The Pond continues the tradition of visually disruptive films rife with imagery meant to send the viewer on a trail to figure out the allegorical meaning to it all. Watching the trailer, I was hoping to get a film with the vibe of directors like Robert Eggers or even David Lynch.

Maybe we’d get a film like Adrian Lyne’s Jacob’s Ladder where the viewer can’t tell if we’re watching a man’s descent into madness or a truth behind the reality that is slowly ripped off like a Band-Aid.

In The Pond (out now On Demand from Shout! Studios), we meet the Professor (Marco Canadea), steeped in research into… something. He’s an anthropologist, but his research seems to have no real focus. All we really know is that it focuses on an island in the titular pond, where resides a tiny Balkan village with only a handful of people.

Though his research is secluded to a disorganized trailer on the island, the Professor lives nearby in a veritable mansion with his daughter, Gabby, and wife, Abby (Leslie Kunz). The dichotomy between the squalor of the trailer and his house couldn’t be more distinct. Over the course of a week, we watch the Professor descend into madness with a supposed apocalyptic discovery.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not always the brightest bulb when it comes to watching movies. I like to think I catch a lot and am attracted to films that get the gears clunking, but I’m still scratching my head after The Pond.

It had a lot of great concepts introduced over the course of the film. Duality existed between his house and the trailer, dreams and waking, insanity and reality, and so on. Interesting Stygian imagery and references were sprinkled throughout, such as the odd Boatman, and having those almost exclusively live in the realm of the pond village helped codify that area as a Dantean allegory.

In short, a lot of really rich imagery exists in the film, littered with some meaning that could touch the duality themes.

I was enjoying the film. It was great eye candy and got me thinking about how it could all be tied together – except the only plot that’s thrown in doesn’t really gel with these themes. There is odd last-minute drama between Abby and the Professor that actually feels counter to the rest of the film. I don’t know if I wasn’t looking deep enough or too deep for this film, and it’s an off-putting feeling, to be honest.

But there might be more to the ending than I’m seeing. I get the vibe that when I look into The Pond, I see a reflection of what I was hoping to see. When I think on it more, the surrealism actually gives more room for viewers to come up with their own translation of what is going on. I kind of wish I had watched it with someone so we could have discussed it afterward.

In the end, if you are a fan of surreal, psychological thrillers and of a grittier, almost-folk-horror visual vibe, than The Pond is essentially what you’ve been looking for.

Directed by Petar Pasic, The Pond is now available on digital and On Demand.