User Reviews

At a German college, wealthy student graduates (of various nationalities) break into an upscale health resort for a final get-together little realizing it will be lights out for most of them when a masked killer with a machete crashes their party. The acting is uneven, the accents (British, Aussie, German, etc.) take some getting used to and the ending is awful, but this is still one of the best of the recent slasher movies. The setting is different, the director makes good work of his locations, there are a few creative death scenes (the best involving a water slide) and it's thankfully devoid of that annoying post-SCREAM sense of self-referential humor. I also enjoyed the performance of (and dialogue given to) Elena Uhlig.

Score: 5 out of 10

Watching "The Pool", you may get a strange feeling of deja vu, and no wonder: though the production year of this slasher film is 2001, it might as well have been 1981. The image is glossier, of course, and the setting is a pool in Prague instead of, say, the deep American woods, but everything else is the same: the terrible dialogue ("John? John? John? Cut the crap. Stop fooling around. This isn't funny anymore"); the undeveloped characters; the 27-year-old-looking "high school graduates"; the killer that almost magically seems to be everywhere (how long can he hold his breath, anyway?) and has to be killed about five separate times; the lame motivation behind the whole massacre. Speaking in the film's favor, the direction here is right-on-the-money, and shines especially in the stalk-and-slash sequences, which are fast, brutal and unrelenting (this killer means business). But when the material is so awful, the rating cannot be higher than....*1/2 out of 4.

I saw this one in a Sneak Preview and I haven't heard of it before or seen a trailer so I didn't know what to expect, but after 5 minutes it was totally clear that this is just a wannabe 'Scream' so it was funny to predict the scenes that are to come next, but I think it is supposed to be a thriller or horror movie but after while it just gets boring so save your money and go rent Scream.

As I have said before, I rent low-budget or unknown horror when I can. I find this one quite by accident and put it on my Netflix account. I was pleastly suprised. After sitting through less then steller movies such as Terror Toons and Camp Blood one and two this was quite good.

Sure its the same old slasher/Ten Little Indians formula. A bunch of teens in a place they shouldn't be and locked up inside as it is a party start getting killed, so the killer must be...do do dooooo. ONE OF THEM!!! Like the guy before me, I agree some of the death scences are pretty cool, the waterslide comes to mind...The acting is so/so..Nice to see Miller getting some work...It's funny I was just watching late,late night reruns of that show..That's My Bush the other day.

Anyway, this movie a decent staple and overall not bad. You need these kind of movie to help push stars and propel other movies higher. As Horror goes, there is much worse and while the ending and the killer/killers Motive is lame the movie is an enjoyable way to kill a couple hours.

This movie was awful. You can spot a non-horror fan directing a horror movie like this miles away.

Half the actors were bad and the other half were bad and annoying. Between the first rules of a good horror movie is that annoying characters shouldn't live!!! they should have horrible, painful deaths!! Not only the most annoying character of this crap survives but she becomes the hero! I wanted to shot myself after watching this. One of the deaths was worth it, the slide one, but I was hoping that chick would survive since she was the only hot one.

This movie sucks in every way possible.

A question to the producers: Do you make this crap only for the money? or do you actually think this is good? because if you do think this is good, you should change jobs ASAP!!!!

Here you can see what comes out, when european cinema tries to copy us-blockbusters with marginal budgets... a script obviously copied from a first-grade teaching book on horror movies, blunt of-the-shelf characters and a story so dull and predictable that after 15 minutes you wish you had gone visiting your mother-in-law instead. These first 15 minutes are dominated by utter disbelief that really somebody made a 253rd copy of scream without even pretending to be a parody, without any sense for suspense, in fact without any interest in making a movie. It seems Senator-Film is almost broke and with this movie, it becomes perfectly clear that it's better this way ... go, have fun in a swimming pool instead.

When a film is normally bad, you just walk out of the theatre. But when a film is LEGENDARILY bad like this one, then you are like tied to the seat, because the suspense becomes: "Will it be able to keep this level until the end?". And indeed it does.

A German slasher with an international feel. Very strong on the style but weak on the story, as befitting many genre films made a couple of decades ago. The characters seem to be brain-dead and the leads in particular are totally unlikeable. The international appeal is boosted by James McAvoy and Isla Fisher although neither have much to work with. The killer's costume looks like a bad Halloween outfit and although there's a fair bit of action it's never very entertaining.

As long as you don't go into this expecting too much you shouldn't be disappointed. Yes, it's a stock-standard, generic, clichéd B-grade slasher flick. The cast is pretty unlikeable which makes it hard to even care who lives or dies. The "teenagers" all look in their mid to late 20's (expect for Isla Fisher, who really is a very talented Aussie actress, but maybe I'm biased).

A lot of the characters have obscure accents which can make it a little hard to understand what the hell they are saying at times. The killer does kinda look like the killer/s out of "Scream" but I guess they're starting to run out of costume ideas. The machete was a strange weapon of choice, not exactly easy to conceal.

Oh look, I could go on and on about this movie's flaws but instead I'll just say this: if you're looking for half-naked chicks, horny, drunk guys and a few brutal, bloody murders then look no further!

I will commend the person who thought up the water slide scene though. It should be inducted into "The Most Original Way to Die in a Movie" hall of fame. As a female all I can say is "That's GOTTA hurt!!!".

The pool complex itself is beautiful, modern and luxurious but we don't even get to see it until about 40 minutes into the movie. Wish the pool I worked at was half as groovy! 6/10 for effort. At least they tried...

This movie was boring. I cannot even imagine it being any good if I were to have watched it with a group of beer swilling buddies and a stack of pizzas.

The Pool was made before Saw replaced Scream on the most ripped off horror movie list and watching it these many years later reminded me why I disliked Scream ripoffs in the first place.

An obnoxious, immature, international cast of pretty-boys (and Girls) slog through a lethally dull script where pretty much nothing happens for the first forty minutes or so except for endless conversation between these unlikable brats and (yawn) a couple of murders.

The killer was pretty silly looking in his black padded nylon shirt, pants, and ski mask with a plastic skull attached. He was pretty lame and his attacks on the brats were unsuspenseful and trite to say the least.

At least one member of the cast, John McAvoy, went on to bigger and better things, co-starring in The Last King Of Scotland and Wanted. Watching him here, it's hard to tell that he has any talent at all. I wonder if he deleted this from his resume when he auditioned for the other movies.

"The Pool" is a really top-notch slasher without that many flaws.

**SPOILERS**

Getting off of school, students Sarah, (Kristen Miller) Carmen, (Elena Uhlig) Greg, (Thorsten Grasshoff) Frank, (John Hopkins) Kim, (Isla Fischer) Mike, (James McAvoy) and Mel, (Cordelia Bugeja) decide to throw a party to celebrate the end of exams. Arriving at the secret location with Martin, (Jason Liggett) and Diego, (Maximilian Grill) at what appears to be a huge mansion, they proceed to party and have a general good time and rekindle old romances. After finding several of them dead, they soon realize that a psychotic killer is among them and is one of them. Desperate to get out, they soon start to find more ways of trying to get out only to have the killer shut them off before they can escape. With their numbers dwindling and no one to trust, the remaining members of the group make one last grasp to escape.

The Good News: This is one of the better slashers around. The fact this one manages to keep it entertaining while still being incredibly cliché. This one here puts together practically a repeat of just about every cliché and plot-theme possible, yet they're not a detriment to this one. The way it manages to keep the entertainment factor going. The fact that it also manages to include a lot of the traditional motives in here is quite nice. This one works the stalking scenes in some of the best scenes in the genre. The opening sequence with the shadowy house during the raging thunderstorm produces some chilling moments, especially before the killer actually arrives, which is a new thing on it's own, and once it gets to the pool house itself, there's just non-stop classic stalking scenes. From the first pool attack to the bathroom stalls and the big one through the restaurant, these chases only get better as it goes on. Even the biggest moments in the air-duct scene, which is one of the best in the film, contains a lot of the greatest tricks to get the suspense going. There's plenty of sudden machete stabs through the metal sheeting, a lot of silence to prepare for the next assault, and some of the best desperation moments in the style. They're suspenseful, inventive and quite creepy, all of which are necessary for good slashers. Another factor to good slashers is a great series of kills, which this one has in spades. There's a large amount of stabbing in the stomach, a slash across the chest, a leg cut off above the knee, a slit throat, stabbing over the neck and chest with a busted beer bottle and being set on fire, to name just a few. However, none of these are even come close to it's one simply incredible kill that has to rank as one of the single best kills no matter what the genre, and is the single best reason to see this film. There's no way to ruin this one, other than it involves a water slide, a machete and an open end into the pool. It's easy to figure out, but it's still a simply awesome moment that is just pure fun and quite exhilarating. The fast, near-perfect pace here is another great factor, as this one keeps moving forward onto something else before it can get bogged down in pointless subplots, which is a great plus as it stays lean and without distractions. The location at the pool, which is house itself, is one of the single best locations ever, with it's dark and twisting hallways, luminous view from the reflecting water and tons of places within to lay traps or hide. The final confrontation as well is quite exhilarating, with it's action-packed setting, fighting and different methods of attack that preface a ton of battling. It ends the movie on the perfect high. These elements all make it incredibly fun and watchable.

The Bad News: There isn't a whole lot of flaws in this one. The film's biggest flaw is that there's simply not a lot of variety in the kills. Practically every single one, minus a few, is a variation with a machete, and there's no real creative modes used. There's some nice set-ups, but while others have become known for their creativity in regards to kills, this one's sameness is something that hinders it. The only other flaw is that there's way too many survivors for this kind of film. This one's nearly a dozen survivors are quite surprising, and this can lead away from the body count. These, though, are the only things wrong with this one.

The Final Verdict: While not a completely great film, as a slasher this one is a lot of fun. Highly recommended to all slasher fans or those looking for some nonthreatening fun, while the only ones who won't like it at all will be those against the genre as a whole.

Rated R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence and Brief Nudity

A little old school 80's slasher, a little post-Scream modern slasher, mix, add water and you get something like this killer-in-a-mask slasher. Very formula in a slightly different setting, lots of pretty teens, this time at a large indoor pool (hence the title) are being stalked. And this time an English language German movie filmed in the Czech Republic with an international cast of young pretty actors.

It was played straight, and built some nice tension which was nice like the slasher pics of old A good amount of blood, but light on the gore and only one very brief flash of nudity are the bad traits it has inherited from the post-Scream generation of slashers.

A sequel is coming up. I assume that will also be set at a pool (since it being called Pool 2), or perhaps the same pool. Add a little gore and T&A next time around folks.

If you enjoy competently made slasher films that don't stray too much from the formula then you should find this a pleasant 90 minute diversion.

In Prague, a group of students trespass a fitness center to celebrate the end of the school with a farewell party. One of them is a deranged serial killer. This festival of clichés is a shameless copy of `Scream'. The killer has Jason style. The merchandising of Heineken is abusive. The unique thing different is the tour through touristic places of Prague, the unknown European actors and actresses and their accent. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): `Um Grito Embaixo D'água' (`A Scream Under the Water')

Don't waste your time and money, this is the worst "horror" movie that I have seen in my life. I don't understand why some people write and direct movies like this today. There is a lot of hunger in the world and the money wasted in this movie could be donated to a charity organization. No joke. End

If I could rate the killing-scenes alone, I would probably give an 8, they are really awesome, with an original and inventive use of constantly the same weapon. Unfortunately these scenes had to be patched together by some story, and here this movie fails utterly, the story is as flimsy as cardboard and full of improbabilities. They made it into a who-dunnit (which at least makes you sit the whole thing out), but if you expect a serious motivation from the at last revealed killer you'll be disappointed: the script provides him with a lame self-pitying whine that hardly explains his totally disproportional killing-spree (but I guess we can't expect a psychopath to be rational anyway!).

Another problem: the guys and girls are all equally unsympathetic, all wise-cracking party-animals, loudmouthed and wannabe cool (the guys) and lascivious (the girls), so you couldn't care less if any of them got to be killed anyway. The acting is over-all below par (even from nowadays famous James McAvoy, how he got involved is a mystery in itself!) and most of the actors talk English with heavy accents (apparently this is a German movie but for some reason shot in Prague). And for a movie about wild and hormone-driven teens that constantly talk about sex and are illegally partying in a desolated pool it's surprisingly prudish, with most girls wearing a one-pieced bathing-suit and all the guys colossal XXL-sized trunks.

In conclusion: just watchable for the awesome killings!

The only thing that sets THE POOL apart from, let's say, VALENTINE, is the fact that the film is set in Europe with a predominantly European cast speaking fluent English with a variety of accents. Set at the International High School of Prague (i.e. rich kids boarding school) on the last day of school, a group of one-dimensional teens, who all look to be in their mid/late 20s, embark on their annual end of school party held at a secret location. In this case, they break into this posh spa after-hours that features a humongous Roman bath (which I suppose is the pool that the film is named after), a waterslide, a hot tub, and a weight room. Considering some of the ridiculous plot points to come, one almost has to wonder whether this is a spa or the biodome. You'll know what I mean if you make the mistake of renting this one. The actual plot can be summed up like this - sex, booze, and mass murder.

The characters range from cliched to one-dimensional and then there's the guy playing the heroine's boyfriend. He's this chain smoking, Eurotrash, Peter Facinelli look-a-like who is absolutely terrible. He comes across like the French guy who was always trying to steal Woody's girlfriend on Cheers. In fact, the only character I did like was the mousy redhead played by Isla Fisher who was the only one willing to call out these spoiled, self absorbed, rich kids for what they really are. In many slasher movies, this character would be the film's lead heroine. In this film however, she gets a machete through the gut about 15 minute in.

As for the killer himself, he's dressed like the killer from PROM NIGHT but with a skull-like mask, he wields Jason's machete, and drives a Toyota. He's not a supernatural maniac, but he does seem to be psychic since he always knows exactly where everyone is and where they're going. In addition, he seems to develop the power of teleportation at one point in the film. His methods of killing are your generic slash and stab except for the film's only inventive kill in which one unlucky girl on the waterslide gets split up the middle sliding right into the waiting machete. The revelation of the killer's identity is especially lame and his motivations are even lamer. Basically, the killer is a homicidal misogynist who dresses up like the villain in a European comic book.

I'm sure there are some slasher fans who will enjoy THE POOL for it's retro style of doing things in the post-SCREAM era, but truthfully, this is the kind of crap that pretty much killed off this genre to begin with. Even with slick production values and an international flavor, THE POOL is still just another lame entry in the, as Roger Ebert calls it, "dead teenager' genre. The nicest thing I can say is that at least it was slightly less insulting to the intelligence than I STILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER.

Thanks to the magic of FastForwardVision, this movie is easy on the eyes. The Ool, as only its closest friends can call it, is a slasher that falls flatly on the mediocre scale, which is sad since the potential of a murderous body of water has yet to be exploited in cinematic form.

The Ool involves a bunch of people in Prague at some international school. There's the dumb blonde, her jerkish boyfriend, maybe a half dozen fellows with dark hair, a horribly snotty German girl who can hold her breath for long periods of time and likes to smoke, and then probably one or two other characters. This movie specializes in producing not a single likable character, and, sadly, does not star a single person from the movie Clockstoppers. It even clashes with the viewer's goodwill by letting only the most annoying characters survive. If that alone doesn't fail its duty to the genre, I don't know what does.

My favorite line in the whole thing, sadly, cannot be repeated here, but a lot of disjointed silly lines abound. The movie also contains some of the most generic punk songs ever.

All in all, if you want a great movie about a psychotic character who kills a bunch of people and also has that guy from Clockstoppers in it, I wholly recommend Swimfan. The Ool, on the other hand, is only for people who have seen almost every other movie in existence and hate themselves, not necessarily in that order.

Rating: 3/10

The Pool might not be the most original horror film out there, but it has much more to offer than it's lousy rating on here and uninspired DVD artwork might suggest.

On one hand, you have early roles by stars James McAvoy and Isla Fisher, but on the other, you have a mostly engaging and well shot slasher tale that's certainly no more incomprehensible than most of its contemporaries. While there are a few detours into 90's slasher style camp and pop psychology, The Pool mostly has a much more European giallo meets 80's slasher feel with bright colors, interesting shots, and some really nasty death sequences.

There are definitely a fair share of cringe-worthy moments and you'll definitely wish the killer would shut up once they've been unmasked, but the few inventive death scenes and moments of suspense make up for any of the surface flaws.

I first saw this film when it first came out. I rented it from blockbuster and I really liked it then it's better than the reviews that is given it's not an original but it has got its own story and I think it's a very good high school slasher. James macavoy and Isla fisher also star early credits for them. This is at the start of their career that you can see their talent in this movie. Personally, I think it's underrated very similar vibes to the scream franchise although scream is 1000 times better than this, but I would not give this a 4.4 on a rating I think it deserves a seven or an eight out of ten.

The final exams are over and this night, Sarah has been invited to a special private party by her boyfriend. The party takes place in a big pool house and it really seems as if this is going to be one party they're never going to forget... but it soon turns out that it's for all the wrong reasons as a masked killer shows up and starts to slaughter the friends one by one in the most gruesome ways.

The Pool was originally titled Swimming Pool - Der Tod feiert mit, which roughly translates into Swimming Pool - Death also parties (yeah, stupid title) and came out just after the slasher hysteria had ended and therefore flopped disastrously in the German box-office chart. The story really didn't bring anything new to the genre and there are many things going against this movie but The Pool still managed to entertain me on many levels as the slasher fan that I am. The movie is very fast-paced with a high body count and a very entertaining slasher story, and for all it matters, the concept of having a slasher in a pool house has never been used before. Boris von Sychowski makes a terrific debut with this slasher flick and it's really a shame that it never got the credit that it deserved as this could easily have been just as successful as the other slasher flicks of this time if it had only been made a couple of years earlier. However, the movie does sometimes struggle and there are many things that I'm sure that the mainstream audience wouldn't like too much like the unnecessary subplot with the cop who doesn't seem to serve any purpose at all in the movie. Either way, this was luckily pretty successful when it headed for DVD and video since a sequel just finished production, which is the main reason to why I decided to check this one out again even though I've all ready seen it like 6 times. I consider The Pool to be a very good slasher flick, even though some of the actors sound like they're part of the Schwarzeneger family (many of the actors in this are German and have a very strong accent). But as you all probably know by now, I'm a big Kristen Miller "fan" and since she's starring in this slasher flick, it was obvious that I was going to love it in the first place. If you're a fan of modern teen slasher flicks, this is definitely not one that you will want to miss.

A German slasher flick shot in English which has a lot of issues but ends up being a very entertaining slasher flick if you don't mind some obvious plot holes every here and there. I'm sure many people hate this and it doesn't really work on the mainstream level, but if you're a slasher fan, you can't afford to miss this one. Oh and there is one reason that will make you watch this movie, the most classic horror scene ever - The Slide, after you see this, you will think twice about going dow a slide.