The Pool (2014)

I don't often review films. Frankly, with the advent of "quantity over quality" which has taken place with free streaming on major providers, I find that movies of the horror and/or psychological thriller seem to be just recycling the same themes and storylines over and and over again, with cheaper and cheaper production budgets. I just find that it's much harder to suspend my disbelief these days - and maybe that's because I've seen so many horror films/thrillers at this point. Let me tell you, don't be thrown off by the fact that this is a foreign film and contains subtitles. IT IS TERRIFYING. The characters are easy to identify with, as is the storyline. For those who enjoy the outdoors, they can relate. And for those who do not, well, this movie will only drive them further away from the woods! I just have to say that this film was jarring. The twists, the turns, none of them were typical of the genre, and the writers were/are brilliant. The acting was top notch, and the filming was wonderful. The scenes were cut perfectly for the style and fit the scenery and context well. I literally couldn't stop watching, the film kept me on the edge of my seat. OH, and I tried to eat dinner during it. Don't do that!

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

Dutch "horror film" De poel seems to be an imitation of for instance recent American remakes of Japanese horror films and it doesn't do a good job of it. Ineptly written, the film falls apart at a certain point becoming hard to watch in the sense that I wanted to fast forward and get to the end of it.The film lacks any real artistic value. There is no good story here with themes and depth and therefore the film doesn't hold your attention.The film basically has no personality of its own; it's like the script was written in an office by people who wanted to make a "Hollywood" movie which results in these Dutch characters in this Dutch movie speaking in ways that Dutch people don't speak. We don't talk like characters in a Hollywood movie (I am Dutch myself). I cringed listening to this fake dialogue. One character seemed to be an exception and he was talking like a lot of Dutch kids talk nowadays where they too copy things from American culture. I wouldn't be surprised if the word "fokking" is now officially a Dutch word.Anyway, I could go on but you get the idea. De poel is a failure. I do give it two stars instead of one though as there were a few successful shots. One for instance was a wide dolly shot where one of the kids leaves his tent at night and walks to the water. That was an OK shot.Edit: I was reviewing Hansel and Gretel when I saw that I had given this two stars due to some of the shots being OK. But I have to admit that even those shots don't save this film from being a complete and utter failure. It sounds harsh but that's just the way it is. So one star it is then.

A nice try for a horror movie. There has never been a dutch scary movie that actually was scary. Compared to the rest of them, this movie is a masterpiece. It almost gives you a scare and its first 35 minutes are entertaining minutes. Then it unfolds to be a'the shining' wannabe. All the characters become unlikable. The motives are weird and unprovoked. The movie becomes predictive. And after an hour of watching you start to lose interest to see the end. It's just follow-up of nice shot scenes, but no overall story. The acting isn't that bad. I wouldn't recommend this movie for anybody looking for a entertaining evening. Because there wasn't any nude in the movie, something that we dutch always find functional, I can't give this more then a solid 4. Not really bad, but still far from good.