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Cherry Tree Lane is an urban thriller about a couple whose home is invaded one night by a gang of youths who wish to harm their absent son. While they wait for the boy, they mete out some physical and psychological torture. Like all house-invasion movies this is a very disturbing film. It's not entirely dissimilar to notorious exploitation films such as House on the Edge of the Park (1980). Although, admittedly, the sexual violence in this thriller is committed off-screen unlike that earlier film's non-stop barrage of sexual assault. Nevertheless, Cherry Tree Lane is certainly in the same general ball-park, just toned down and with better acting performances.

All of the action is restricted to the interior of the house at the fateful address, generating considerable claustrophobia. The villains are typical London gansta youths - this is a house invasion movie for the hoody generation. It plays on middle-class fears of gangs of violent working-class youths. The young hoodlums seem to have come from a different world from their victims. They have no use for the contents that make up the unfortunate couple's home such as bottles of red wine or their DVD collection. This uneasy chemistry adds to the tension and adds a different undercurrent to proceedings. The film does stretch believability a little with the introduction of two teenage girls and a young schoolboy into the fray; they act as if this is a normal night out but it just seems inconceivable that they could be so blasé in this extreme situation. Nevertheless, the introduction of these characters does allow for the set-up in the final scene in the movie, in which things are left hanging on an unanswered question that leaves the viewer wondering if the horror of the night has in fact ended at all.

Overall this is not an easy film. It's intense and sometimes difficult to watch, and it truly offers no respite by the end. So Cherry Tree Lane is certainly not a film for everyone. But for those with a mind for something dark and troubling, it's a journey worth taking.

Cherry Tree Lane is a 70 minute Funny Games/Eden lake-esque 'horror' that sees a bunch of teens terrorising a not-very-happily married couple in North London. Despite the ridiculously short running time, Cherry Tree Lane is LONG. Too long. I found myself drifting in and out of consciousness listening to the pointless conversations that this film includes. Moments include the leader, shall we say, eyeing up 42-year old Christine, telling her to stand up "to see how fit she is" whilst her husband, gagged on the floor, is yelled at "don't look round at me, blud!" So basically, it's a group of chavs armed with knives, stealing credit cards and biscuits. They aren't JUST after money though, they want the couples son who's apparently not been able to keep his mouth shut about someone cousin...or something along those lines. There were some nice slow motion shots, but other than that, it's a very simple film with the only location being the house, well, the living room. There were a handful of tense moments that had me remotely wondering what was going to happen, however, it's all rather predictable. I didn't REALLY care what was going to happen at the end, although, I did hope the couple would execute some revenge if they were to escape. Overall, it's not the worst film in the world, but it's definitely not the best of it's type; Eden Lake and Funny Games are a lot better..and the teenagers seem too stupid in Cherry Tree Lane to carry out anything too horrific.

This is a typical home invasion type movie but the screenplay stuff was not so strong enough to hold the story.

The whole story happens inside a house. So the main revenge reference was just missing.

Acting was just OK.

The whole film seems like one scene just developed in a not so interesting manner.

I would say last house on the left and the strangers were good compared to this.

Just don't watch this with some expectations .

I would give 4 on 10

Another hoody film.

A boring couple have their home invaded by some scumbags looking to exact revenge on their son. The usual tying up and degradation of the main characters takes place. The problem is I didn't care about them. The characters were so clichéd and one dimensional that I felt nothing for them.

The lead thug is just a ridiculous ball of unthinking testosterone that he's unbelievable. Couple this with his sidekick thug with a heart and it just gets stupider. I spent the whole film just hating the main thug, which I suppose was the intent. But I was just waiting to see him die and had no interest with anything else. Then just when you think the limits of believability can't be stretched any further, the thug's girlfriend shows up with her little brother in tow to watch. I think even an idiot would doubt a school child's ability to keep his mouth shut about witnessing the events which take place, but they let him stay all the same.

I'm not really a fan of the this kind of film but I had enjoyed the directors other films so I thought I'd check it out. Now I've seen it I never want to see it again.

I was tricked into watching this film by a review, so I feel obligated to give my own so there will be no more casualties..!

This movie can not really be called a thriller: there is no real suspense and nothing is surprising;you can tell how things will evolve from the first minute that the actual "plot" starts.

I actually fast forward it many times and compelled to rerun it, only to find that nothing had happened in between.

All in all, this was a wooden, disturbing presentation of a lower class youth, with a completely unsuccessful attempt to portray a dysfunctional family, lacking all definitions of any meaning of film.

Over nearly a decade of seeing films at the EIFF you naturally come across some bad films. Cherry Tree Lane falls into the category below that, the one were referring to it as "film" is an insult to other films. In short the whole "film" is a padding out of a 5 minute scene from a drama club or the like that doesn't even manage to make a full 90 minutes (estimated 75 minutes). The dialogue could easily have been improvised by the very young cast and the only directing tricks Paul seems so posses is ultra close-ups or foreground-object whilst we watch the scene in the background.

Leaving the second screening the audience were shocked at how bad the film was and for the second half, people were laughing at moments of apparent tension due to the complete lack of any substance or idea. The most laughable thing of all is this was actually up for the Audience Award! With one exception this is quite possibly the worst British film ever made (the worst being The Great Ecstasy of Robert Carmichael).

"Ultimate Urban Horror" - only one thing in this tag line is correct - "urban" as it all happens in a city. Chery Tree LAne is one of the worst, pointless, slow moving films I have ever seen! Absolutely no suspense, no tension, no ... nothing! There is nothing you'd expect from a good thriller (not to mention a horror). After 30 minutes you feel like shouting at the thugs "Come on, guys, do something". It is like a 5 minutes worth of script (not very original script at that) made into 75 minutes worth of film by pointless and boring camera action and close ups. The baddies are as threatening as toothless pensioner on her way to a Bingo - she can hit you with her purse, but will ultimately do no damage. If you have 75 minutes to spare, have nothing better to do and you think watching this film might be a good idea, then ... don't! Just don't. You'd probably have more fun sliding down a banister made of razorblades into a pool of acid - which would be a preferred option to dying of boredom watching this piece of ... 'art'.

The film opens with a long static shot of a boiling pot in the foreground and some inaudible conversation happening in the background. I think, OK I get it - this film will be a "boiling over" type situation. And then I wait, and the pot still boils. Then I wait some more, and the pot finally boils over. What could've been an interesting open shot overstays it's welcome and becomes the embodiment of what's wrong with the film itself. A dull film where nothing really happens.

After the interminable pot shot, we're introduced to two wholly unlikeable people sitting down to dinner in a very strange dining setup in the middle of a livingroom. Anyway, they bicker and become more unlikable and then the "thugs" show up who are just three teens with minimal amounts of threat levels. Somehow they overpower the couple and then the film comes to a screeching halt as we all sit and watch the characters watch TV, eat biscuits, and watch some more TV. Some action ensues after awhile, but by then you're too bored to give a crap about characters you care nothing about.

I won't spoil the film for you, the film is spoiled enough, so I'll just say steer clear of this dullfest. If you're looking for a suspenseful and more believable British film about chavs, check out Eden Lake or Harry Brown instead.

Doing a bit of channel hopping tonight and we came across this movie. My other half almost instantly wanted to change channels as the description of a psychological slasher piece involving some revengeful teenagers didn't appeal to her on any level. I protested and said let's at least watch the start and see how it develops. And I'm so glad we did.

It's a quite tense and edgy piece that could easily be a stage show, all very contained. The acting is pretty good, the script is basic but it does the job, the plot is nothing more than you'd expect. Yet somehow the whole thing is greater then the sum of its pieces in my opinion.

Even though I don't have any great affection for the characters, I found myself rooting for them, or laughing with them, or sighing with them. I think this film does moral terpitude very well, I think it largely avoids cliché, even though the subject might feel that way sometimes. I don't know how I missed this three years ago, but I'm glad to have caught up with it now.

Elements of Straw Dogs perhaps, although this feature manages the central dilemma of that horror in a much more intelligent fashion. I think that's what I enjoyed the most really, the way it did horror through implication.

Despite noticing that this movie had probably gone straight to DVD I thought I would give it a chance, but boy was I wrong.

From start to finish the whole movie was a 'must turn off' rather than a 'must see what happens at the end'. Not only did it take around about 10- 15mins to actually get into the plot (already taking up a sizable amount of the 74mins running time) but the plot never really happened- or if it did happen, I didn't really care. The storyline felt more ad-lib then written and almost felt as if it was meant to be a comedy, and a poor one at that. In fact the only redemption of this movie was the feeling that this film could be used as a perfect example of how not to do crime.

The only horror in this film was the acting, script and randomly thrown in spurts of unnecessary crude violence. A huge disappointment despite the 4 star ratings detailed on the box.

You know that feeling when the film suddenly stops short, you're left with no closure or satisfaction, and as the credits start to roll you begin to wonder why you watched this movie in the first place? This movie leaves that you with that awful taste after watching it. The majority of it takes place within a living room, alongside mindless distractions and unnecessary violence that prolongs an end to this horrid movie; the plot seems to be going no where. And you're continually wondering when this slow, drawn-out buildup finally leads to a climax or resolution, but it is very anti-climatic.

I would describe it to the likes of a teenager's first sexual experience; awkward, the other never feeling satisfied or seeing a climax, and a long sigh of disappointment immediately after.

Was not impressed with this film , the majority of the acting was poor although Ashley Chin who plays 'Asad' in this film was very good and played a very convincing character and he should receive a great deal of credit for this film, as he was the only person in the film that didn't look like a 'first timer'.

The film had a slight impact on me and has a good story line for the majority of the film which did keep me on edge and eager to find out what is next, but then ends bluntly which made me feel like I'd wasted my time watching it as there's no summary to the story line and in my opinion is a complete fail. I will not be recommending this film to my friends but that does not mean to say that other people won't enjoy the film, but I stand firm on saying it's just not my cup of tea!

Like hoodie-horror Eden Lake before it, Cherry Tree Lane attempts to scare the viewer by tapping into their innate fear of the yob generation, depicting a law-abiding, middle-class, suburban couple at the mercy of a vicious gang of 'yoofs' (before the tables are eventually turned for a brief but satisfying slice of retribution).

Writer/director Paul Andrew Williams handles the material confidently enough (certainly better than the dreadful black comedy of his previous film The Cottage) and commands solid performances from his cast, young and old, but while I cannot deny that the film packs a powerful emotional wallop, largely thanks to its unsettling sense of realism, I do feel that the extremely thin plot isn't quite strong enough to sustain an entire feature film. Even at a scant 74 minutes (according to my DVD), there's a fair amount of padding; the movie would have been more successful had Williams added a bit more 'meat' to his narrative, or if the whole thing had just been a bit shorter.

Out of all the horror/thriller/realistic films that I have seen I have never ever thought that there would be a movie that would bring me to skip most scenes and still know what will be happening within the film.

This movie is about the most out of control films that I have ever viewed. The use of language and verbal abuse was out of control and none of which suited the characters portrayed or maybe it was because the atmosphere was n't created. The movie dragged on and I even had to watch some scenes again to actually analyze some of the actors expressions. The camera angles were of many close-ups of the actors when they had no emotions showing at all.

The plot was simple and realistic. The talk between the couple was long and boring and something should've happened within those minutes that should've brought my attention, but nothing.

The gang was useless and when the girls came in with the little boy, it was a big WTF moment. How most of the film stayed within the living room bored me to death.

I recommend NOT watching this film for anyone. Complete waste of my time.

Cherry Tree Lane is written and directed by Paul Andrew Williams. It stars Rachael Blake, Tom Butcher, Sonny Muslim, Jumayn Hunter & Ashley Chin. Plot finds middle-class couple Christine (Blake) & Mike (Butcher) suffering the ultimate home invasion hell when one night three youths force their way into the house looking for their informant son.

It's the sort of plot that could have been gleaned from The News Of The World on a Sunday morning. Whilst not as horrific as Eden Lake, or as far fetched as Harry Brown, Williams' third film unsettles from the off and has much to say along the way. We begin with a slow zoom in shot of the front of the house, a middle-class suburbia that's comforting and a world away from the horror about to be unleashed. Then inside and Williams appropriately films an untended cooking pot coming to the boil as Christine chats on the phone in the back ground, the simmer to boil motif neatly setting us up for what is to come. Told in real time, Cherry Tree Lane's story never leaves the house, claustrophobia reins as our couple are trussed up and subjected to a terrifying ordeal. Pretty sparse in set up and location, then, but this is not just an excuse for some terror. Williams goes a bit more deeper with his themes, daring to delve into the psyche of Britain's unruly youths, neatly observing cultural class division and the ever widening gap between the generations. It's darkly humorous at times too, the bleakness of which has a cheek about it as the story runs its (collision) course.

Where Cherry Tree Lane differs from other film's of its ilk is that the violence is mostly done off camera, mercifully so during one extreme passage. The power of suggestion really comes to the fore as we hear but don't see. This lack of on camera violence will disappoint those who need it in their horror diet. So be advised gore seekers, this is unlikely to be the film for you. Williams also faces the problem of trying to avoid comparisons with the afore mentioned other film's, the likes of Funny Games and The Strangers. It can be said that the home invasion format is most likely now looking a bit tired, to that end Williams' British take is likely to only resonate with the self aware British public. But it is challenging and confrontational. The ending is a little too abrupt, and perhaps inevitably-implausibility creeps in. But for the most part this is unnerving stuff, a chilling tale executed with a realism that's not found in more glossy productions: with the final shot astutely serving to keep us agitated. 8/10

Cherry Tree Lane is this year's Eden Lake, with an ending just as shocking and abrupt. The film is confronting and the most raw home invasion film I've seen in years. The film starts out pretty simplistically with a slow boil pace, with an older couple that is settling down in their home for the evening to eat dinner. In a moments time they hear their door bell ring and what any person would do they answer it. Thugs burst through and demand their son who isn't there, they then duck tape them and wait helplessly bounded. The film is such a nail biter because the viewer for most of the time doesn't know what's going to happen next and when it does it's off screen, but you hear the horror and that is even more disturbing. The film boils over into one harrowing conclusion; it makes you think how far would you go to protect your family? Just like such films as Eden Lake and Funny Games the performances are subtle yet powerful. The actors that play the troubled youths are a real standouts and you get to know a little about them and their flaws, than them just being figures of fear. All of the actors are pretty much unknown, which is a plus because you don't as high of expectations regarding their acting. Everything flowed in a tense, natural, gripping matter that made the viewing experience a mostly effective one.

Director and writer, Paul Andrew Williams has already established a pretty promising career so far in this genre, with films like London to Brighton, which I really want to see now, and his other works such as the pretty decent but not great The Cottage and the very solid and chilling, killer kids flick The Children, which he wrote the story for. I'm pretty excited about what he is going to come up with next because every new film seems to be very different and slightly better than the last. He knows how to create suspense, confronting drama and how to meticulously build suspense and terror. He then mixes it together with a dab of dark humor to effecting results. Keep an eye on him! Overall, the film treads on a tired formula and doesn't have as much action, chaos or scares as some other more superior home invasion movies. The ending, though it kept me on the edge of my seat clutching the arms of my chair in anticipation of what's to come, left the viewer out cold of what the next move of the film will be. The conclusion bothered me because you don't really officially know the outcome. That being said Cherry Tree Lane is one of the most provocative British crime/thrillers I've seen in a while even though it's not that original.

6.9 out of 10

The only good thing about this film is that it only lasted 70 minutes. Do not under any circumstances waste your valuable time on this film. The worst film ever made in the entire history of cinematography. The most tedious 70 minutes ever. Predictable plot. Appalling acting. No action. Bad direction. Overzealous 5 star sleeve reviews. An absolute stinker. How can anyone possibly write 10 lines of text on this abomination other than to re-emphasise the true awfulness of this film. All copies of this film should be incinerated as indeed as I have done with mine to save any unsuspecting viewer the agony of enduring this spectacularly dreadful offering.