Who in the Pool
恐怖游泳馆
China, 2015, colour, 2.35:1, 90 mins.
Director: Yuan Jie 袁杰.
Rating: 2/10.
Routine Mainland budget horror whose only original touch is being set in a swimming bath.
STORY
Somewhere in China, the present day. Hu Xiaodie (Zhang Lanyi), who has just got engaged to her fiance Mo Fan (Ding Huiyu), says she has been plagued by a nightmare in which she is drowned by a female ghost in a swimming pool. Meanwhile, invitations to their engagement party in a local swimming bath have been handed out by a mysterious boy who looks like Mo Fan’s nephew, Xiaolong (Li Jiayue). Only five friends turn up to the party, at which they all remember Qingrou (Du Jing), a girl who died a year ago in an apparent accident. After one of the group, Mengmeng (Jiang Yuxi) goes missing, another girl, Ping’er (Du Qiao), says she saw someone who looked like Qingrou behind Mengmeng. Then everyone hears the voice of Qingrou, who says that anyone who tries to leave will die – as it’s her party, not Hu Xiaodie and Mo Fan’s. The doors of the building are all locked. As the bodycount mounts, it seems that Qingrou may be revenging herself on someone who killed her.
REVIEW
The last of three budget horrors that former executive/assistant director Yuan Jie 袁杰 made for producer-director Niu Chaoyang 牛朝阳 around 2014-15, Who in the Pool 恐怖游泳馆, billing itself as “China’s first underwater ghost film”, is the same mash-up of millennials being picked off one by one in a creepy setting. This time it’s a swimming bath hired for a couple’s engagement party, though it’s also a good excuse to have a group of babes wearing swimwear most of the time. The film squeezed out RMB4.2 million at the box office, as the slew of quickie horrors started to lose their appeal with the Mainland public.
It’s all much on the level of Yuan’s first outing, Under the Bed II 床下有人2 (2014), rather than his fractionally better The Haunted Cinema 恐怖电影院 (2014). The script by Huang Yan 黄炎 – one several writers on Niu’s rom-com Lovers & Movies 爱我就陪我看电影 (2015) – somewhat clumsily manoeuvres the four women and three men into the Chinese title’s “terror swimming bath” and then having everyone run around being slaughtered. Curiously, no one rings for help, or even suggests it; mobile phones are, in fact, notable by their absence. When only two of the group are left, the film’s final half-hour is largely taken up with a labyrinthine explanation whose background (especially of one lead character) comes out of nowhere.
The cast is bland, apart from Zhong Chao 钟超 as the boyfriend of the movie’s sexpot (played by Yan Wei’er 闫薇儿). Lead actress Zhang Lanyi 张蓝艺, then 23, was just beginning her career as a Mainland horror scream-queen. Technical credits are okay.
CREDITS
Presented by Beijing Suiyuan Culture Development (CN), Shanxi Filmoon Pictures (CN), Zhejiang Eastern April Day Film & Culture (CN), Beijing Filmoon Pictures (CN), Beijing Eastern Melody Culture (CN).
Script: Huang Yan.
Cast: Zhang Lanyi (Hu Xiaodie/Hu Xiaoyu), Ding Huiyu (Mo Fan/Wang Yuan), Du Jing (Qingrou), Yan Wei’er (Ai Li/Wei’er), Yao Yuxin (Da Zhi/Yuxin), Du Qiao (Ping’er/Du Qiao), Zhong Chao (Guang/Chao), Jiang Yuxi (Mengmeng/Jiang Yu), Li Jiayue (Xiaolong, young boy), Deng Ziyi (woman in black).
Release: China, 31 Jul 2015.