A Crab in the Pool (2024)

A Crab in the Pool Review

A Crab in the Pool is a 2024 Canadian animated short film. It’s a pretty strange, but effective short.

Zoe and her little brother Theo are left to fend for themselves on a scorching summer day. We see that these two are quite disturbed and acting weirdly and eventually it is revealed that this is because they lost their mom to cancer and are left to deal with their shared grief and trauma. I really liked the second half of this movie as this is where the story became stronger, more emotional and ultimately quite relatable. The revelations added layers to the entire film and were peeled slowly and carefully.

The layers are definitely present here and the movie is successful in its magical realist imagery and this strange mood that prevails in every scene. But the first half did feel a bit too strange for the sake of being strange in its grotesque imagery and character designs. It’s a typically French film in that element. The editing is stellar and the movie is highly atmospheric, but those individual moments of grossness and oddness were mostly done for shock value.

A Crab in the Pool is an overly strange and grotesque movie in its imagery, but ultimately a satisfactory one in terms of plot, emotion and characterization. The tragic revelation in the second half elevated the story quite a bit.

My Rating – 4