10 Most Terrifying Horror Movie Swimming Pool Scenes

Shivers, Phenomena, Cat People and more horror movies with utterly chilling pool sequences!

by Andrew Pollard
The Faculty
Miramax Films

One major reason why horror is forever a popular corner of cinema, is down to the sheer scope and possibilities offered up by this most chilling of genres. Whatever terrors you can imagine, the horror genre allows those fears to be brought to life.

There are obviously numerous familiar tropes and formulas at play across the broader landscape of horror, and part of those familiarities are certain locations that happen to pop up on a scarily frequent basis.

While cabins in the woods, classical haunted houses and mental asylums are locales that horror has served up time and time again over the decades, one other place that has seen its fair share of atrocities is the humble swimming pool.

The ocean (just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...) and numerous lakes (hey Jason!) often come to mind when thinking of somewhat cliched settings for these movies, yet a surprising amount of horror pictures have utilised a pool to hammer home their M.O. and to deliver some of their most jarring, intense kills.

With that in mind, here then are ten of the most terrifying and shocking pool scenes to ever be committed to film.

10. The Faculty

The Faculty
Miramax Films

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'.

Senior Writer
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 dayjob, 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, Jamie Hayer, 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.