The Pool (2014)

You won't be disappointed!

Just perfect...

Absolutely Brilliant!

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

This Dutch horror film opens with one of the most sharply observed views of a family holiday I have seen. Leannart Lennaert (Gijs Scholten van Aschat, who also co-wrote the screenplay) takes his wife Sylke (Carine Crutzen), and two sons Jan (Alex Hendrickx) and Marco (Chris Peters) camping, along with friend Rob (Bart Klever) and his daughter Emilie (Jamie Grant). The teenage sons argue, flirt with Emilie, while the elder members become more and more exasperated, whilst revealing that Sylke is having an affair with Rob. The level of sarcasm between the characters is delightfully realistic, and Len is determined they all enjoy themselves, whether they like it or not! As is often the way in these films, no matter how many rotting animals are found, no matter how food supplies inexplicably become festooned with maggots or injuries are sustained, they refuse to leave immediately.After suffering food poisoning, Rob dies in the night. However, we see a brief clip of Leannart strangling him and vomiting over his face, making it appear he choked to death in his sleep. The clip is so sparse, it isn't immediately clear whether it actually happened, or was just another of the increasing amount of hallucinations prevalent. The hallucinations are caused by a shell found by Jan, but seems to possess Leannart, and causes them both to see images of a young woman. In another brief flashback, it appears the woman maybe the reincarnation of a witch, drowned in the pool many years ago.At the end, on Jan and friend Emilie are the only ones left alive. When they try to leave, they only find themselves back at their campsite. Emilie falls to her knees in despair.'The Pool' is a slow moving film which features some exceptional performances. It is difficult to know what is hallucinatory and what isn't as events wear on, and the ending does nothing to make things clearer: Jan finds a motorway, seemingly freedom. When he turns to look at the girl behind him, it is the woman from the hallucinations.

The Pool is a deliciously tense movie. Contrary to what people have come to expect from Dutch horror productions, this is a little jewel both in its storyline as well as the high level of acting. Gijs Scholten van Aschat and his companions show not a solitary moment of weakness in their craft, and thus make a relatively predictable camping-in-the-wild story into a edge-of-your-seat experience. You know beforehand that people'll drop like flies. But that you'll care about these two divided families, and will bite nails till the end, that's a pleasant surprise. Not just that, but the quality of the sound, which in Holland is usually more horrific than its movies, is absolutely sublime: you won't miss a word. The little eye-rolls, irritations of a marriage that's past its prime, and creeping madness have been brought into frame with a deftness which can't usually be expected in a horror flick, much less a Dutch one. Subtlety and maggots, humor with a mourning band.

Two Fathers go on a camping trip and take their families in tow , when they set up camp in a restriced nature reservation at the side of a small pond (poel) things quickly start to unravel. The premise of this movie is simple and the way it is brought is also simple. The Netherlands are not known for their stellar horror movies , where de lift( remade into down) was the most known one. This is the first movie from the This is not a problem tough, the movie assumes the viewer will piece things together that is a nice change from the overly explaining and " See what i discovered" things that plague most horror movies. When the movie was over the people in front of me left after saying "What a vague movie" but i did not find it vague at all, in the end i pieced together what had happened and the only trouble i had with the movie was explained to me later by the creators on their facebook. The food got spoiled or destroyed, and the puddle would not let them leave, something that made me wonder why. but the most clear answer is simple, the puddle did this to get them to go desperate. The story starts as a slow burn but sadly shows the evil of the puddle a little to soon, a little more guessing would have been nice Sure what would happen could be guessed while the movie was playing,but this is a first movie from the house of nether horror, and for a first attempt this is a great movie. And if this movie is the quality of movies that they will keep making all i can say is the future of dutch horror looks promising.I certainly recommend this movie, but how much i liked it , the movie does not feel like a cinema movie so if you do go to see it see it on DVD, stream or even on demand.

We Dutch have a rich history of making movies with that typical 'Dutch mark'. Something that's hard to identify but somehow always involves nudity, swearing, a bit wooden acting and a sense of humor that is very much Dutch. Lacking budgets of, say Hollywood, Dutch cinema always has fairly low production values. Even compared to British, Scandinavian or French movies, Dutch movies alway fall short of outstanding quality. Which, even for me as a Dutchman, makes them hard to like. Sometimes you need to give them a chance however. And with 'De Poel' (The Pond) being somewhat of a revival of the 'Nether-Horror' genre I thought I'd put my prejudice aside and give it a try. Dutch media outlets praise the movie, but to me (and I guess my fellow movie goers in the cinema) it failed miserably.'De Poel' follows two families going on a camping vacation in a forbidden part of a Dutch nature reserve. They set up camp next to a pond, and sure enough: s--- hits the fan. The build up of tension is decent, and the main actors (the younger actors barely have any lines to work with) act quite naturally which is a relief for a Dutch movie. The tension between husband and wife is actually quite enjoyable. Mom blaming dad for being stubborn and relying on technological 'toys' instead of a good old analogue compass is fun and recognizable. There are some nice scenic shots too. That's where the goods end. 'De Poel' fails to be scary. Overly stylized shots from the perspective of 'the threat' distract and only serve to reinforce something is wrong...again, and again, and again. There is some gore, including cutting off a finger. Which is followed by the character almost ignoring his missing finger just an hour later... The story doesn't explain anything, and only barely hints at the cause of the trouble.The Netherlands has a history of prehistoric human sacrifices in bogs and marshes which this movie hints at, but never fully embraces. There's something about the virginity of 'the sacrifice' which made me fear they would actually go as far as having an awkward forced sex scene to prevent that sacrifice from happening...luckily 'De Poel' doesn't take it there. Instead: 'De Poel' simply becomes a snore fest best to be ignored completely.During my screening the crowd would laugh at the movie all the time, would critique it all the time and everybody walked out saying "what a terrible movie." The worst thing is 'De Poel' had potential, but in the end feels like something a film school graduate should be proud of. Nothing cinema worthy. And to be quite frank: nothing worth your time and money. So once again: Dutch cinema fails to impress and falls flat on its face.