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Ever since he was a kid and a sadistic babysitter (Jessica Louise Long) took pleasure in pushing his head under water until he nearly drowned, Johnny (Randy Wayne) has been mortally afraid of water. These days, he's a wannabe actor in LA who's behind on the rent, invariably out of money, but not willing to find a proper job and give up his dream ... but that said, boozing and doing weed won't get him any roles either. So eventually, his best friend and drinking buddy Brandon (Demetrius Stear) persuades him to work with him as poolboy. At first the job freaks him out, but then he finds himself alone with a lovely client (Nash Carter) who lures him into her pool and tries to seduce him - and he is suddenly overcome by rage and drowns her ... and likes it a lot. So he continues drowning pretty girls, and since there's no shortage of pool parties in LA, he finds plenty of opportunity - and soon, he becomes known as the Valley Drowner, but that said, the police is pretty clueless about his identity. He tells Brandon though ... and Brandon is mighty impressed, because his misdeeds have made a star out of him, something he might have never become had he sticked to acting. So Brandon helps Johnny in every aspect of his killings short of killing itself, including tracking down possible victims and the like. Things only turn problematic when "fans" of the Valley Drowner throw a party for him and he insists on going - and somehow the police gets wind of this ...

Some nice cameos in this one, horror-blogger-turned-actor Shawn C. Phillips plays a porn star, director James Cullen Bressack the one guy at a party who has enough sense to call the police on Johnny's arrival, and director Jared Cohn himself plays an overly pretentious porn director.

Even if this movie doesn't exactly go the comedy route, it would be wrong to take it wholly seriously. Basically, Death Pool is a piece of social commentary about today's warped perception of stardom - but wrapped into the clothes of an actually rather violent thriller, that's told in a light-footed way that often emphasizes on the absurdity of situations and heightens them to at times comical effect. And that actually works like a charm, as it reminds one that horror can actually be fun as well, but gets one thinking as well (if one's inclined to) without hammering the message home.

Basically a real fun movie that works as a cool party flick but has more to offer.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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