Night Swim Movie Review: Swimming pools aren't frightening unless you can't swim. Indeed, depending on how well their owners take care of them, some of them can be really disgusting. Furthermore, it can be repulsive if insects or other critters perish in them. However, on the whole, they appear like a pleasant spot to unwind on a hot summer's day. That's the fundamental issue with Bryce McGuire's haunting swimming pool feature, which is based on a short film he and Rod Blackhurst shot in 2014. Even though the director does his hardest to create tension with the typical jump scares, Night Swim ends up being as ridiculous as it sounds.
The duration of the short film that served as the basis for this movie was less than four minutes, which seems perfect. Sadly, the 98-minute feature version has a basic plot embellished with a mythological backdrop that is unlikely to make Stephen King green with envy. And it's easy to image the jabs on a future edition of Mystery Science Theater 3000 when the scariest line in a movie is, "There's something wrong with that pool!"
In the prologue, which takes place in 1992, a little child meets a tragic end while trying to collect a weird toy boat from her backyard swimming pool. In the present, we meet the Waller family, which consists of Ellie Hoeferle (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes), a 12-year-old son who hasn't inherited his father's athletic ability, Ray (Wyatt Russell), a former baseball player whose career was cut short by multiple sclerosis, and his supportive wife Eve (Kerry Condon, The Banshees of Inisherin, an Oscar nominee).
Ray thinks that daily water therapy would help him combat the consequences of his pernicious condition, so the family purchases the property with the pool, oblivious of the house's tragic past. (This, in spite of the fact that he almost drowns when he falls in the first time he sees it.) It further turns out that the water in the pool comes from a natural spring that is supposed to have therapeutic qualities. Ray's condition appears to be improving remarkably, supporting this theory.
As the family members exhibit an odd determination to stick their hands in every possible entrance in the pool, with predictable unfavorable outcomes, the inevitable unsettling episodes ensue. Since animals in horror movies are usually wiser than people, only their pet cat seemed to be aware that something is amiss with the pool. Unsurprisingly, the cat soon goes missing, its leash floating in the water.
With its rapid shift from lighthearted pool party games to dark and potentially lethal Marco Polo, the movie aims to do for swimming pools what Jaws did for the ocean. While Night Swim has seen a few brief glimpses of otherworldly creatures similar to what you would see when you have too much chlorine in your eyes, Jaws featured a truly horrific monster in the form of a great white shark. As the story progresses, they do become more noticeable, but they still have that Halloween mask-like appearance.
Naturally, haunting swimming pools don't just appear out of nowhere. The one that is ultimately disclosed here is quite interesting; it goes back many generations and has to do with a demonic wishing well. The movie has really sunk into campiness by the time one of the main characters is taken over by whatever is haunting the pool.
The actors do a good job of elevating the material. Kurt's son Russell has obviously inherited his casual charm from his father; Condon gives an unexpectedly deep representation in a picture that is simply beneath her; and Hoeferle and Warren are utterly natural as the struggling children. And filmmaker McGuire, whose most recent feature film credit is Unfollowed (2018), demonstrates that he is more than capable of following the Blumhouse low-budget horror film script. Nevertheless, despite their best attempts, Night Swim won't make you second-guess diving into a pool on a steamy July evening.
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