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Studio: Universal Pictures
Release Date: 4/9/2024
Rating: PG-13
Film Grade: C+
The Story: Ray Waller is at a crossroads in his life. Diagnosed with MS, his professional baseball days are behind him. His wife, Eve, has found a new school administration job, so the family is searching for a new place to live. They stumble upon a house that fits their needs, and that swimming pool in the back could aid Ray in his rehabilitation as well as being fun for their two children.
The pool is a bit of a marvel. Spring-fed, it’s always filled with water at the perfect temperature. But why weren’t the previous owners using it? And why are there problems with the lighting? Could there be more to the pool than meets the eye?
My Take: Water and horror naturally go together. The primal fear of drowning is something everyone can relate to. Building a movie around a mysterious pool brings in all kinds of opportunities to build on that anxiety.
Night Swim doesn’t just concentrate on that aspect of the story, though. Following on the common thread we see these days, it weaves family drama into the horror part of the movie. We see Ray’s struggle as he deals with his illness but isn’t willing to part ways with baseball, which was so important to his life. Then there’s Eve’s reality where she’s now the primary breadwinner, but also has to start acting as Ray’s caretaker. And the kids have their own individual issues to overcome. Balancing all of that along with the horror story is a tough task, and the film can’t quite manage to pull it off.
The family stuff is really interesting, and I think it’s the better part of the movie. Ray is still at the early stage of his condition and holding onto hope that he might recover to the point where he can play again. We feel his love of the game and the realization that he hasn’t given much thought about what might come after. It’s a surprisingly deep performance from Wyatt Russell (son of Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn). I hope he gets a chance to play more roles like this in the future. Likewise, Kerry Condon plays Eve as a woman that sees her responsibilities increase but does it with confidence and determination along with the satisfaction that they’re finally at a point where they can build a stable home for their kids.
Then we have the other part of the story. I will give them credit for not making this a simple haunted pool story. There’s more depth to what’s going on than that, which is both good and interesting. The rift between those two elements is just too much to overcome, though. As a result, the scary scenes feel like a distraction from the family part of the movie, and almost like an unnecessary annoyance.
There are so many aspects around the pool that could have been used for truly terrifying scenes, but that part of the movie is underdeveloped.
Video: This was really well shot. The water scenes offered so many chances to exhibit banding, but I couldn’t find any evidence of it, and I really tried to spot some. Night shots had great shadow detail. This is a solid video presentation that really shows off the blue-toned water themes.
Audio: The disc came with a DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 mix. There were some good use of discreet surround effects and the underwater scenes had a good feel to them. I think there were some missed opportunities for use of the surround speakers (the Marco Pollo scene is a good example of this), which could have added more intense feelings of dread. Would the Atmos mix have improved the experience? Likely, but not enough to affect the grade.
Special Features:
- Masters of Fear – Horror legends Jason Blum and James Wan discuss why they chose to collaborate on this project, what drew them to this story and why first-time director, Bryce McGuire, was the perfect man for the job.
- Demons From the Depths – Dive into the world of special effects and learn how the creatures in NIGHT SWIM were created to withstand the trials of filming underwater.
- Into the Deep – Go beneath the surface and hear from cast and crew on the physical and technical work that went into creating a movie that contains so many underwater sequences.
- Marco Polo – Director Bryce McGuire breaks down the pivotal scare scene and how the film took a simple children’s game and turned it into a nightmare.
- Feature Commentary with Co-Writer/Director Bryce Mcguire
Final Verdict: There are some aspects to the movie that I really liked, but it didn’t nail it as a frightening horror tale. Aquaphobic viewers may have a very different reaction, however.
It may be worth a rental or a watch on streaming, but I can’t recommend purchasing it prior to viewing. It’s not a title that will make it to our collection.
Fun Fact: The movie was inspired/adapted from Mcguire’s 2014 short movie, also called Night Swim.
https://youtu.be/pcSNqteCEtE
My Review System:
JVC DLA-RS3100 4K Ultra High-Definition Front Projector
Elite Screens Sable Frame B2 117” Width with Infinitely Variable Height
Monolith by Monoprice HTP-1 16 Channel Processor with Dirac Live
Monolith by Monoprice 7x200 Watts Amp
Monolith by Monoprice 3x200 Watts + 6x100 Watts Amp
JBL Studio 590 for Left, Center, Right, Wides, and Rears
JBL Studio 580 for Side Surrounds
JBL Studio SCS 8 for Tops
JTR Captivator 1400 Subwoofer X 4
Panasonic DP-UB420 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Player
Oppo BDP-93
NVIDIA Shield Android TV - 4K
Xbox One X
HTPC Running madVR (work in progress)
Remote: URC MX-780
Mini DSP 2X4 HD controlling all subwoofers
APC S15 Power Conditioner with Battery Backup