Why The Pool Is A Better Horror Movie Than Crawl | Screen Rant – Screen Rant

Alexandre Aja's Crawl (2019) had stiff competition with The Pool (2018), out of Thailand; Aja's movie is better known, but The Pool is better.

American audiences are more familiar with Alexandre Aja'sCrawl, but 2018's Thailand-based horror movie,The Poolis a betterand more terrifyingexample of how a modern creature feature can be effective.

Bong Joon Ho, the director of 2020's Best Picture winner at the Academy Awards,Parasite, delivered an accurate sentiment by addressing how subtitles are often an impetus to Western audiences, and hinder people from discovering amazing foreign films. This isn't just limited to the horror genre, but it's very apparent with movies likeThe Pool, which hit many of the same beats as Alexandre Aja's movie did, just one year earlier. While the "creature feature" sub-genre has gotten a bit of a bad reputation, prompting audiences to think of movies likeSharknado and the many SyFy original movies, bothThe PoolandCrawlshow how realismand a natural threatcan be utterly terrifying.

Related: Why Crawl's Darker Original Ending Was A Missed Opportunity

CrawlandThe Poolalso largely employ a single-location setting, althoughThe Poolups the claustrophobic elements of being trapped much further. Situationally, both sets of protagonists are stranded and relatively helpless in their respective situations; they have to rely on their intelligence and willpower to keep from becoming the prey of opportunistic predators. InCrawl, a young woman goes back to look for her father during a Category 5 hurricane in Florida, only to discover that the crawlspace under their home has been invaded by alligators while the storm rages around them. It's two factors to contend with; the brutality of Mother Nature and the threat of an apex predator. InThe Pool, a series of unfortunate events strands Day (Theeradej Wongpuapan) in a six meter poolwhich eventually becomes emptyin a remote location where there's nobody to answer his cries for help. While there's a lot of overlap between the two movies,The Poolhas a significant edge.

Strictly speaking of ratings,The Poolholds a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing; compared toCrawl's 83%, that's still a significant margin, thoughCrawlwas still well-liked by both audiences and critics. Looking beyond that, the one area whereCrawlgets a definite edge via its CGI alligators, which are certainly more realistic in appearance than the crocodile inThe Pool, both visually and through its mannerisms and behaviors. Director Ping Lumpraploeng manages to utilize the single-location setting to tell a narrative of humankind's will to survive against unspeakably harrowing adversity as Day and his girlfriend, Koi (Ratnamon Ratchiratham) try to survive not only the crocodile who has wandered into the empty pool with them, but also the elements and their various injuries over the course of six days.

The set-up is almost laughable in how Day's misfortune builds and builds on itself; the situation inCrawlis already dire from the start, with a natural disaster in the works. Day falls asleep on a pool raft, unaware that the water is slowly draining, and by the time he wakes up, it's gotten low enough that he can no longer reach the ledge on his own. His girlfriend ends up stranded with himsporting a massive head injuryafter she slips on the diving board. He doesn't have enough time to warn her that the water level is too low and he's trapped. The crocodile comes in later as an insult to injury, but remains a constant threat all the same.

The Pooldoesn't need massive set pieces or the high-drama of a hurricane to be the more effective movie. Really, it's strongest point is that the characters behave in logical ways and consistently come up short. Day tries to grab his cell phone, but ends up losing it in the water. A pizza delivery man comes by with an order, but Day's bad luck strikes again and he ends up getting temporarily stuck in the pool grate due to a metal chain on his pants. With a strong story and concise narrative,The Poolmanages to prove how foreign horror movies can be just as goodif not betterthan mainstream releases.

Next: How Crawl Is Actually A Home Invasion Movie

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Jack Wilhelmi is the horror features editor at Screen Rant, and has been with the site since 2019. He is a lifelong fan of the horror genre, and loves any excuse to discuss genre-related topics, since none of his friends dare challenge him in horror trivia. He has been published on the independent horror blog Morbidly Beautiful, and has covered major genre film festivals such as Cinepocalypse in Chicago. He has also served as a judge for the Ax Wound Film Festival. In his free time, he is a devoted dog dad to a high-spirited rescue pup named Peter Quill and enjoys volunteering with various animal rescue organizations. Jack likes to travel and explore dark tourism-related and other various haunted locations. He enjoys studying psychology, the paranormal, and will watch literally any schlocky B-movie on the planet for a laugh.

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Why The Pool Is A Better Horror Movie Than Crawl | Screen Rant - Screen Rant

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero