Editorials
‘The Pool’ – Diving into the German Slasher Movie 22 Years Later
While Germany wasn’t a significant contributor during the first revival of slasher movies, its few offerings are an interesting time capsule. These movies show how the country interpreted the subgenre during its postmodern era. Of all the homegrown German efforts from the early 2000s, The Pool (also known as Swimming Pool: Der Tod feiert mit) perhaps brings up the most nostalgia despite its vanishing act over the years. Boris von Sychowski’s vaguely remembered slasher didn’t make a huge splash back then, although that wasn’t from a lack of trying.
German slasher The Pool is openly set in Prague, yet the English dialogue, the rampant Hollywood movie clichés, and the generic pop-rock soundtrack all make American audiences feel more at home. The glaring Czech architecture and various accents, however, are constant reminders that the characters themselves are far from home. The adults and authority figures are either useless or plain nonexistent in the story, effectively leaving the teens to fend for themselves. Their autonomy eventually leads to trouble, of course.
At first, The Pool is guilty of the same inflexibility as other Scream imitators; the movie closely mirrors its progenitor’s design. In the predictable opening sequence, Anna Geislerová’s character Catherine is home alone and awaiting her boyfriend’s arrival when she’s caught off guard by the machete-wielding, incognito intruder. Although she has nothing on Drew Barrymore’s Casey Becker, Catherine does, at one point, brandish a shotgun. After that, though, the movie continues as expected, and Catherine’s rushed demise is undiscovered until the conclusion. Her death, however, introduces the movie’s gimmick of pools. Not the pool but rather an incidental one.
Immediately after Catherine’s murder is a series of high-spirited scenes capturing the main characters’ last day as seniors. No one actually knows Catherine and her beau are dead yet, so the students at the International High School of Prague can be forgiven as they party it up after finals. This includes a secret afterparty following the official graduation festivities. Here then enters the indoor aquapark — a part of the real-life Centrum Babylon in Liberec — that evokes memories of ‘80s slashers like The Initiation, Chopping Mall, and Hide and Go Shriek. Similar to those movies, the characters here become trapped with their killer in a single location. This aquapark is luxurious and tacky all at the same time, but the venue quickly helps to distinguish The Pool from its contemporaries.
The story wastes little time assigning character types. The perceivable protagonist is Sarah (Kristen Miller), an affable but timid American whose biggest flaw is her trusting nature. In the vein of Sidney Prescott, Sarah was traumatized at an early age. And as one might guess, Sarah’s survival depends on overcoming this problem. She’s not as stereotypically virginal as other “Final Girls” in the genre, seeing as Sarah is shown post-coitus with boyfriend Gregor (Thorsten Grasshoff), but when juxtaposed with her hypersexual and provocative best friend Carmen (Elena Uhlig), she is the more inhibited of the two. Interestingly, though, Carmen defies all time-honored conventions regarding hypersexual characters in slashers. Carmen would be condemned in another movie, whereas the writers here not only spare her, they grant her the most character development.
The Pool boasts not one but two “before they were famous” actors. The first being Isla Fisher, whose wretched character Kim crosses paths with the killer before the titular pool even comes into view. Meanwhile, her sensitive boyfriend Mike is played by a rather broguish James McAvoy. At the time, viewers probably didn’t think twice about either of these actors’ characters as they fought for their lives on screen. Watching the movie now, the retroactive recognition is overwhelming.
It feels like a wasted opportunity to not have the characters all stay in their immediate environment; the large and expensive international school shown briefly in the first act could have been a serviceable deathtrap. The invasion of safe spaces is, after all, common in the slasher subgenre. However, moving the cast from their prep school to an extravagant aquapark doesn’t mean the movie’s conversation about privilege is axed. Isla Fisher’s character, a frustrated scholarship student, spews resentment all over her boyfriend before being done in by the killer. Mike, like his friends, comes from money and not a single one of them seems to care about their final exam results. Unlike Kim, they likely wouldn’t need good grades to advance in life anyway. The audience might feel guilty for taking delight in these entitled brats’ slaughter, but it’s not as if the writers pleaded their cases all that well. Seasoned viewers are also not unfamiliar with the schadenfreude quality of slashers both old and new.
The killer doesn’t have the most intimidating disguise, but he or she does look quite fashionable. The dressed-in-all-black assailant is seen in tight leather pants, combat boots, and a long-sleeved shirt with the most severe turtleneck. To make this look “scary,” a skull mask then tops off the whole ensemble. It’s less effective than Ghostface, yet this villain is unusually chic. Despite their smart outfit, the killer doesn’t pull their punches. They do some serious damage with a machete, including brutal set-pieces on a waterslide and inside an air duct. While those in charge of the movie’s audio may have been too eager during the action scenes, the pure and audible sound of the machete — be it slashing through the air, or burying the blade in someone or some hard surface — is oddly pleasing to the ear.
A frequent complaint about The Pool is its characters. Right away a number of actors have a language barrier to contend with, so trying to understand them can pose a challenge. More concerning, though, is how indistinguishable the characters are from one another. Whether it’s their similar clothes and hair, their cursory personalities, or simply the uninspired casting, certain characters are easily mixed up. The overstuffed cast does make the killer’s true identity less obvious, although viewers won’t be faulted if they ask “who?” once the mask finally comes off. Even their motive will lead to shrugs.
The simple and straightforward approach demonstrated here was once dismissed and taken for granted, but that unassuming execution is seen as charming and refreshing nowadays. It’s a flawed movie in many respects; the acting is all over the place, the dialogue is consistently awkward, and the plot holes start to amass. When viewed as a descendant of cheesier ‘80s slashers rather than a self-aware exercise from the meta period, though, The Pool is a great deal more enjoyable. Finding a copy isn’t easy, seeing as this movie hasn’t made its way to Blu-ray or streaming yet. Even so, those willing to take the plunge are guaranteed to have fun with The Pool.
Horror contemplates in great detail how young people handle inordinate situations and all of life’s unexpected challenges. While the genre forces characters of every age to face their fears, it is especially interested in how youths might fare in life-or-death scenarios.
The column Young Blood is dedicated to horror stories for and about teenagers, as well as other young folks on the brink of terror.
We’re now officially in the back half of 2026 now that July is here, but what a year it’s been for horror so far. The sequels and reboots are still holding strong at the box office with films like Scream 7 and Scary Movie, but it’s also been a year where new voices are shattering records in unexpected ways.
Markiplier eschewed conventional production and distribution channels with his feature adaptation of Iron Lung, for example. We’re also still in the midst of Backrooms and Obsession-mania, with the former back in theaters with bonus footage and the latter extending its box office reign. Liminal horror has exploded, and low-budget indie horror is seeing just as much, and sometimes even more, success as big studio-backed fare.
All of which to say that 2026 has been a hell of a year so far for the genre, and it’s only getting warmed up. Still on the way are Evil Dead Burn, Insidious: Out of the Further, Resident Evil, Clayface, Whalefall, and Werwulf, just to name a few.
Also catch up with the Best Horror Books and Best Horror Games of the year so far.
Here are the ten best horror movies of the year (so far).
10) Chime
Horror master Kiyoshi Kurosawa is back with one of his most haunting yet, though one that’d likely be higher on this list if it were more accessible. The 45-minute feature was initially produced and distributed as an NFT before receiving a theatrical run earlier this year, with no plans to distribute digitally or on home media. It spins a somewhat cryptic tale, introducing a culinary teacher, Takuji Matsuoka (Mutsuo Yoshioka, Never After Dark), whose classroom becomes disrupted by a strange sound that leads to violence. It’s a quiet but haunting unraveling, one that leaves no aspect of Matsuoka’s life untouched, in true Kiyoshi Kurosawa style. That it defies any easy explanation also ensures Chime embeds itself under your skin.
9) Send Help
Sam Raimi’s splatstick return to form is a delightfully deranged two-hander that doubles as infectious catharsis for anyone who’s ever had a bad boss. Rachel McAdams (Doctor Strange) and Dylan O’Brien (The Maze Runner) face off when their characters are shipwrecked on an island, prompting a bid for survival in more ways than one. While O’Brien often matches her, It’s McAdams who shines as she deftly handles everything that Raimi, working from a script by Damian Shannon & Mark Swift (Freddy vs. Jason), throws at her. Send Help is full of vibrant personality, packed with all of Raimi’s signatures, making for one of the most entertaining films of the year.
8) Mārama
New Zealand filmmaker Taratoa Stappard’s gothic tale begins in familiar fashion, with Mary Stevens (Ariāna Osborne) arriving in Yorkshire upon invitation to learn more about her parents, only to find the remote manor haunted. Just when Stappard’s period horror story feels doomed to succumb to familiar gothic trappings and jump scares, though, its true horror emerges. The more Mary uncovers about her heritage and her Māori culture, the clearer it becomes that this grim home is built on violence and exploitation. Stappard’s vision comes into its own when it leaves behind its gothic influences and embraces its Māori identity; few scenes are as powerful as when Osborne’s Mary performs a haka in response to her vile oppressors, heralding in a righteous bloodbath.
7) Touch Me
Writer/Director Addison Heimann draws from retro Japanese horror, exploitation cinema, and perhaps even hentai for his campy, psychosexual sophomore feature. A toxic friendship plagued by trauma, codependency, and addiction gets tested to the extreme when Brian (Lou Taylor Pucci), a hip-hop-loving, tracksuit-sporting alien, gets between them. Olivia Taylor Dudley and Jordan Gavaris have an easy rapport and play off each other well as directionless, depressed Millennial besties prone to ignoring their problems until they become insurmountable. But it’s Pucci’s inspired, childlike take on the chicken nugget-loving extraterrestrial with tentacled secrets of his own that steals the show. Heimann has a lot on his mind with his sophomore feature and neatly condenses it all into a quirky, eccentric psychosexual camp odyssey that leans heavily into humor.
6) Backrooms
Director Kane Parsons translates the vast liminal labyrinth of his web series to the big screen in his feature debut, one that instills existential dread with its atmospheric horror and narrative. The ‘ 90s-set horror movie introduces a protagonist with a serious chip on his shoulder over life’s many disappointments, who then discovers his furniture store harbors a hidden door that leads to an endless labyrinth. It’s not just the incredible production design that instills a disorienting sense of doom and terror, but the lead characters’ palpable and profound sense of loneliness and isolation. Parsons exudes impressive confidence and control as he methodically entrusts his quiet worldbuilding and talented leads to carry the dramatic weight. While Backrooms does deflate by the film’s cryptic, cliffhanger-y end, it’s arguably the most effective and scariest yet at capturing the uncanny valley of generative AI.
5) Leviticus
Writer/Director Adrian Chiarella uses an It Follows-like supernatural entity that relentlessly stalks its prey as a launchpad to immerse audiences in the horror of constantly living in fear for simply existing. A conversion therapy ritual among a deeply conservative community plunges a pair of erstwhile lovers into a nightmarish bid for survival when it summons a force that takes the shape of those whom the afflicted desires most. Chiarella refines the horror mechanics and metaphor with much sharper precision, ensuring that the scares and emotional gravity of the young couple’s terrifying predicament reach their intended impact. It’s the central layered performances by Joe Bird (Talk to Me) and Stacy Clausen (Thrash) that clinch emotional investment in their heartbreaking plight, ensuring that the social horror cuts deep.
4) Redux Redux
The McManus Brothers, writer/director duo Matthew and Kevin McManus (The Block Island Sound), dials up the intensity of a classic revenge story by setting it within a multiverse, where Irene Kelly (Michaela McManus) seeks to snuff out every single iteration of her daughter’s murderer, Neville (Jeremy Holm). The more she stalks and slays every world’s Neville, the more she risks losing her humanity entirely. Through a narrative foil in Mia (Stella Marcus), Redux Redux smartly bypasses repetition as it explores the moral complexities and vulnerabilities of Irene’s extremely violent quest. Holm becomes utterly terrifying in the climax, ensuring that no matter whether Irene loses herself to vengeance for good or not, it’s justified if it means ridding the world of this sick maniac.
3) 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
Director Nia DaCosta takes the reins in the second entry in writer Alex Garland and original director Danny Boyle’s trilogy, picking up from the previous conclusion that saw Spike (Alfie Williams) fleeing from the infected straight into the welcoming arms of Sir Jimmy Crystal (Sinners’ Jack O’Connell). From here, DaCosta presents a stark contrast between humanity’s best and worst. The former sees the tender studies of Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) make poignant strides toward humankind’s future, while the latter unleashes more pain and bloodshed courtesy of the Jimmies. The dual paths of light and dark collide in one epic conclusion, an inspired confrontation between good and evil on a stunning set piece of heavy metal insanity. Yet it’s DaCosta’s handling of both extremes that impresses most, teeing up one epic conclusion to this trilogy.
2) Obsession
Sketch comedian turned horror filmmaker Curry Barker (Milk & Serial) wrings blood-curdling terror from a classic Monkey’s Paw wish fulfillment scenario in a way that no one could have ever anticipated. To say that it’s taken the box office by storm would be a massive understatement; Obsession is the top horror movie of the year in terms of gross. It’s not hard to see why, either. While Monkey’s Paw scenarios often yield predictable outcomes, and this outcome is practically telegraphed from the start, Barker manages to surprise with the journey itself. And it’s one insane journey paved with blood-soaked violence and no shortage of nightmare fuel. What truly sets it apart, though, is leads Michael Johnston and Inde Navarrette as the central pair undone by one vicious wish. Expect to see a lot more from breakout Navarette.
1) Hokum
A surly, traumatized writer must break free from his self-imposed shackles of guilt when confronted by a wicked witch haunting a quaint Irish inn in the latest by writer/director Damian McCarthy (Oddity). Adam Scott’s Ohm makes for an atypical but rewarding protagonist, and his complicated emotional journey gives way to a deeply moving story of a man so thoroughly broken by personal trauma that he constantly dwells in darkness. In true McCarthy style, expect the creepy as hell witch to dole out some supernatural retribution for crimes committed, but never in the way you’d expect. The filmmaker has a way of making whimsy pure nightmare fuel; Hokum distorts a kids’ show into eerie, uncanny valley-induced terror in its torment of Ohm. Channeling Stephen King, this creeper plays like a traditional campfire tale in mood and style, infusing genuine scares with a sense of magic and heart.
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