Night Swim Review: A Mediocre Horror Movie Experience

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7 Jan, 2024

Night Swim Review: A Mediocre Horror Movie Experience

Just when you think it's safe to get back into the water, director Bryce McGuire introduces Night Swim to the world. If Jaws destroyed the ocean, McGuire wants to destroy swimming pools with this new horror film. Directed by two horror legends, James Wan and Jason Blum, the film is based on McGuire's 2014 short film. With David F, we've seen horror short films turn into feature films very well. Sandberg's The Lights Out is a case in point. over the past few years. Last January's Blumhouse horror film M3GAN was also a success. Unfortunately, Night Bath is a mediocre film that disappoints and falls short of its potential.

I spoke with McGuire at last year's New York Comic Con (read my interview here ), so I know what he's trying to accomplish with this film. The film was inspired by films such as Jaws, The Abyss, Creature from the Black Lagoon and M. Night Shyamalan horror films. It aims to turn something as mundane as swimming in a pool into a terrifying experience. I respect his ambition and the fact that he was able to bring two of Hollywood's biggest producers and a huge star to this project. But the implementation of this idea seems incomplete and never hides behind the existing knowledge.

A movie about a haunted house pool promises a lot. McGuire showcases his talent as a director with a very nice opening shot and some impressive scare shots. Good horror leads to good direction, and at times McGuire shows remarkable restraint. It creates quite a bit of tension through this horrible pool concept. There are some predictable jumps and some that might catch some people off guard. At first, it looks like a classic horror movie where a family moves into a new house, but something sinister lurks behind this set-up.

Night swimming also defines its characters quite well. Family patriarch Ray Waller (Wyatt Russell) is an injured baseball player who wants to recover. He had to swim to recover his body. Teenage girl Izzy (Amelie Hoferle) is invited to join the swim team by a beautiful student. Families have a reason to visit the pool. This post is almost too good because there are so many references to the pool and swimming that it might seem out of place. In a scene where Ray's physical condition has improved significantly, he excitedly explains, "We have a pool," to the audience's laughter.

You see an attempt to create something more layered than a typical horror film. Many PG-13 horrors focus on a group of teenagers you expect to be killed, or an evil family that makes incredibly stupid decisions. McGuire's script does its best to keep the family members sane and gives them a legitimate reason to stay in the haunted pool. Generally, these ideas work. However, the story and pacing feels very dull at times, with the story of Ray's baseball career taking center stage and not much suspense at the end.

This is where most of the inspiration for the signs came from. Shyamalan's 2002 horror film was the main inspiration for Night Bath, as both films deal with a family learning to rebuild in the face of horrific events, a baseball player whose career is derailed by an injury, and "a tense scene between parents about how their baby was born." share a Story. The problem here is that Shyamalan's dialogue and the execution of these character moments are better. The story of Izzy and the cute boy at school is important in the first half but it goes nowhere. not emotionally strong.

The character makes a choice in what could be a very tearful moment in the final act. However, moments like these can only work if their relationships with other characters have been established beforehand. While the final act raises the stakes, the scares may be familiar from ideas we've seen in many other horror films before. Night Swim isn't bad to watch, but sometimes the PG-13 rating gets in the way. It's not interesting or exciting enough, and there are inevitably funny deliveries. Even worse, the ending leaves you on a bad note that will make you just shrug your shoulders and walk out of the theater without a care. The family story could have been more interesting, but in the end, Night Swim never revealed the depth of the story.