If there is one thing that Blumhouse productions, the mastermind company behind some of the best and most profitable horror films of the last 10 years, knows, it’s the business of horror movies. What is traditionally the ‘post-Oscar-race-dead-space-slump’ that is film releases in January, a time where films that distributors aren’t as confident in knowing what they want to do with just dump it into cinemas in the hopes that it’ll make some money, Blumhouse in 2023 found immense financial (and some critical) success with M3GAN – a campy-fest horror film about an murderous AI girl.
Knowing the potential of how horror (and perhaps specifically PG-13 horror) can perform during this time, Blumhouse have played their January card once more with the release of their latest film, Night Swim – a horror about a possessed swimming pool. Time will show whether the early January spot, previously held in the lowest regard, could now be a money-filled haven for horror after the success of M3GAN. However, the greatest variable in this cinematic experiment is whether the film itself has to be any good as well, because Night Swim is far below average in terms of comparative quality with a lot of Blumhouse offerings. In fact, it’s barely treading water in the shallow end during its 98-minute run time.
Adapted from an incredibly effective 2014 short film of the same name, Night Swim is from writer/director Bryce McGuire (who co-directed the original short almost 10 years ago now) in his feature film directorial debut, and centres around Ray (Wyatt Russell), Eve (Kerry Condon), and their two teenage children who move into a new house together that is more suited to the requirements of Ray, who recently has been diagnosed to be within the early stages of Multiple Sclerosis. Despite the best efforts from Eve to be as loving and caring as possible to Ray’s situation (and the effects it will have on their family), the idea of Ray losing his prestigious baseball career looms as a dark, emotional cloud over his head.
As the family adjust to their new house and Ray’s diagnosis, an unknown force begins drawing each member of the family to their swimming pool. Supernatural visions and unexplained terrors begin to arise from the depths, but nothing more dangerous than the visions this possessed pool begins to show Ray. Visions that show him a life he could have, free of MS and dominating the sport he loves. But, at what cost?
It’s no surprise that, even without demonic possession, pools are dangerous and terrifying on their own. Drowning, slipping on the edges, hair-grabbing filters, and entrapping covers are all elements of aquatic terror that Bryce McGuire attempts to enhance on screen with the ridiculous fact that outside all the real-life dangers, there’s a supernatural being orchestrating the danger. And that is unfortunately where the major misstep of Night Swim becomes apparent… it’s a haunted swimming pool in a film that doesn’t haven enough horror fun with its premise, instead spending the majority of its story focusing on underdeveloped human drama that is a blatantly obvious mismatch in tones.
Don’t be mistaken, there are two quite effective scenes that use incredibly creative camera work and tension building to pull off entertaining scares, particularly the unique “freestyle” swimming stroke POV scare early in the film. It’s clear that McGuire has a visual flair for horror and wants to imprint some fresh energy into the genre with those scenes. However, the horror itself, both found in jump scares and brooding tension, often fall flat because the movie is bloated, and the story is paced so differently to the energy that horror needs to be enjoyable. Not to mention, that once pool possessions take place, the final act of Night Swim devolves into stock-standard finale territory that comes across as a desperate attempt to just wrap the film up.
The family drama that centres around Ray and his newly diagnosed battle with MS should create enough compassion for the audience to gravitate to the emotionality of the film. And it would have worked more if the performances from Wyatt Russell and Kerry Condon, which aren’t bad performances by any means, but they definitely aren’t as committed as they need to be to work for this type of story. The performances lean closer towards “we’re in a schlocky January horror release” more so than “emotional gripping family drama about dealing with a life-changing diagnosis”. It’s just unfortunate that the horror and the family drama aspects of Night Swim are in contention with each other for screen time, rather than working together. Although in saying that, the two concepts seem that far removed from each other that their symbiosis is already a stretch.
The most interesting aspect of Night Swim’s dramatic narrative is the idea that Ray is given an opportunity to overcome the MS, and relive his baseball glory days, at the cost of becoming a possessed killer. While this hypothetical does go to an extreme, it’s an interesting question to ask of its audience, and one that is the most redeeming factor of the film. Ray’s moral conflict is arguably the most fleshed out aspect of the story and is a riveting foundation for an engaging story. But again, it’s wasted on an undeveloped plot in a mismatched genre piece.
Night Swim is an unfortunate amalgamation of too many ideas that work against each other tonally. Despite two really effective horror moments, the terror is generic and underplayed, racing towards a third act that blandly recreates every horror ending you’ve seen before. Then on the other end of the spectrum, there’s great elements of an emotional family drama with a strong moral centre that is also wasted by underdevelopment and performances that feel too aware of the quality of film that they’re serving.
Night Swim is in Australian cinemas from January 4, courtesy of Universal Pictures.
