Directed by: Bryce McGuire
Written by: Bryce McGuire
Starring: Wyatt Russell, Kerry Condon, Amélie Hoeferle, Gavin Warren
Rating: [2/5]
Horror films have a way of playing on the fears we all naturally have for entertainment value. It allows for these stories to sink their claws into us and play into a preexisting feeling or in the case of Night Swim it takes an unconventional fear and tries to run with it. Never thought a film would focus on a haunted pool but we receive one in this feature, which heavily struggles to make this dive one that feels worth it.
Moving into a new home with a fabulous pool, Eve WAller (Kerry Condon) and her family see it as the perfect place to settle down as her professional athlete husband Ray (Wyatt Russell) transitions into this new stage in life. However, as they begin to enjoy what the pool provides, they cannot seem to help and notice something strange happening within it.
From the Great White Shark in Jaws and other aquatic animals, water has always been a strong source of horror because of the general ambiguity of what’s below us when we’re in it. This transpires in the ocean where everything has a murky look to it and endlessly goes out. Confining everything to a swimming pool therefore makes for a different challenge with the fact it covers much less ground and generally the water is cleaner and provides more visibility. It then begs the question of what these filmmakers would do to craft a genuinely scary story about a haunted pool.
On its face it gives this appearance of such a hilariously upper-middle-class problem for these characters to have considering who can typically afford to have an in-ground pool and where the film takes its horror does not quite necessarily cut the mustard. Yes, it certainly has its moments where it gives us some exposition dumps to explain exactly what happened in the pool and how it impacts people but in the end, this alone cannot provide the satisfaction we need for a tale such as this. The success should come from the visuals it can provide to make the horror of this pool something to fear. For the most part, the film does not necessarily succeed, especially the scenes in the water, but some above board get a genuine rise, particularly when Eve visits a former owner of the home that genuinely provides the best moment the film has to offer. Everything else, however, does not rise above the typical jump scare that expectedly appears in the formula everyone would have familiarity with.
As the film progresses and swims on to its conclusion it never does stop and answer the question of why these individuals just avoid going to the pool. It signifies something self-contained that only truly impacts the characters when they go near it or go inside, which makes it a bit silly to follow how much damage it can cause when generally one can easily avoid being tortured by its ways for these characters, which becomes the type of silly thoughts that run through my head when the film itself does not provide something to attach ourselves to.
Other than the somewhat premise of a haunted pool, the main draw of this film for me personally came from Kerry Condon taking on the lead role. Stepping into this shortly after her breakout performance stateside in The Banshees of Inisherin, she definitely did her best with the material she received here. Not much of a character to work with other than representing the “concerned mother.” Certainly not a role that challenges her in any material manner but at the very least I am glad she received a nice paycheck that I hope continually flows her way but hopefully in better material than what she gets here.\
Night Swim ultimately comes together as typical January horror fare where it can scratch a particular itch if someone wants cheap jump scares. Other than a few scenes that jump out as casuings chills, the narrative it pieces together here does not particularly jump out as anything worth truly remembering. If anything the film makes an excellent case of being careful where one buys their home and reading some articles about the local area to stay attuned to what they can be walking into but we would not want that to get in the way of a little horror story, wouldn’t we?
Films with Josh 
