10 Most Terrifying Horror Movie Swimming Pool Scenes

10. The Faculty

It may often get overlooked and it may very much be a film of its time, but The Faculty is a totally fun romp of a '90s horror effort.

Directed by Robert Rodriguez, this picture pulled inspiration from sci-fi horror greats of yesteryear, with Invasion of the Body Snatchers a clear inspiration on this 1996 offering.

Playing on one of Body Snatchers' greatest tropes, The Faculty serves as somewhat of a 'whodunit' as both the audience and our central protagonists are left guessing as to which characters are themselves and which characters have been infected by the unknown alien queen.

The final act of the movie sees it revealed that the alien queen is actually Laura Harris' shy, naïve transfer student Marybeth - and once this reveal is made, we then get a glorious swimming pool moment as the queen looks to show her dominance.

Chasing down Clea DuVall's Stokely and Elijah Wood's Casey, the queen makes up ground by powering across an indoor pool, before capturing Stokely in her tentacled grip. It's tense, it's terrifying, and it gave horror hounds the first true glimpse at The Faculty's 'big bad'.

Authored by Andrew Pollard

Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.

Posted On: 1st Apr 2021

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