Night Swim Movie Review

Night Swim (2024) Movie Review

I’ve said it before, but Jason Blum and his production company Blumhouse are one of, if not the most formidable voices in Hollywood currently. They have produced some of the best horror films of the past 20 years with titles such as; The Paranormal Activity series, The Purge series, the Halloween trilogy, The Sinister films, Happy Death Day and its sequel and so many more. In 2022 it was announced that Jason Blum and Blumhouse would be partnering with James Wan (The Conjuring and Insidious universes) and Atomic Monster (his production studio) to produce horror films together. Given the success the two have had in recent years, this move made sense both creatively and financially.

The first major release from this new partnership was announced to be a feature-length adaptation of Bryce McGuire’s 2014 short film, ‘Night Swim’. Grossing over $50 million at the global box office, ‘Night Swim’ film follows the Waller family, who move into a new home, unaware that a dark secret from the house's past will unleash a malevolent force in the backyard pool. It is essentially a haunted house movie, where the haunting is isolated to the family swimming pool. Bryce McGuire returned here to direct the film, previously helming the short. The film also has a stellar cast with Kerry Condon and Wyatt Russell in the leads. Given it has been years since we received a solid haunting film, I was very excited to see what the Blum and Wan era of modern studio horror would bring to the long dormant sub-genre, and I wasn’t disappointed. ‘Night Swim’ was a lot of fun.

As touched on previously, the haunting genre has been dormant for quite some time, with Hollywood studio horror more focused on possession as a sub-genre. It was refreshing for Jason Blum and James Wan to delve back into the sub-genre and put a new spin. Putting the focus on the pool instead of the home itself, is a very interesting and ultimately inspiring choice. Bryce McGuire knew exactly where to add in jump scares, allowing each of the sequences time to breathe so the scares actually had an effect on the audience. We have genuinely creepy set-pieces, with the pool featured prominently. Everything creepy you think they would do with a pool they do. The drain pulls our lead down under water, resulting in him nearly drowning, creepy, ghostly voices and appendages come from the skimmer box, the pool blanket traps the kids and ghostly figures disrupt a few late-night swims. The only thing they don’t do is sue a pool cleaner to hurt or scare the family, they might be saving that for future instalments.

The mythology and lore surrounding the property and its history is also quite unique. We get a ghostly backstory of the pool taking the lives of the family that lived there in the 1990s. It is well-established and adds to the overall impact of the story. Knowing that the family is then drawn to the pool and the house as a whole, in a form of possession, makes the stakes higher and the decisions by the family justified. They want to leave, but obviously can’t. It’s a trope we have seen before but given the unique history with the house and the establishment of this, we get family drama that is actually effective.

A lot of this comes down to the way the characters are written and portrayed. Ray Waller (played by Wyatt Russell) had a very unique character backstory: he is a defamed professional baseball player who had to announce his retirement due to his degenerative MS (multiple sclerosis) diagnosis. His diagnosis affected his final games in the Major League Baseball (MLB) competition, resulting in him suffering panic attacks and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It’s a wholly unique approach to this type of story, giving his character a surprising amount of depth, giving him distinct motivation for why he isn’t as phased about the haunting, as he is getting better and stronger, using the pools healing properties to his advantage. His wife Eve Waller (played by Kerry Condon) is also given motivation, she needs to protect her family, whilst also looking after her husband. The battle between good and evil in this film is a little more muddled and blurred, in a good way, and I really admire the attempt to give these characters far more motivation and background, as it does make for an overall better and more satisfying experience.

Pools are usually associated with relaxation, sitting by the pool, serotonin rush throughout the body, it's glorious. But after ‘Night Swim’, that feeling quickly evaporated for me. Night Swim was suitably scary, packed full of a deep and interesting mythos and lore that leaves the door open for future instalments. Wyatt Russell and Kerry Condon are both excellent in their leading roles, showcasing their talents and really selling the terrors of the pool. I am looking forward to whatever writer/director Bryce McGuire does next, as the man really understands just how to build suspense, and make the audience feel unsafe, in the sense that we really didn’t know what was coming next. ‘Night Swim’ is a must-own for horror fans, so be sure to secure your copy from Sanity below on DVD and Blu-Ray, you won’t want to miss it.

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Christopher Pattison wrote this blog post for Sanity. See more from Chris here