Movie Reviews
Night Swim | Reelviews Movie Reviews
Night Swim looks and feels like one of those
throw-away horror films that Blumhouse churns out with regularity. Last year, M3gan
took the January pole position and lapped the pack, stunning with a $30M
opening weekend and final domestic gross of nearly $100M. Night Swim isn’t
expected to do as well – the marketing hasn’t been as aggressive and the film
isn’t as expertly made – but it should fare nicely in the wasteland that is
early January.
Night Swim is primarily a ghost story but, although
director Bryce McGuire (who wrote the screenplay based on a 4-minute short film
he co-made with Rod Blackhurst in 2014) choreographs some creepy water-based
scares (the best of which, as featured in the trailer, involves a game of Marco
Polo), the plot is a mess. The “truth” is unsatisfying and the resolution lacks
impact. The movie is at its best when it’s content with being atmospheric and spooky.
As soon is it starts explaining things, the story goes down the drain with the
water being pumped out of the pool.
a young girl (Ayazhan Dalabayeva) has an unfortunate counter while swimming in
a backyard pool. Jumping ahead to the present day, we meet the Waller family:
father Ray (Wyatt Russell), mother Eve (Kerry Condon), daughter Izzy (Amelie
Hoeferle), and son Elliot (Gavin Warren). Ray, a former Major League Baseball
player, is afflicted with a progressive neuromuscular disease (possibly ALS),
and has been recommended with daily water therapy to help with his condition.
So the family buys a house with a backyard pool. And, while his daily swims
seem to cause an almost miraculous improvement to Ray’s health, the other three
family members have less pleasant experiences with the pool, hearing voices, seeing
ghostly apparitions and, in one case, discovering an underground world of
ghouls and ghosts far beneath the surface. While Eve, Izzy, and Elliot come to
believe that the pool is haunted, Ray sees only his physical advances.
I haven’t seen Night Swim’s inspiration but it’s easy
to envision that, denuded of most of its ridiculous plot, this could be fertile
ground for horror. McGuire proves himself to be a more capable director than
writer. By using a variety of lenses and angles, he expands the rather ordinary
setting of an in-ground pool into something vast and potentially dangerous. This
seemingly harmless recreational location becomes fraught with terrifying possibilities,
giving new meaning to the term “deep end.”
hiring “name” actors as a way to lower costs. Although there have been
exceptions (notably Jamie Lee Curtis), most B-grade productions emerging out of
Jason Blum’s warehouse have featured anonymous performers of variable quality. Night
Swim is no different. While Oscar nominee Kerry Condon is expectedly very
good, crafting a credible character from a thinly-written type, he co-stars
aren’t on the same level. Young actors Amelie Hoeferle and Gavin Warren could
use more seasoning and Wyatt Russell (the son of Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn)
spends a little too much time mugging for the camera.
For those whose only requirements for horror movies are that
they avoid the excesses of blood/gore/violence prevalent in R-rated fare and
incorporate a few good jump-scares, Night Swim checks the requisite
boxes. For those looking for a more complete experience, however, the movie
struggles even to achieve the level where it would be considered worthwhile as
a streaming option. It has moments but those never add up to a complete film.
Oh, and as an aside, how come it’s okay to kill cats in horror movies while
executing dogs are verboten?
Night Swim (United States, 2024)