Swimming pools in Horror

The following is an edited exceprt from my listicle ‘My top 10 horror movie swimming pools’.

It’s finally summer (sort of) and what’s better in hot weather than a nice cooling dip? Well, if it’s the swimming pools that feature in a lot of horror films, pretty much anything. 

I’ve been keeping a list of cool swimming pool scenes in horror movies for a while now (yes, I’m that nerd) and it includes films like Jennifer’s Body, Let the Right One In, Shivers and The Faculty. So why are pools so prominent in horror? Is it something about the recreational turning sinister? A subconscious fear that humans have of being out of our comfort zone in the water, and even drowning? The vulnerability of being wet and often wearing skimpy swimsuits? Whatever it is, there’s a glut of horror out there featuring pools and the peril they contain.

And it’s not just movies. I vividly remember reading the short story ‘Guts’ in Chuck Palahnick’s collection ‘Haunted’ back in the day, and it grossing me out so much that I gave the book to charity without finishing it and still think about it way too often for my liking. I’m not going to tell you the gory details, go seek it out if you think you have the stomach for it. Let’s just say the story was then kind of recreated in 2009 in the fourth instalment of the Final Destination franchise, when one of the beige teens gets disembowelled by a country club swimming pool drainage system. 

But… it’s certainly not the best of them. Sign up to my Patreon (tiers £5+) to check out my favourite swimming pools in horror cinema.