The Pool
A mixed bag of attractive and empty-headed international students spend their final day of school at a large and ornate indoor pool in Prague. As they while away the evening with alcohol, dancing, and casual sex, a masked killer whittles down their number in a variety of gruesome ways. While imitation is still the sincerest form of flattery, it's likely that Messrs. Carpenter and Cunningham et al. would find this European-made slasher film more insult than homage. Director and cowriter Boris von Sychowski's debut attempts to ape Wes Craven'sScream, but his risible dialogue and inept, crazy-quilt cast only succeed in presenting a more aggravating version of that film's self-conscious tone. It's numbingly derivative and lowbrow from start to finish, and only the most non-discerning gorehounds will find anything here worth their 89 minutes. For the truly commitment-free, Artisan's DVD presentation includes some behind-the-scenes interviews.--Paul Gaita