Night Swim (2024) is directed by Bryce McGuire and stars Kerry Condon, Wyatt Russell, Gavin Warren, and Amelie Hoeferle. The film follows a family who after moving into their new home, discover that their swimming pool may harbor something more sinister than just a few thousand gallons of water. The patriarch of the family, Ray (Russell) is a professional baseball player who is rehabbing a potential career-ending injury. Although he loves his family. He struggles to transition from being a star athlete to an average dad/husband. As he begins regularly swimming in the pool, his injuries begin to heal at an almost supernatural rate. Eventually, Ray begins to change in ways that are truly concerning. As Ray’s mental condition deteriorates, it’s up to his wife, Eve (Condon), and their two children (Warren, and Hoeferle) to discover the pool’s secrets and save the day.

Performances by the four leads are capable enough, but they’re let down by the run-of-the-mill story/script. I consider Wyatt Russell a leading man in the making, but choosing this kind of movie does him no favors. Although he’s serviceable and there are multiple opportunities for him to chew the scenery and show his range, he never takes advantage of it. This is admittedly biased coming from a baseball fan, but I was compelled by the fact that Ray is a washed-up baseball player. The film takes advantage of that trait and it leads to some fun scenes. Speaking of being biased, the film takes place in Minnesota, and we Minnesotans love it when our state is used for a big Hollywood film. It wasn’t actually shot in Minnesota, but can’t a boy pretend?

  Condon’s performance unfortunately falls into some similar pitfalls. Although she performs the material she is given well enough, her character is a copy-and-paste horror movie mom. Her attitude is mature and her only main motivation is to generally protect her family. There is nothing wrong with these traits inherently, they just need to be coupled with those kinds of nuances that make the old seem fresh again. I did appreciate that there was an interesting dynamic between the couple. They clearly love each other and there’s no real tension between the two that feels truly consequential. That being said, the relationship isn’t so perfect that it feels unrealistic. They love one another, but they’re not beyond disagreements. There’s a good balance. So many movies lately such as Fair Game (2023), Poor Things (2023), or Old Dads (2023) have featured “adults” who refuse to act mature in even the slightest sense. Granted, unhinged and immature people in film often lead to some wildly entertaining situations, but at this time it just felt strangely fresh to see a relationship between two mature and secure people.

 Gavin Warren and Amelie Hoeferle are again serviceable as the children, Elliot and Izzy. They are just once again characters we’ve seen before. For example, there’s a scene where Izzy breaks the rules and invites her boyfriend over when her parents aren’t home. To make sure she gets away with it, she threatens to kill her brother’s fish if he rats on her. Not a big moment, but I couldn’t believe the script had her do something so cliche like that. The older sibling is cartoonishly mean to the younger sibling for absolutely no reason. It would’ve been different if there was any prior tension between the two, but there isn’t. She’s just mean because she’s older, I guess. The character of Elliot is just your typical quiet kid in a horror movie. He doesn’t have much to say and doesn’t do much at all for that matter. These characters are annoyingly stock, but somehow they still achieve a certain level of likeability. This remains true as long as you never ask the question: “Why are you still in the pool?”

The film unfortunately is the epitome of formulaic. It’s so formulaic, in fact, that the viewer is constantly reminded of better, more original horror films. These include but are not limited to Jaws (1975), The Amityville Horror (1979), Poltergeist (1982), and Get Out (2017). Yes, it has been quite a while since any of those movies were released. The thing is, those are three of the most influential horror films of all time. They’ve been referenced and imitated countless times in almost every decade. Their ideas have been used so many times, that they’ve become cliche. Director Bryce McGuire doesn’t seem to realize this. He may love those films, but that doesn’t mean they should be referenced for the hundredth time. It’s the same reason why when a director says that their new horror film is inspired by Halloween (1978), I check out. That’s basically like saying the sky is blue. Most horror fans/creators are inspired by the original Halloween. Business as usual. Why should that excite me? It’s not new to reference things that have been referenced by just about everyone. Plus it just gives references/nods a bad name in general.

Although the film is never truly frightening in any sense of the word, I always found it interesting. Events move along at a decent pace and there’s a genuine sense of positivity and fun here. Yeah, that sounds strange for a horror film and it does result in the film lacking scares, but it feels like a trade. The scares and fun/positivity don’t feel like they can coexist. I was pleasantly surprised that they picked the more unconventional route. That being said, the film isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. I thought there were at least one or two genuinely unnerving scenes, but from reactions that I’ve heard, I’m kind of on an island with that opinion. A lot of people are saying that the film is unintentionally funny. I can see why they would have that reaction. The premise is silly and a bit gimmicky, the scares are weak, and the tone is lighter than most in the genre. The thing is, I never laughed at any moments that weren’t designed to make the audience laugh. For example, there are sequences in the film that implement the game marco polo with a sinister twist. This could come across as very goofy, but I found that it was intended to be that way. If this movie makes you laugh, it should speak to how fun the movie is as opposed to how ineffective a majority of the scares are.

I was surprised to find myself truly enjoying the film (cliches and all) up until the third act. Granted, it isn’t so terrible that it feels jarring in comparison to the first two acts. It’s just that the third act is when a lot of the film’s cliches become noticeable to the point that they are slightly unforgivable. I was decently compelled by the mystery here, but the exact moment that mystery is gone is the moment when the movie begins to stumble significantly. Good questions are asked, but the answers are underwhelming excluding one specific, fun twist. 

Overall, this is a pretty goofy movie that fails with most of its scares but somehow remains incomprehensibly entertaining. Blumhouse is just so good at making these kinds of horror films. Something that the casual audience can just enjoy effortlessly. The thing is, if you have any knowledge of horror films, you might find Night Swim to be derivative. Or, if you’re expecting effective scares, that might disappoint you too. If you’ve liked what Blumhouse has done with M3GAN (2023) or something like The Nun 2 (2023), you’ll have a decent time here. It’s strange because most films with this many problems would not receive even close to a favorable rating. This, strangely, had a bit of an X-factor for me. If you like the genre and leave some of your standards at the door, this might be a fun 2 hours for the right person. C+