Review of Pool, The

Introduction

After passing exams at the international high school of Prague and becoming "too cool for school" a bunch a students intend to celebrate with an ultimate party at the gym and then onto a top secret venue location. The party goes into full swing at the water complex with its different pools and water features including a tube slide and bar until the characters realize that they are locked in and bodies start turning up by a menace trying to ruin the show. As the story unfolds the students get knocked off one by one and the movie starts to take on the form like `Scream` or `Friday 13th` with only a few remaining towards the end trying to get out to save their lives.

Video

The picture is a full screen 4:3 presentation. The quality of the picture transfer seems to have a slight softness to it presenting some fuzz on the lighter scenes. There is a lot of flesh to look at and the coloring of the skin tones is natural looking despite water shine all over. There are a few transitional scenes of bridges, rivers and streets that are probably taken from Prague itself and where these characters are based in the movie, they make a nice change between all the water scenes. The initial pool shot once the lights are switched on gives a nice widescreen shot of the complex interior and shows off the scale of the surroundings where the party is at. The pool complex also has low ceiling caverns all lit up, plant life and even a gym in another room it looks like an indoor paradise.
The killer wears what seems to be a biker`s suit, a combination of leather and skintight black including the mask with a skeleton voodoo looking part overtop. It`s this character that gives the others no mercy as he slices and dices savagely throughout the movie. His strikes are pretty graphic with his long, steel; machete looking blade, the first kill in the pool was pretty gruesome and did get my attention as one victim slides into the blade from a water slide. In one scene the camera focuses on the ankles of another victim in the locker room and plays with your mind as you know what`s going to happen to them. Another dramatic scene is during the escape in the air duct tunnel, multiple stabs come through and there are a few close calls.

Audio

The audio track is Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; the accents of the characters vary and are a mixed variety, although the dialogue throughout the movie is clear enough. This wasn`t a sound effect laden movie but small ambient effects can be heard okay and quality of the audio is clear, you can hear each stab of the broken bottle underwater in the end scene and you can almost feel the cuts! Yuk! The music played a key role in this dramatic thriller and was utilized well during jumpy scenes or chases through the complex; it was a mixture of strings and other instruments.
On a lighthearted side of the music the movie featured heavy pop/rock tunes and in some respects similar to another `students at parties` movie, `American Pie` an example of this is after the exams have finished and the characters come through the main door.

Features

The main menu consists of an underwater scene from below looking up at a body surrounded by blood, cloudy and blended into the water. The title is at the bottom of the screen near the options, extra features, play and scene selection are your available choices. A low sound like wind through glass, one note sustains over the backdrop. The special features include a trailer, a photo gallery, production notes and interview with Boris Von Sychowski the director of this movie, which unfortunately is only in written format and you have to skip through the pages to read it all.

Conclusion

Even before I read the Directors interview in the features I thought of this movie exactly like `Scream`, except with loads of water and undressed characters. In the interview Boris mentions `Scream` and `I Know What You Did Last Summer` as his influences, he quotes; "They come closest in terms of how they are made, how they go for thrilling an audience rather than disgusting it." The movie also introduces a small sub plot about a shabby, rugged detective investigating a murder of a girl that ties in and leads him to the killer too.
I did find this movie entertaining, highly dramatic and a good chase! Although similar to `Scream` I found that the killer character gave this movie an edge as he did supply the best scenes, I think if it wasn`t as graphic as it is then it would just drag and be one of those `Scream` copy flicks! I think it was also a wasted opportunity to flash some flesh properly! There they are drunk, rampant students, pairing off in different pools and rooms and not one slip of a bikini strap, were they glued on? I must admit though you do see a slight bit of eye candy in the scene where one girl is making a deal with the guys for more beers and states "show a guy a pair of tits and you can get anything you want".