'Pool Boy Nightmare': Lifetime thriller has a formulaic story, ridiculous climax and is a below-average watch
Spoilers ahead for 'Pool Boy Nightmare'
Gale (Jessica Morris) is an industrious woman, who has recently gotten divorced from her husband owing to his playboy reputation. Although she's finding it hard to come to terms with her husband’s rather adventurous life, which mostly involves women half his age, Gale, to a certain extent settles into her new life in a new neighborhood with her teenage daughter Becca (Ellie Darcey). And, thanks to the divorce settlement, she could afford quite a mansion, which came with a beautiful pool.
As the name suggests, Lifetime’s thriller is significantly built around the swimming pool within Gale’s new residence and all the tragedies that have occurred in its premise. Before Gale and Becca moved into their new house, a 25-year old man named Adam Lance (Tanner Zagarino) took care of the pool and also served for its previous owner, who died a few months ago in her bathtub under mysterious circumstances.
On arriving at their fancy home, Becca is immediately drawn to the pool and highly attracted to its maintenance boy Adam, who takes pride in showing off his chiseled body while he works. And soon it's established that it isn't only Becca who is fantasizing the pool boy, but also her middle-aged mother, who believes women shouldn't be judged for sleeping with younger men, which comes as a reaction to all her husband's flings.
Making the most of the least ideal situation, Adam seduces Gale when she confides in him. One thing leads to another and they end up having sex on their second meeting itself. However, refusing to follow in the footsteps of her promiscuous husband, Gale tells Adam that what happened between them was a one-time thing. This isn't well-received by Adam, as he is now obsessed with Gale, so much so that he convinced she's his love, who reminds him of his mother. Strange much? Behold! There’s more.
In order to get back at Gale, he starts seeing her daughter Becca, which is also what the teenager with raging hormones desired. While Becca cherishes her new relationship with Adam, her best friend Jackie and Gale warn her against his eerie behavior. But Becca continues to date Adam without the slightest of doubt as she isn’t aware of him making whoopee to her mother.
The rest of the movie sees Adam hunt down everyone that tries to come in the way of his pursuit of Gale, including her former husband Scott. Perhaps, Adam’s bouts of insanity are the only times the movie comes anywhere close to being a thriller. As a viewer, you may wait until the end to see if there’s more to this tale, but the movie that runs high on predictability doesn’t showcase anything besides what we already know from the first few minutes into it.
The story is such that it doesn’t demand any extraordinary skills from the actors' end — not even fights or any sort of violence. Yet, there are a few instances that make you wonder if it required the artistes to be so extra, as it doesn't sit well with the audience. The climax, which acts as a defining factor in thrillers, seems to have been made with very little effort in 'Pool Boy Nightmare'. Overall, the movie is quite a drag all along and you wouldn’t be missing out on anything if you chose to skip it.
'Pool Boy Nightmare' premieres on September 7 at 8 pm ET on Lifetime.