‘Night Swim’ Floats But Fails to Sink Into the Horror

Night Swim, while having a simple premise, invites movie watchers on an uneventful journey that moves us out of our fear of large dark bodies of water straight into the backyard pools just 100 yards away. 

Written and directed by Bryce McGuire and based on the book written by him and Rod Blackhurst, the plot follows the Walker family — Ray (Wyatt Russell; Monarch: Legacy of Monsters), Eve (Kerry Condon; The Banshees of Inisherin), and children Izzy (Amélie Hoeferle; The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes) and Elliot (Gavin Warren; Fear the Walking Dead) — on their journey as Ray is forced to retire from his major league baseball career due to illness. 

Deciding that water therapy is just what Ray needs on his road to healing, the family soon finds themselves sprucing up their new home. Wanting to get the pool ready, Ray begins cleaning it, which leads to him scratching himself. His miraculous healing within a few minutes was cause for alarm until they learned that the pool was being fed water through an underground natural spring.

Taking it as a sign they made the right purchase, the family soon began to feature the pool in all their social events. However, everyone but Ray can tell something is amiss with the pool. We see Izzy slip into another dimension just below the pool’s surface as she is sucked under during a game of Marco Polo. Elliot is taunted by a voice calling herself Rebecca when he is alone playing find the coin. But when Eve finds herself feeling watched and uncomfortable, coupled with her husband’s mysterious physical and psychological recovery, she springs into action. 

Night Swim doesn’t do a great job of using horror to keep fans on the edge of their seat or make you even question the possibility of taking a night swim. Where the film falls short is actually building a strong plot around the pool itself as viewers only get 20-25 minutes of pool time all together.  The pool scenes we do get become predictable jump scare scenes that make you neither jumpy nor scared. For example, the audience is invited to follow the actor’s gaze as they search into the pool for the “thing” that lurks beneath, and just as the actor turns right, a new image contrived of horror greets us to the left. 

***spoilers beyond this point***

Even more predictable than the jump scares was the ending. Wanting to get to the bottom of the eerie occurrences, Eve tracks down the previous homeowner, Lucy (Jodi Long; Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings), and learns the history of the pool’s demand for human sacrifice. Understanding that if the pool can’t have her husband it’s coming for her son, Eve heads home to settle up with evil. While Eve builds our expectations to what could be an amazing pool scene, Ray quickly slaps us down with his lackluster choice to free his family by surrendering to the water while his family just stands by and watches. 

Thankfully, Eve gives the audience relief in knowing there will not be a sequel when she fills in the pool with dirt and decides to live in the house with her children as a way to protect other unsuspecting families.  

Night Swim is now playing in theaters.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars