February 12, 2025

NIGHT SWIM (2024) – Not enough scares and thrills to make this a worthwhile plunge into

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Rating: ⭐⭐ 1/2

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With producers Jason Blum and James Wan who are so closely associated with the horror genre, Night Swim already has the upper hand in making this an attractive year opener for horror fans. That is despite its rather iffy premise of a home swimming pool that makes people mysteriously disappear from. The trailer and promotional poster gives the movie enough of a tease to make you want to check it out.

Wyatt Russell whom fans of the recent TV series Monach: Legacy of Monsters will instantly recognise, has the honors of playing the lead. Wyatt plays Ray, a former baseball player forced into retirement because of an injury or illness. Wyatt is pleasant enough, but he does not have the charisma and screen presence to project a strong leading character. The background story is a familiar one. Family with a young couple and kids moves in to a new house in the suburbs that has a dark history. Wyatt plays the father Ray, a former baseball player forced into retirement because of an injury or illness. There is usual financial struggles and mental strain on kids from the move. Add to the mix is a haunted swimming pool in the backyard.

As you can probably tell, there is nothing very original or inspiring here to make Night Swim stand out. Fortunately, the characters are not annoying but then, they are also not interesting enough to make you want to invest any empathy with them. The overall camera work and mood settings were great especially the sequences under water. Some of these really had a dream like feel to them with the pool’s depth seemingly expanding into a vast empty dark space. These provided some cool suspenseful moments but there were just not enough scares and blood to make this a truly horror outing. It is as if the film makers were holding back and didn’t want to scare the hell out of us. This is probably true to keep the film firmly classified as PG-13. I just felt that in the process this has done the film a gross injustice and shortchanged the viewers.

In conclusion, Night Swim felt like a missed opportunity for being something much better. It was well made, has likeable characters, and does not need to resort to silly vulgarities, jokes and jumps scares. It ultimately let itself down by keeping the scares too tame, as well as avoiding any bloody kills and nastiness. That is like taking the horror out of the horror show.

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