8 horror movies with killer pool scenes

Pools are supposed to be safe—a lot safer than the ocean, anyway—unless, like many, you have a morbid anxiety about something appearing in the pool that shouldn't be there.

The following eight horror movies reinforce the fear of something or someone lurking beneath the surface just waiting for the right time to strike.

The Legacy (1978)

In what is the most memorable scene of the movie to many horror fans, a young woman goes for a swim in a ghoulish green-colored indoor pool.

The scene has a sense of tranquility about it at first as her lithe body zips through the water. Until she attempts to get out only to find the ransparent cover has been put back on the pool. What follows is her desperate attempt to be heard as she bangs on it and calls for help fruitlessly and eventually drowns.

The Prowler (1981)

Joseph Zito's cult classic slasher The Prowler boasts many brutal kills with effects being courtesy of the incomparable Tom Savini. One of the most infamous scenes, though, and a favorite with fans, including myself, is the pool scene where one of the characters goes for a swim in a crystal blue pool only to not realize she has company in there.

After a couple of minutes, the titular Prowler, dressed in very creepy-looking WWII fatigues, surfaces in the same pool and is far too quick for her, delivering an extremely memorable death scene.

The House on Sorority Row (1982)

The pool plays a significant role in this movie. First, during a prank gone wrong, some sorority sisters steal the house mother's walking stick, hide it in the pool, and force her to get it at gunpoint. Then, in the film's penultimate act, the final girl realizes that everyone else is dead because she finds them floating face down in a glowing green pool.

The Mutilator (1984)

This movie is famous for having the only pool scene where the pool is full of something other than water, milk! To give it the opaque look the pool was filled with so much milk, it took days to filter it out. In the scene in question, a young couple goes skinny dipping and they start fooling around, playing hide and seek in the pool.

The young woman is floating serenely on her back when two hands reach up from below, grab her around the waist, and drag her under, drowning her. Though this death scene is often considered weak by many, as there is no gore, the swiftness of it is pretty jarring and reminds us of how quickly death can take us and how senseless it is.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985)

Undoubtedly one of the most iconic pool scenes in horror, the one in Freddy's Revenge takes place at a teenager's house. They're having a pool party, and once the parents go to bed and the kids are free to party as much as they like, Freddy makes his dramatic entrance. After turning up the heat—literally—so that the pool is filled with boiling water, he terrorizes his way around this backyard get-together.

Jennifer's Body (2009)

This is one pool scene that doesn't look even a little bit enticing. The scene features a grime-filled pool with dark green hues that no one would want to swim in, but it's where the film's climax takes place with a standoff between the main characters of the movie have a standoff. The scene is both humorous and quietly unsettling in its way given the surreal circumstances both characters have been thrust into thanks to the actions of others.

It Follows (2014)

This movie is filled with memorable scenes, but this one at the movie's climax stands out to me and many others. The group of kids who are being stalked by the ever-changing entity of "IT" devise a plan to try and defeat it, which involves a swimming pool.

The plan goes as disastrously wrong as you'd expect, with seriously sinister results as the entity takes a new and disturbing shape in the form of the main character's deceased father. The pool filling with blood is a gorgeous shot from that scene and one that will remain etched in your memory long after viewing much like the scene itself.

The Strangers: Prey at Night (2018)

Following himself and his family being menaced at a trailer park by three masked slashers, a teenage boy kills one of them, only to find he has to face off against another - in the pool - with the sounds of Bonnie Tyler's iconic "Total Eclipse of the Heart" playing in the background while they engage in their watery battle.

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