For a long time, January was a dumping ground for bad horror movies. However, in recent years we’ve had M3GAN, Scream, and Gretel & Hansel making it seem that maybe starting the year off with a good scare could be a positive change. Night Swim is the new Blumhouse/Atomic Monster collaboration to hit the screen in January – and it returns to a much more depressing side of the aforementioned trend.
Director Bryce McGuire’s new film has two great actors in the lead, with Wyatt Russell playing Ray Waller and Kerry Condon playing his wife, Eve. Ray is a former professional baseball player who has MS (Multiple Sclerosis), and the family is looking for a new house to aid with his recovery. None of the places the realtor shows the family of four really clicks until a moment that feels like the end of Miracle on 34th Street, as Ray notices a house that he shouts “Stop the car!” for them to check out. Of course, this is the one – and the pool in the backyard is a large part of the draw.
The audience has already been to this house and its pool in the opening sequence of the film. A young girl was lured to the pool by what appears to be a supernatural force. Part of the problem with the setup of this film is that the forces behind the pool and the terror it represents feel extremely avoidable. The first half of this film annoys me, as the danger is always on the fringe and nothing happens for a long time. No amount of chemistry between the cast can make this section tolerable.
While all film experience is subjective, I am a bit of a stickler for rules. A lot of the explanation as to why and how the pool is the way it is leaves a lot to be desired. The few attempts of explaining or exploring come very late, and still don’t really add up to anything. This film is the feature-length version of a short film from ten years ago, and the premise seems better suited for that medium. We have to believe there is a reason the characters are in danger and can’t easily escape…but the pool just doesn’t seem to achieve this.
McGuire’s film takes some big technical elements that mostly work. There is a lot of POV camerawork in the pool sequences. You catch glimpses of “something” in the peripheral as the swimmer’s head bobs in and out of the water. The depth of the pool is explored in ways that remind one of the “sunken place” in Jordan Peele’s Get Out. Still, these stylistic elements don’t add enough to make the film an enjoyable experience.
Night Swim was more of a frustrating experience than a scary one. The premise just never clicked, and the characters felt a little too bland at times. This is no fault to the performances, as they do their best to make things work. The thematic elements didn’t quite coalesce, but the film did seem to be exploring something more than just a thrill ride.
Night Swim is in theaters everywhere.
Rating: Not a Total Waste of Time.
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