Two years ago, it happened. Out the house to get the tram that would take me to the station for a train to London, and in my hurry I tripped over a stub of pipe poking out of the pavement. A couple of teenagers saw me do it and drew uncharitable conclusions. I responded in like kind, and next thing I knew it had turned all serious. Both the lads came up, and challenged me about what I’d said. The fact that they’d initiated the abuse didn’t seem to be worth reiterating, especially when one of them waved the word ‘knife’ around. I knew at that point that nothing would happen, that all I had to do was wait for them to do their macho thing to their satisfaction for thirty seconds or so before letting me on my way. Which they did.

The picture in your head you’ve made of those teenagers is almost certainly like that of the ones in Eden Lake, a canny offering from writer/director James Watkins. Teacher Jenny and boyfriend Steve get away from it all by the titular body of water. They encounter a bunch of feral teenagers who don’t take kindly to being asked to turn their music down. And things go down hill. Rapidly. Violently. Terminally.

It’s a very well executed shocker that plays perfectly into Middle England’s fears of youth culture. Perfectly pitched, it’s living proof of my theory that filmmakers could do worse than take inspiration from the anxieties that the Daily Mail expresses so well. No, it’s not massively original, but there’s a wealth of telling social detail here that demonstrates how well Watkins knows his territory. The teens look, act, and sound like real teenagers. Their parents are perfectly credible too. This is horror that emerges from everyday life, and is all the more powerful for it.

Eden Lake stands in stark contrast to recent American shocker The Strangers, which lacked any convincing social or psychological aspect to its unpleasantness, or even interest in those areas. The Strangers was a remake of superior French horror Ils, where the reveal of the antagonists packed a powerful punch, like Eden Lake one with a socially relevant angle.

Execution is everything, and Watkins doesn’t put a foot wrong, other than in maybe making teacher Jenny a bit too nice when we first meet her. The edits are sharp and crisply timed, and the story is told in strong visual beats, carrying you forward with its momentum. Sure, there’s an implicit nod to a whole bunch of other films along the way, but inevitably so: this is quality genre filmmaking.

One element particularly interested me, when Jenny hides in a truly appalling bin to hide from her youthful pursuers. The reek of the bin is so corrupt that even the teens are wary of it. When she emerges from this unholy resting place, Jenny is reborn as a vengeful killer. Intentionally or not, it reminds me of a corresponding scene in The Descent, when one of the women is symbolically reborn from the waters of the cave to become a goddess of death.

It’s a remorseless film that doesn’t let up for a minute, cleverly plotted and executed in every respect. Its climax could apparently go either way, it seems, and Watkins’ choice of unremitting but tragically plausible grimness left me with a very dark feeling as I left the cinema.