Take a dip? (CREDIT: Universal Pictures)
Starring: Wyatt Russell, Kerry Condon, Amélie Hoeferle, Gavin Warren, Nancy Lenehan, Jodi Long, Rahnuma Panthaky, Eddie Martinez, Elijah J. Roberts
Director: Bryce McGuire
Running Time: 98 Minutes
Rating: PG-13 for Creepy Black Goo and A Few Near-Drownings
Release Date: January 5, 2024 (Theaters)
What’s It About?: Professional baseball player Ray Waller (Wyatt Russell) and his wife Eve (Kerry Condon) are shopping for a new home that will hopefully afford him some space to adjust after a recent multiple sclerosis diagnosis forced him to take time away from the game. They settle on a cozy suburban spot with a backyard swimming pool that has a very unusual feature: it’s connected to the groundwater! Also, it’s haunted. However, when Ray takes a dip, it’s more like a fountain of youth, as his symptoms begin to miraculously fade away. Unfortunately the pool has a bit of a tit-for-tat arrangement with all of its owners: for every person it cures, it must consume someone else. That certainly doesn’t bode well for Ray and Eve’s kids Izzy (Amélie Hoeferle) and Elliot (Gavin Warren).
What Made an Impression?: A New Mythology?: For much of Night Swim, I couldn’t help but ask, “When are we going to discover that this pool was built on an ancient burial ground?” While the premise is certainly Poltergeist-y, the aesthetics are more beholden to turn-of-the-20th century J-horror, especially when the strands of dark black hair of previous victims peek through the pool’s filter. But writer-director Bryce McGuire has ultimately crafted his own unique dark parable. It’s an expansion of the short film he made in 2014 (along with Rod Blackhurst, who has a story credit on the feature), but it also feels like it could be drawing from the mythology of some nation or ethnic group that I’m not terribly familiar with. If that’s the case, I’d love to dig deeper into the real-life inspiration. Although as far as I can tell, this was mostly McGuire’s creation. It’s a creepy enough scenario, although I do wish I had been more viscerally freaked out instead of focusing on all this pondering.
Shifting Moods, Shifting Tones: Each member of the Waller clan besides Ray has their own ghostly experience that convinces them that the pool is not to be trusted. But young Elliot is the only one who responds to that realization with much urgency. His older sister and mom do have flashes of taking the threat seriously, but they’re distracted by more earthbound concerns. (Maybe there’s a point being made about losing touch with the supernatural as you get older?) When it eventually gets to a point that they can’t deny what’s right in front of their eyes, they often remain rather stone-faced. Perhaps this family just isn’t very expressive.
It all builds and falls to a rather matter-of-fact resolution despite a notably tragic climax. I don’t know if McGuire ever fully figured out what tone he was aiming for. Or if he did, I’m not sure he clearly conveyed that to his cast. Still, there’s enough creepy imagery and a solidly unnerving premise to make Night Swim worth a lukewarm recommendation despite all the awkwardness.
Night Swim is Recommended If You: Saw all the gunk trapped in a pool filter and then thought, “Hey, what if that’s haunted?”
Grade: 3 out of 5 Marco Polos
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