The Pond
2014 · 18m · Belgium
Directed by Jeroen Dumoulein
Genres: coming-of-age, horror, mystery
Tones: contemplative, dark, melancholic
The Pond premiered at Screamfest 2015.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
A melancholic coming-of-age wrapped in horror conventions — except Dumoulein treats the pond itself like a character, not a jump-scare machine, which is exactly the kind of subversion that makes genre purists uncomfortable and makes the rest of us pay attention.
The film's restraint in visual language and its deliberate pacing situate it within a lineage of Northern European arthouse cinema; there's real craft in how the contemplative tone resists the genre's demand for spectacle.
What elevates this is Dumoulein's decision to let silence and reflection do the heavy lifting — the sound design choices around the pond space create an entire emotional architecture that a bigger budget would've buried under orchestration.
Reviews
Together with Michel Sabbe, they started working on a poetic horror short, The Pond (2014). It's set in the early 1900's, and tells the classic story about a young girl, Kris (8), who tries to unravel the mystery of the dark pond behind her parents' house.