The Pool (2018) should not be confused with Pool (2020) or Night Swim, which takes place in a pool. The Pool is also not a prequel to The Dead Pool or Infinity Pool, nor does it have anything to do with the short story, The Pool, by William F. Nolan.
The Pool (2018) is a survival horror movie from Thailand. What is the proper nomenclature for a movie from Thailand anyway? Thailandian? Thailandic? Thailander?
Much like the gender of the denizens of Thailand’s red-light district, we can never be sure. Spoilers will happen, both for the movie and for visitors to Thailand’s red-light district…
The Pool
The plot of The Pool is simple. A man (Theeradej Wongpuapan) is trapped in a drained pool. Later on, his girlfriend (Ratnamon Ratchiratham) joins him. And a crocodile.
That’s the kind of plot a person can get behind. How did the man get trapped in the pool, you ask? He was part of a film crew shooting a woman with a clown nose sitting on a loveseat at the bottom of a pool. After the shoot, he stayed to clean up. He fell asleep on an air mattress floating in the pool while it was drained.
How did his girlfriend end up in the pool? The screenplay put her there.
And the crocodile? Again, screenplay.
Ping Lumpraploeng wrote and directed. You know him. He also did Muay Sading Mat Sing Saifah.
Funny story, Mrs. Wrenage is not a movie ‘sperg. She can walk through the room while I watch a Chuck Norris flick and unironically ask, “Oh, is that a Star Wars movie?”
I have learned not to judge her for these comments. Yet, she walked through the room while I watched The Pool and asked, “Oh, is that a Thai movie?”
All that was onscreen at the time was an Asian film crew standing around a pool. How did she get “Thai” out of that? Perhaps, she is at a level of racist that borders on supernatural?
The Shallow End Of The Pool
Due to its simplicity, The Pool does not offer a lot to talk about, but we can squeeze a few drops of commentary out of it to pass the time.
Wongpuapan and Ratchiratham are both fine in their roles. Wongpuapan is kind of a big deal in Thailand. From 2006 to 2011, he was voted the most popular actor in the country by an ABAC poll. Just smile and nod like you know what an ABAC poll is exactly…
Meanwhile, Ratchiratham came from the TV series, Overflow Love. Its plot is thus:
During the great flood of 2011 in Thailand, it caused much trouble to anyone even Kor, who is a playboy and a pub owner. He has become a flood victim as well and has to evacuate and run away from his creditors by trying to get help from Kla, his father in Rayong. But he is surprised, he doesn’t find his father. There is a young woman name Wun, who claims to be the person that takes care of his father. She told him that Kla disappeared and after that Kor quarrels with him over the phone. Kor opens his father’s safe to get money to pay off his debt, but there is no money. There is only paperwork that specify that his father gave all of his money to Wun and that if he wants the money, he must marry Wun. There is much disorder and more fun when Yuan, Kor’s creditor, takes his family to escape the flood to live with Kor and Baby, Kor’s sweetheart, also escapes the flood to find Kor. Plus, Kor must find his missing father.
Reading that gave my brain whiplash. Yet, it is kind of endearing. Thailandians seem to know how to have fun with their melodrama.
Dive Into The Pool
Speaking of melodrama, it shows up in The Pool. The movie contains a fair amount of yelling into the sky. My favorite moment is when a dog hangs itself. No, I’m not going to explain that. Yet, it brought to mind the scene from Platoon where Elias dies.
Another thing The Pool offered that you won’t see in a western film is a negative take on abortion. The mom-to-be is actually horrified at the idea of terminating her unborn. A male character even specifically labels abortion a “sin.”
Just for typing that happened in a movie, I currently have a zombie army of blue-hairs banging on my window and moaning “my body, my choice.” I am not worried about them trying to eat my brain, however. My brain doesn’t taste like Twinkies.
Moving on to the crocodile. It is entirely CGI. How does it look? Not bad if you compare it to the giant crocodile in the Resident Evil 2 Playstation game.
Everyone Out Of The Pool
Ultimately, The Pool is similar to Inside, in that you wonder how the character will get out of their trap. Inside does it better. Credibility gets stretched thin in The Pool as a number of things just kind of magically happen. Most of them lead to dead ends, but the fact they happened is enough to break suspension of disbelief.
I also spotted an immediate solution for the main character. He has a roll of duct tape. He could have went to the corner of the pool and taped up a series of “rungs” to get out. The roll of duct tape was big enough to make it work through the principles of adhesive and friction.
Plus, Wongpuapan is Thai, so that makes him what, roughly 4’8 and 75 pounds? That is hardly bigger than Tom Cruise. Duct-tape rungs could easily have gotten him out. Bigger people than that get duct taped to walls all the time as pranks.
In the end, The Pool is not a must-see, but its heart is in the right place. Everyone involved gives their best. Its premise is solid. Escape-procedural movies can be fun. It even has a crocodile. Yet, it gets in over its head halfway through as it runs out of options. No need to “cannonball” The Pool exists, but it won’t make a huge “splash” in your viewing life.
