Swimming Pool - Der Tod feiert mit

Group of college students about to graduate hold a secret party at a pool after hours, but things wouldn't be the same without a mysterious killer stumbling upon the scene to kill everyone. Some style, some excitement, some seriously sexy moments, some creative death sequences, and a few scary scenes. Much better then expected.

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.

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!

This is one of those recent attempts of late to make an American-style movie with European funds; pictures like ANATOMY, DEEP IN THE WOODS and LEGION OF THE DEAD fall into this category. THE POOL does a poor job of it. Tedium sets in immediately, and since the one good murder episode appears rather early in the film, you can shut it off fairly quickly. There's no excuse for a dull movie about teenagers getting sliced and diced (even WITHOUT an apparent motive)!

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.