Macabre…ish Horror Review: 12 Feet Deep
12 Feet Deep, 2017/ 85 min
Bree (Nora-Jane Noone) and her sister Jonna (Alexandra Park) meet up to swim at the local aquatic center, meanwhile the pool manager, McGradey (Tobin Bell), is going around putting signs up, warning the guests the pool will be closed for the holiday.
McGradey then announces that the pool is closed and the place clears out, except the sisters who trail behind because Bree lost her engagement ring. Jonna spots it at the bottom of the pool. They dive in to get it at which time McGradey assumes everyone is gone and he closes up, including the pool cover, trapping the sisters in the pool. And he leaves for the weekend.
Bree figures out it’s not so simple to get out, and Jonna wonders if it was purposeful. They check the entire fibre glass cover, looking for weaknesses and find none. Then they start arguing when Jonna confesses to being jealous of Bree’s life. And that jealousy is why they are trapped, Jonna saw the ring in Bree’s bag and threw it in.
As it get’s dark, Bree starts to suffer the impact of not having her insulin, without it, she could fall into a coma. Meanwhile, a recently fired employee, Clara (Diane Farr), is actually still there doing her final cleaning before she’s done. But the sisters don’t know it.
While chipping at the cover the sister reminisce about the bad old days. Then they hear a door open, it’s the staffer, Clara. She immediately goes toward the sister’s belongings and rob them, while telling them to hold on. Then she spots the camera recording her, so she goes in and turns them off.
Then Clara starts chatting them up and questioning Bree about the password to her phone. So Bree tells her and the woman goes through her phone, plays her voicemails and torments them. She confesses to being an ex con and she wants to get paid, she requests the P.I.N for her bank card. With no answer, she turns out the lights and the heat and demands the code again. So Bree gives it up. Then she leaves.
Jonna and Bree hug in the freezing pool, hoping she’ll return. Jonna decides to try to pry off the grate at the bottom of the pool to try to break the cover. She can’t and she starts to emotionally break down while Bree is physically breaking down.
And Clara is just lying on top of the cover, just listening. She’s deciding if she’s going to leave them in there to die or not. Jonna has a plan, she’s made a shiv, if the woman puts her face next to the pool cover vent again, she’s gonna stab her. And she does it.
So Clara retaliates but flushing the pool with chlorine. After that, she demands the ring.
Hours later, Bree dreams of rescue but when she wakes up, she finds Jonna on the edge of suicide. She sees no hope even if she is rescued.
Then Clara gets a conscience and decides to open the cover but when she puts the code in, it doesn’t work. So she says they’re on their own. She also won’t call the cops because she doesn’t want to go back to prison. Meanwhile, Bree is getting closer to falling into a diabetic coma.
In a last effort to save them, Jonna tried the grates again and she gets one. And they get out. But Clara is back and she can’t let them live, she’s back with a gun this time.
This thriller was directed by Matt Eskandari and takes place almost entirely in a pool and for most of the movie, it was only a cast of three. And yet this film is surprisingly good and I was hooked to the bitter end. There’s not a lot of blood, no gory scenes and no jump scares, the horror is in whether of not the sister will be allowed to die in the pool by a cruel opportunist.