APG-13 horror filmindebted to genre classics likePet Sematary , Jaws , and on the face of it everything in - between , Night Swimjust does n’t know what it desire to be . Bryce McGuire ’s feature directorial debut , which is based on his 2014 short photographic film of the same name , is a supernatural revulsion romp that seems torn between its campier impulses and its Stephen King - sized aspirations . It ’s a moving-picture show that oftentimes recognize how silly it is , only to then ask at point that audience take it more badly than it deserves . But like a pool that continue turning green , Night Swimcan’t hide the layer of grime stuck to its very foundation .
Grime and filth are n’t forged affair in the revulsion genre , though , andNight Swimis at its respectable whenever it embraces its own shoddiness . Doomed by its PG-13 military rating to never get quite as brutish as its story demands , the film still manages to make its key , haunted swim puddle feel like a cursed cemetery that you should avoid at all costs . Thanks to its immensely appealing casting , Night Swimisn’t the kind of creative dud that ’ll make you go away the theatre experience tempestuous or cheat , either . It is , in fact , the variety of once in a while chilling , but forgettable horror recitation suggested by its early January release particular date .
After opening with an fitly nervous prologue involving the mysterious drowning of a young lady friend , Night Swimpicks up 30 years later with Ray Waller ( Monarch : Legacy of Monsters ‘ Wyatt Russell ) , a former baseball player whose calling was derailed early on by his sudden multiple sclerosis diagnosis . WhenNight Swimbegins , Ray , his married woman , Eve ( The Banshees of Inisherinstar Kerry Condon ) , and his kids , Izzy ( Amélie Hoeferle ) and Elliot ( Gavin Warren ) , are in the midst of look for a new home . Ray , despairing to check onto whatever sense of normalcy he can , persuades Eve to move their crime syndicate into a picture - thoroughgoing suburban house with the kind of backyard pool he ’d always dreamed of hold as a minor , rather than a townhome more suitable to his physical needs .
It is n’t long after they ’ve moved into their new home , however , that the Wallers begin to realize , one by one , that their seemingly perfect pool is n’t everything it seems to be . Eve , Elliot , and Izzy each have their own traumatic experiences in the haunted pool , while Ray ’s strong-arm health begins to improve the more time he spend in it . before long enough , the betting odds of him rebuild his baseball career do n’t seem so slim , but in a classical Faustian twist , his desire to follow blinds him to the cost that his sorcerous pool demands . It ’s all as absurd as it sound , and when McGuire ends one of Ray ’s medical interview with a close - up of him smirkingly remarking that he and his kinsperson “ have a pool now , ” it seems likeNight Swimknows it .
The film ’s 2d act is littered with moment of tongue - in - nerve humor that all terra firma , include a memorable one - prospect appearing fromHigh Maintenance ’s Ben Sinclair as a puddle mend guy who tend to recede himself in philosophical monologues about humanity ’s evolutionary relationship to water . It ’s a further credit to how well McGuire intermittently rides the line between repulsion and comedy thatNight Swim ’s instances of self - mindful ribbing never dilute its sense of danger . The thriller , for all of its many shortcomings , features a few sequence in its ghostly pool that swan from stir up to deranged and terrific .
Night Swim ’s pool - set hauntings and jump panic reveal its potential as a aboveboard , frighteningly effective horror comedy , and McGuire satisfy them with mere , but inspire technical flourishes . Whether it be the POV shot that mimic a character ’s infrequent view of her pool ’s surrounding sides as she swims across it or the moment when he decides to cut inside the pool ’s drains , the director makes good use ofNight Swim ’s central space and occupy both it and the surroundings around it with a sense of unseen threat . Unfortunately , McGuire also clogs the flick with unnecessary lore dumps and melodramatic subplots that slow and press the picture show down .
The thriller spends so much time exploring Ray ’s rancour and nostalgic scene of his once - forebode past that the character is not only render one - dimensional , but the other members of his family also are n’t develop enough to justify the amount of emotional investing that its third act expect . As wizardly and charismatic as Russell , Condon , Hoeferle , and Warren all are , they ’re leave to stagger in a film that does n’t seem interested in permit them simply have playfulness on - concealment and lean into its cheesiest or scariest aspects . Together , Condon and Russell , in particular , realise a circumstances of good will with viewers , butNight Swimdoesn’t ultimately sleep together what to do with it .
In its reality - bending terminal act , the film loses clench of its tincture — rely on heavy - handed emotional moments that feel completely out of place in a thriller about a haunted suburban swimming pool . Its coming lands with the same loud , cringey grace of God as a belly flop , and the film sends itself out on a decidedly low note . That does n’t meanNight Swimis completely without its merits , but it does descend far short of its own ludicrous potential . It ’s a fine way to spend a couple hours at a theater this January , so long as you realize that it ’s destined to do nothing other than sink deeper and profoundly into the recesses of your memory the further into this year that we get .
Night Swimis now playing in theaters .
