De Poel (The Pool) Review

Movie: De Poel (The Pool)
By: Maniac E
Date: August 12, 2014

Neder horror is coming

So it doesn't happen often that we get a Dutch horror movie nowadays, and The Pool (De Poel) says it shall bring a lot of the real horror back to Dutch cinema. We shall find out if this is true.

'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 from here on out things start to happen. After swimming in the pool and eating from it makes sure the family isn't on a friendly vacation anymore. After a while the families start to see appearances and get visions of things that happened in the past and future.

To say it like this: close but no cigar. The movie has a big problem with pace it all takes forever to unravel and with the back flashes it doesn't make it easier to follow and where they really want to go with the movie. It is kind of a mixed bag of a movie that tries to be more than it wants it to be but also visually very strong. This last part actually really saves the movie from being completely crappy. Problem again here is that everything feels very generic and actually never does anything what we haven't seen before.

One of the things is that the movie tries to get across is how the lake is being haunted and turns people in to do its bidding. In order to do this some nicely done camera visuals have been done. It sometimes gave you the feeling like in "The Shining" that someone was actually losing its mind. But all that is interesting parts are quickly gone or is just pushed to such a generic level that you as viewer lose interest and just want the story to move along. A lot of Dutch press has been praising this movie for what it did. To a certain extend they are right it is a step forward from most neder-horror movies but it still feels way too generic and makes sure you won't really remember it for long. Again acting is okay but poor character development kills off most of the characters on screen. The predictable nature of the movie just ruins the whole experience.

In the end the movie was a bit of a borefest not a lot was happening and the characters except for the main father figure was really interesting. As for the movie to be one of the better Neder-Horror movies is giving it too much credit in the end. Yes, they tried to make something nice which worked to a certain point but failed in the end. If you are interested in a Dutch horror movie you can better watch a movie like "Borgman" this showed a way better way of working with horror elements and the bizarre phenomenon's.