Sometimes all you need is a simple premise and a ton of grit and inventive storytelling to really sell a horror movie. When you have a single-set location that traps the protagonists in an uncomfortable situation, like a stuck ski lift or a couple lost at sea, you can sometimes have a film that’s one note. An “okay, now what?” that can either force the filmmaker to be inventive in increasing tension or can feel like a short premise dragged to feature length. Luckily, writer/director Ping Lumpraploeng has enough tricks up his sleeve to take a somewhat silly, b-movie premise and elevate it to a genuinely thrilling single-set horror in The Pool.

The sun is blazing. A man wakes up on dingy tile. His lips are chapped from the hot sun. His hand is stained with blood and the tile behind his head is oozy with red. He looks over to the side of the pool where bloody footprints remind him of his predicament. But before we can contemplate how he got here, a crocodile chomps on his leg and drags him. He fiercely fights it off and it retreats while above him, a white dog barks energetically. And as the camera pulls back we see the enormity of his situation: he’s in a 20 foot deep pool with a crocodile and there’s no escape.

After this effective in media res opening, we’re whisked six days earlier before our incredibly hunky man Day (Theeradej Wongpuapan) ends up in his horrifying situation. He works as a dog trainer for a photoshoot involving the titular pool, where the director wants to film some artsy underwater sequence involving a red couch and a woman with clown makeup. Don’t ask. It doesn’t really matter. After the shoot, Day lounges on an inflatable raft in the middle of the pool, just soaking up the sun, while his incredibly poorly named dog Lucky sits poolside, chained to a fence.

Long story short, a crew member turns on the pool drain, informs Day the water’s draining and then quickly catches a flight to his next job in Nepal. But unfortunately, Day just continues to lounge on the raft, drifting away in lazy slumber, until he realizes that the water is now too low to climb out. Complications quickly arise, including a cringe-inducing moment involving a fingernail and an almost Saw-like and darkly comedic decision moment involving a life-saving phone and his dog. Then Day’s girlfriend Koy (Ratnamon Ratchiratham) shows up and disastrously decides to dive into the pool, smashing the back of her head in the process.

“Nothing could be worse,” Day says as he appraises the unconscious woman who’s slowly bleeding from the back of her skull. And, as if on cue, a very large crocodile saunters and ends up sliding into the pool.

Oh, and to make matters worse, Koy’s pregnant.

This is all in the first act.

The Pool is a ludicrous, crowd-pleasing horror film that finds increasingly bonkers ways to ante up the horror in darkly comedic ways. Director Ping Lumpraploeng seems to take vicious delight in finding ways to torment and torture his incredibly swoon-worthy main character. But Theeradej Wongpuapan is gamefully up to the task and turns in a fantastic performance that elevates the B-Movie-yet-high-concept premise. It’s a very physical performance as Ping pulls out all the stops to throw complication after complication at Day and Koy. This focus on inventive problem solving and ever present crocodile threat keeps the pacing frenetic through most of the film to the point you’ll probably forget that we’re stuck in a single location.

What’s more, there’s an air of fate swimming over the events, as the camera focuses on breezes and natural moments with a Final Destination-like glint, offering up moments of reprieve before tearing it away. Here’s a possible escape...but it’s a barb wire rope. Here’s a ladder that we’re going to wrench out of your hands in a cruel twist of windy fate. You can almost see the sadistic glee in filmmaker Ping’s eyes as he throws torment after torment on Day.

Unfortunately, the middle section sags under maudlin weight as Day and Hoy discuss the future of their baby and whether they should have an abortion. It’s a human drama complication, sure, but it also feels baked in and stilted. Flashbacks to the events preceding the pool show Day’s selfishness and, in the present, Day thinks the baby will be disappointed that its father is struggling so hard while Koy asks, “why are you so cruel?”

Then there’s the most divisive moment that will immediately turn off more sensitive watchers. A moment that’s comedically pitch black that I found myself laughing at the brazenness on display. It’s going to piss off a number of people. So while the crocodile special effects are janky and unbelievable and it makes A Choice that will inevitably turn off viewers, it’s the strength of the deeply absurdist plot and the twists upon complication-creating-twist that really sells The Pool.

Besides, where else are you going to see a hunky man strip off the remaining part of his muscle shirt, wrap it around his hands with some barbwire to make a bladed glove to go mano-a-crocodile?