Night Swim (2024)
Hello (fellow) scaredy-cats! It’s time to go to the movies again. Night Swim is the first not-too-scary horror movie of the year - and it’s pretty good!
Produced by James Wan and Blumhouse, Night Swim is written and directed by Bryce McGuire, who based his feature film debut upon a short film he made now ten years ago (together with Rod Blackhurst, whose own busy career includes the action thriller Blood and Dust from 2022).
According to McGuire, Night Swim is based upon the primal fear kids experience when the swimming pool that looked so attractive in the summer sun, can suddenly look spooky as hell at night. What exactly is lurking down there in the deep now you can’t see the bottom of the pool anymore?
Night Swim stars Wyatt Russell (yes, the son of Kurt!) and recent Oscar-nominee Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin) as Ray and Eve Waller, the proud parents of teenage daughter Izzy (Amélie Hoeferle, from the recent Hunger Games-movie) and younger son Elliot (Gavin Warren), who seems to miss the confidence that comes natural to the other three.
The family has other problems too. Ray was a successful baseball player, at least until he started suffering from Multiple Sclerosis. As a result the family had to move into a new town - with Alameda standing in for what looks like the Midwest - where Eve has found a job as an administrator at the local school. The house they buy is a bit of a fixer-upper, but, hey, at least it’s got a swimming pool.
And that’s where the movie’s early tension comes from. The swimming pool has a past - this is shown in the somewhat scary prologue - but it also seems to have a supernatural future.
Water is a powerful symbol. It can give, but it can also take, and as Ray seems to regain his strength, by training in the pool, and even starts dreaming of a second chance at baseball, it is clear that this will come at a price.
Director McGuire creates a lot of tension from the idea that something bad is going to happen to the kids, be it Izzy or Elliot, or maybe some of the kids from the neighborhood that they hang around with.
There is hardly any blood in the movie, but there are a few jump scares and towards the end there is definitely some very physical violence. But this is not the Art the Clown show! If you want blood and gore, you will have to look elsewhere.
Most of the time McGuire focuses on the characters, and the actors who inhabit them. And here the movie finds its strength, cause the cast, including the supporting characters, is excellent.
Wyatt Russell, for instance, is just as charismatic as his father Kurt. His Ray is a nice guy, a natural at sports but less talented at everything else. You can see why he desperately wants his old life back. Condon’s Eve is a tower of strength, who keeps the family together, but never felt so lonely as when giving birth in the hospital while Ray was on the field hitting homeruns. Izzy is a great kid, as talented at sport as her dad, and also falling in love with a boy for the first time. The sensitive Elliot could use a little more encouragement from his father, even though he proves to be quite resilient when he is forced to act by circumstances beyond his control.
Still, the question remains: will this family survive or will there be casualties along the way? Well, you will have to go see this in a theater if you want an answer to that. But it’s worth the trip (or should I say ‘swim’) to the cinema.
Note: Night Swim is released this week in a lot of territories (like the US, UK and my country The Netherlands) this week, with others (like Germany and Spain) following in February.