Previously posted on blog and written by S. Kess
If you are like me you fall asleep on a raft in a pool that is being drained, unable to escape only to have a crocodile join you in the pool, about once a month.
So it goes in “The Pool” a 2018 creature feature horror film from Thailand. After a photo shoot in an abandoned diving pool, Day stays behind to clean up and slack off while the rest of the crew leave. As Day hangs out on his little pool raft soaking up the rays the last crew member heads out telling Day to get out of the pool or he will get stuck like some kind of fucking idiot. Well, Day promptly passes out. When he wakes up the water is a lot lower and he struggles in an attempt to get out. When the pool is nearly drained he is joined by a curious crocodile.
The rest of the film is an “epic” showdown between man and beast. There are excellent moments of ratcheting up the tension, masterful really, however, they are completely undercut because the crocodile looks ridiculous. When it isn’t moving it is fine and almost looks good. When it moves? Ohh, boy. It looks like it was copy and pasted onto the movie and its motions are weird and unnatural looking. It isn’t blended in at all and the design is just awkward looking. Every time it moves it kills the tension because you can’t take it seriously.
If the movie wasn’t so damned serious the dumb croc could work, but this is a very dramatic film and the derp-o-dile does it no favors. You can either change the tone or change the croc and this movie gets better. A puppet croc would probably be the ideal. Look at Bruce in “Jaws,” that was one dumbassed looking shark, but it worked because it at least felt like it was there and it could be touched. There are a few things to look out for to enjoy/mock, Lucky the dog doing his best Stallone in “Cliffhanger” impression, the way the croc tumbles into the pool, and the weirdly cutesy reveals of important information near the start, subtle they are not. This isn’t a “so bad it is good” type of film though it is more of a “so close, yet so far” kind of flick. The changes needed to make a super rad creature feature are so minor that it is a real shame that it falls short. Have you ever watched a YouTube channel like Corridor Crew where they fix up poor CGI? “The Pool” is a perfect candidate for that treatment.
“The Pool” is a film worth watching if you love tense man vs. beast horror movies or character studies that focus heavily on only a few characters. Be warned, it can be really tough to see past the effects and they may leave you saying “after ‘while, crocodile.”
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