which it turns into a complete bloodbath as gruesome and grizzly scenes follow each other, group tackling the family running the farm - with dad turning out to be the most bonkers of the lot! The pigs are used as weapons against the invaders along with pretty much any piece of farm machinery the family can lay their hands on. Most of the characters at one time or another end up being tortured by the other side, strung up, marmalised and treated with acid and it becomes a bit of a survival film as we wonder who is going to make it to the end, breathing, and who is going to have their life hacked away by those around them!

It's all good horror/terror fun of course but it's really taking itself seriously in the quest! There's no tongues-in-cheeks here and everyone's in it for the gore, guts, blood and flying body parts! The first half of the film is actually pretty slow, feels quite low-budget (which it probably is) - and much like someone's hired a farm, a dozen unknown actors and a special effects team to play out an idea. But actually, when the tone switches to the more macabre and dark about halfway through the 90 minutes, it suddenly feels much better. The director who I've never heard of, Martijn Smits, seems to draw more convincing acting out of everyone, especially Caro Derkx and Emma Josten in the leads, as they head towards the blood-soaked finale.

It's a completely bonkers gore-fest, but hang on in there for it to kick up a gear part way through. I thoroughly enjoyed it and thought very much of Mason Verger and Hannibal in this kind of setting. I'm sure you'll get the reference and meaning there! Enjoy! At them moment if you're not in the USA you'll need to try some VPN style trickery to get to see it, available there via various streaming services.

Locked (2025)

This low-budget thriller has now arrived on Amazon Prime Video and it's, well, alright. Apparently it's a remake of the Argentinian thriller 4x4 (2019), which most reviewers seem to report as being much better. I'll try and track it down.

I think that most of the budget on this one went on engaging Anthony Hopkins, well, his voice anyway (until the last 10 minutes). He's a rich bloke who has this car which he can totally remotely control and is built like a tank. He leaves it in a carpark in a rough area of town with the door unlocked, goading some petty thief to get in and try to nick it or its contents. Which, spookily enough, is just what happens.

He then terrorises the thief by not letting him out, depriving him of food and water, zapping him with taser-equipped panels and seats as he tries to teach the yob life lessons around actions having consequences. He tries and tries to find ways out of the car but can't. He even has a gun and it won't break through - he merely ends up injuring himself with it.

Hopkins' character is clearly a fruitloop who we find out later has cancer, has faced trauma of his own and is prepared to behave anarchically on his way out. He doesn't care what he does to whom and uses his remote control car in order to do much of that.

Bill Skarsgård plays the trapped (Locked) chappie down on his luck, thieving from people in order to try to turn his life around, with a wife who has thrown him out and daughter who he keeps letting down - mainly because he is poor and can't get up on his feet. We see him trying, but circumstances are against him.

So it's a bit of a thrill ride, wondering what on earth William (Hopkins' character) will do next as he talks to him via the car's phone, teasing, abusing. It's a hugely dialogue-driven film, survival story, revenge tale which keeps the viewer entertained and on their toes.

It's all a bit extreme - hard to imagine that there really isn't a way out of this vehicle. I would be all for ripping out the dashboard between being zapped of course! It's fairly well shot, a lot of it dark and certainly claustrophobic. Moving at times as the stories of the two men unfold - and a fairly bonkers finale! Enjoy the ride!

How the UK Might Look Now... A What If Scenario...

I asked Gemini to give me an educated guess as to how the UK would look now if Germany had won WWII. I guessed that for a start we'd all be speaking German. And highly likely that I wouldn't be here at all as the chances of my mum and dad meeting and following the same path would be tiny. I bet the trains would run on time!

That is a truly profound "what if" scenario, and your initial thoughts are very much aligned with what historians and speculative fiction have explored. It would certainly be a profoundly darker and vastly different reality for the UK and the world. Here's an educated guess on how the UK might look, drawing on known Nazi plans (like Operation Sea Lion and the New Order) and the nature of the regime...

UK Under the Third Reich

🗣️ Language and Culture

Your guess about language is very likely correct, at least for official use and education.

• German Language: German would likely be the official language of state, administration, and higher education. It would be compulsory in schools, much like English was in parts of the British Empire.

• Cultural Purge: British culture would be heavily censored. Art, music, literature, and media would be purged of anything deemed "degenerate," "Jewish," or politically undesirable. German cultural products would be heavily promoted.

• Education: Schools would be completely restructured to indoctrinate children with Nazi racial and political ideology.

🏛️ Political Structure and Governance

The Nazis had a complex (and sometimes contradictory) view of the British people, seeing them as "Nordic" but also as a political obstacle.

• Puppet State: The UK would not have been fully integrated like some Eastern European territories. Instead, it would likely have been a highly controlled puppet state with a facade of self-governance, similar to Vichy France or the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.

• Leadership: Oswald Mosley, the leader of the British Union of Fascists, would have likely been installed as a puppet Prime Minister or key collaborator. There were also plans to potentially reinstate the sympathetic Duke of Windsor (former King Edward VIII) as a figurehead monarch.

• The Crown: The actual Royal Family (George VI and Elizabeth II) would have either been captured, killed, or forced into exile (Canada was the plan in our timeline).

• Repression and Control: The Gestapo and other SS units would operate freely. A network of informers, surveillance, and arbitrary arrests would crush all political opposition, trade unions, and resistance movements.

📉 Society and Daily Life

This is where the darkest aspects of the regime would be felt.

• Racial Policy (The Horror): This is the single most defining and terrifying change. The full genocidal policies of the Nazis would have been implemented. Jewish, Romani, disabled, and LGBTQ+ people would be systematically rounded up and deported to extermination camps. Being here, as you said, would be a tiny chance for anyone with a "non-Aryan" background, and a life of terror for many others.

• Deportation and Slavery: Early German plans for an occupied Britain suggested deporting all able-bodied men between 17 and 45 to the continent for forced labour to prevent sabotage and use British industry for the German war machine. This would tear apart millions of families.

• Economy: Britain would be Germany's "main war workshop" (as per a directive by Field-Marshal von Brauchitsch), with resources and industries entirely geared toward the Nazi war effort and the greater German Reich.

🚆 The "Trains Running on Time" Myth

Ah, the common trope! It's a fun thought, but the reality of a totalitarian economy might be different:

• Short-Term: In the initial, iron-fist phase of occupation, the regime might have enforced a strict schedule.

• Long-Term: Nazi Germany's focus on military spending, forced labour, and pervasive corruption actually led to severe logistical inefficiencies and resource shortages in their own infrastructure. The British rail network would likely be run-down, overworked, and prioritised solely for military transport, leading to poor service for the general public, despite the threat of severe punishment for any delay.

So yes, the overall result would be an island nation, economically subjugated, culturally repressed, and under a brutal, genocidal dictatorship, completely cut off from its traditional allies in the Commonwealth and the United States.