Watch The Pool For Free

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

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 Netherlands always had a thing for horror, a few classics came out of that country, the best known one must be De Lift (1983). From that moment the name Nederhorror came to life. De Poel is classified under Nederhorror due Jan Doense being involved. He's known as Mr Horror in the Dutch era so this flick did had an easy promotion and distribution. But to be concrete , was it all worth watching. Well if you think you will see a gory flick or a slasher then skip this flick. If you do like ghost stories and people going berserk by dreams they have then this is your stuff.I must say that I do had mixed emotions about it. The positive thing is that the acting was above mediocre but the story did lack suspense. Don't get me wrong, there are things going on but after a while it's a bit predictable. After eating the fish things go rather wrong at the camping era and from there you can say, well, this and that is going to happen. The last 7 minutes do offer a bit of slasher horror with one nice killing, but i won't spoil it over here. Even clocking in at 76 minutes it's a rather short flick but it was enough due the predictable parts. Even the ending wasn't a surprise. But the way it was shot and the effects used did upgrade this flick a lot and for some the score used will do the scary part I guess. Nederhorror? Just on the edge.Gore 0,5/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 3/5 Story 2,5/5 Comedy 0/5

Well, there's a surprise; another Dutch movie that only receives a mediocre rating on IMDb (5.8 on the day this review was posted). It is quite a fact that everything which is Dutch and not directed by Paul Verhoeven has a tough time in the cinemas. 'De Poel' (The Pool) received quite some positive reviews and was hailed as proof that Dutch horror movies can work; however, advertising for the movie was predictably lacking, so this movie probably only saw the inside of a few cinemas for no more than 2 weeks, with only a handful of moviegoers and some copy pirates as its sparse public. But you would at least hope that a good movie, even a commercially failed one, ultimately gets its due credit here, like The Shawshank Redemption. Alas, no such luck.Did most people who rated this movie take the time to actually watch it? I kind of doubt it. There has to be an audience for this movie, a rare type of Dutch film that takes its matters seriously, and doesn't feel like a low-budget, low-scale imitation of a better American original. It is not that Dutch cinema has a rich tradition of horror movies. 'De Lift' (The Elevator', remade as 'Down') is a rare example from the 80s. Not much worth mentioning was made in the 90s, and in the zeroes, a few attempts were made to revive the genre with 'Doodeind' and 'Slachtnacht'. However, these two, although enjoyable, were obviously made from the archetypical American example, the slasher horror (or 'Dead Teenager Horror' as the great Roger Ebert liked to call it). The Pool, however, seems to take its inspiration from (IMO) one of the best British horror movies of the last decade: The Descent.The Pool has the same basic premise: a couple of friends venture into a forbidden area, but a succession of adversities slowly turn them against each other. And while the psychological tension rises, a hidden evil that dwells in the surroundings starts to pick its victims, one after another. In this case, experienced camper Lennaert (one of Netherlands' finest character actors, Gijs Scholten van Aschat, who also co-wrote the screenplay) goes on a camping trip with his wife, sons, his good friend and the friend's daughter. He convinces the rest to stray from the beaten path and enter a forbidden area to camp in, next to a giant pond. It doesn't take long before a succession of events, ranging from strange, unnerving to downright disturbing, convince them that there is something terribly wrong with the place. Of course, Lennaert gets the blame for this, which causes his relation with his family and friend to take some turns for the worst, with dire consequences.The great difference with 'The Descent' is that the outside threat does not come from a few cave-dwelling monsters, it has a more supernatural origin. However, the biggest strength of the movie is that it doesn't lose itself in exposition. No time is wasted on endless explanation; it is almost like the makers rely on the audience's familiarity with supernatural movies like The Grudge, The Ring and The Shining; we only see glimpses and images of what may be visions, hallucinations, memories, feverish dreams, or reality, and the audience has to fill in the blanks for itself. I saw a few deleted scenes on the BluRay disc that explain way too much and kill much of the mystery, so the creators were right to cut them out. It also helps the movie to pick up a pace unusually fast for the genre. Within 30 minutes, we are in the second act, and after one hour, it turns into the highest gear, so the mere 85 minutes of run-time certainly don't feel short.The absence of monsters doesn't mean a lack of gore. The visual horror scenes come sparingly, but are all the more effective and visceral for it. The special effects look really great, given the low budget of the production. Still, the movie remains evenly balanced between character scenes and gore, right to the end. I would have hoped for a climax that had me gasping for air, but unfortunately, the ending is quite tame compared to the rest of the movie. The actors, with leading man Scholten van Aschat up front, have no problems being convincing without being flashy or going into hysterics, which adds perfectly to the tension. I've heard people say that the dialog is bad, but I think that is because Dutch simply doesn't sound as cool as English (both our words and sentences are longer, which makes it hard to make cool-sounding quotes).You could say that the movie is assembled from parts snatched out of other (sometimes better) movies, but I feel that you can make a fresh new dish from old ingredients, as long as you don't snatch it from one recipe and flavor it enough. The stew created for The Pool is good for my taste, so I certainly am hungry for more. I wouldn't be surprised if it starts to make money when Hollywood is eager to buy the remake rights.

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.