Search - The Pool on DVD

Typical Terror Tripe

Morbus Iff | Concord, NH USA | 04/14/2003

(1 out of 5 stars)

"This movie is all too typical of the slasher film, and evidence that film makers in Germany/Czechoslovakia have no more creativity than our own American ilk. With copious accents, Heineken advertisements and the typical "coming of age meets coming of death" plot, plodding through THE POOL is an exercise in pleading.The movie starts with your typical SCREAM beginning: girl chats on phone whilst making dinner, gets a spooky call, runs outside, finds her boyfriend dead, and then dies herself. To make matters worse, the killer looks like a reject from Saturday Night Live's "Sprockets" ("now is the time on Sprockets WHERE WE KILL!"). Cue the Dawson's Creek / Felicity soft rock, and we're going down hill within the first five minutes. From there, we follow our cast as they stage an illegal party at the local pool resort.There are some relatively decent aspects as the movie is expertly filmed with good scenery (it is Europe after all) and some slight twists on expectations: instead of the opening fodder grabbing a knife, she attempts a shotgun, instead of one car playing [bad] music, an envoy of student vehicles engage in synchronizing [awfulness], and instead of using CDs, these supposed "rich kids" use cassettes.Deaths are nothing too inventive, but two in particular "succeed" visually: the death of the poor girl, Kim (Isla Fisher), is held a bit longer than you'd expect, and the vent killing of Martin (Jason Liggett) is decently conveyed by blood running down his hands as its clenched by a helpful Sarah. The most inventive scene is spoiled before the movie even starts - "knife to water sliding female crotch" is the DVD's flipping menu intro, for God's sake.With no nudity besides a quick flashing, the standard "heroine overcomes her fear" sub-plot resolves, and the remaining survivors create a love triangle of "you cheated on my boyfriend, but it's ok because WE'RE ALIVE!". The most telling aspect of THE POOL is a line at the end of the movie, "I know what you did last summer...", whose only decent viewer response is "yer goddamn right!".The 16:9 widescreen DVD includes "Behind the Scenes" (10:37, consisting of clips from the movie, mini-interviews, shots of the water slide kill, etc.), a photo gallery (30 images), filmographies of the directory and cast, Spanish subtitles, and the expected trailer (1:17, Voice over: "It was their last day of term. When you've been there, done that, you need somewhere special to go... but it's about to become a night they'll never forget... because someone is watching, waiting, and ready... to KILL! Now, the only way to stay alive, is to follow the rules." On screen: "Now Running. No Diving. No Splashing. Welcome to the Deep End.")."

Scream on Friday the 13th, Part 1000

Patrick Koellner | 10/14/2002

(1 out of 5 stars)

"One of the most boring horrorflicks ever. All the actors are much too old and much too untalented. The plot is just a joke, the entire film is completely redundant."

All teenagers out of the pool!

gary campany | cathage ny usa | 10/10/2002

(2 out of 5 stars)

"I love slasher films and will forever love slasher films, but there are some that you want to remember a little more than others. My case in point "sleepaway camp " classic and gets better more times you watch it but "the pool" on the other hand of which this is true not the worst of the slasher genre but far from the best in the crop of so many horror titles having a mask wearing pyscho.The acting not all that bad but the plot drags so much you find yourself wanting to fast forward to when the good stuff starts.This feels like any movie you have seen a 100 times before it's way to predictable and the character development is terrible even for a slasher film .It does have one memorable killing on the covered water slide but other then that not much going on here that has not been done to death and fails miserably!If this would have taken place at a public pool not even the lifeguard would have wanted to save this dud of a slasher!"

Friday The 13th In A Rec Centre

Micheal Hunt | Hellbourne | 02/20/2006

(2 out of 5 stars)

"This is the typical B grade slasher pic that rips off Friday The 13th. It's basicly putting Jason Voorhees (A guy in a mask with a machette knife) into a situation where he can slaughter a bunch of college grads who have broken into a rec centre for the graduation party.

The acting is mostly terrible, the scares are stupid, the horror is not there, and the chill factor is in the minus 10 area. About the only kill in the movie that was any good was one of the kids coming down a water slide...but it didnt show anything memorable for the effect to work to its maximum potentiol.

Ya might wanna rent it to laugh at how bad it is, but otherwise, dont bother with it, you're not missing anything special."