It’s become cliche to say that a movie released in January sucks. After all, January is pretty much considering the dumpster month of movies. A time where the kids are back in school and the awards contenders are able to hit that end of the year deadline in some areas to qualify for the Oscars. However, in recent memory, there has been a solid number of released films released around this time that were actually not bad or had at least some version of quality. 2016 had Kung Fu Panda 3. 2017 had Split. 2018 (at least in America) had Paddington 2. 2020 (before the pandemic) had Bad Boys For Life. 2022 had Scream. And just last year, 2023 had M3GAN. None of these films were necessarily masterpieces (except for Paddington 2) but they did at least start their respective year on a decent enough note that got folks interested to see what the rest of the year had in stores. If there is a January movie in 2024 that would do exactly that, it’s CERTAINLY not going to be Night Swim. Despite Blumhouse being able to surprise folks with M3GAN last year, they can not make that same lighting strike twice here.
Premise: Forced into early retirement by a degenerative illness, former baseball player Ray Waller (Wyatt Russell) moves into a new house with his wife (Kerry Condon) and two children (Gavin Warren, Amelie Hoeferle). He hopes that the backyard swimming pool will be fun for the kids and provide physical therapy for himself. However, a dark secret from the home’s past soon unleashes a malevolent force that drags the family into the depths of inescapable terror.
The most blatant problem with Night Swim is how it can’t seem to figure out what kind of film it wants to commit the most too. You would believe based off the premise of a pool monster who preys on those that dare take a late night swim would put the majority of the focus on building tension and creating inventive scares that will get under your skin during and after the movie ends. However, it also wants to be a deep thematic movie about learning to accept a new stage in your life when you can no longer go back to the prior one and the overall meaning of sacrifice for the ones you love. Night Swim tries to do both stories at the same time but it’s done in the most half baked way imaginable.
The overall lore and mythology of who exactly this pool demon is are painfully underdeveloped. It’s never clear as to who this monster is, why it does what it does, or even how it’s been allowed to thrive in this pool for so long. Even when we get to the part where the original victim of this monster dive into the backstory of their prior encounter with the demon, it just makes thing even more complicated and confusing than it already is. It seems like it wants that pool to come across as some sort of drug, where the father and son become too addicted to it to the point where they are starting to lose who they are, but it’s never clear as to why it’s suppose to help those that swim into the pool. At best, it might heal Ray Waller of his disease sooner rather than later so he can go back to playing baseball but even then, aside from one scene where they go to the hospital for checks, that never gets addressed again and the movie goes on to the next nonsensical thing. It’s not a good thing when the first thing I ask myself when the movie was over is like, “Why don’t the family just NOT swim in the pool?!” There, problem solved!
The human drama with Ray and his disease is probably the most engaging subplot but it honestly feels like it should have made for it’s own movie rather than this one. A story about Ray having to choose to embrace his new life fighting this new disease only with his family or working his way through his illness to become a ball player could make for an interesting flick but not for a horror one. It’s the two conflicting tones of wanting to be a human drama and an intense horror thriller that makes Night Swim feels at odds with itself. This is all the more apparent in the final reel which the main character makes a move that’s suppose to tie into the overall theme the movie has been flirting with throughout the runtime but because of the other things it had to focus on, it comes across as anti-climatic and (the more that you think about it) incredibly stupid. It should have decided if it wanted to be a personal character driven drama or a straight up scary flick, not both at the same time.
When it comes to the scares themselves, some of them are decent but there is nothing here that will make your skin crawl shortly after the film ends. Most of it only works when it happens in the moment and there’s no creative visual imagery that will be living in your head rent free. The rest of the scares are poorly shot, lighted, and edited where I could barely see what was happening on screen. The perfect example are the scenes towards the end where the mother and son goes into the pool to confront the demon and it felt like the filmmakers had the desire to hid as much as possible for whatever reason. I don’t know if it had to do with the lack of a big budget, the proper rating, or that the director doesn’t have much major film experience but for those coming for the scares, you will likely feel ripped off as well.
Acting wise, while far from the worst performances you will see in an January movie, there’s nothing that stands out from the cast. Wyatt Russell is the most entertaining one here but feels too comedic for this role, almost feeling like he would fit better in a Jordan Peele horror movie rather than this one. Even during the scenes where he supposedly turns evil, it’s hard to buy his sudden turn because of him keeping that same form of charisma that he did in his good form. The rest of the performances from the cast are passable at best but nothing to write home about, giving that exact feeling of only being in it for a quick paycheck.
Night Swim is a perfect example of why horror movies or movies in general released in January get a bad rep. It’s a confused mess that has no idea what kind of film it wants to be. The tone is all over the place, the scares aren’t effective, the lore and mythology surrounding the monster and haunted pool don’t add up, and the ending the more I think on it might just be one of the dumbest endings to a film in recent memory. It might be technically “watchable” and might find an audience for those that have a soft spot for these trashy January horror flicks but it’s definitely not something I can recommend you should go out of your way to see. If anything, you are better off just watching the short film that this is based off of. I may not have seen it myself but I’m willing to bet it’s better than whatever the feature film was.
Move over Bambino and Billy Goat, the newest baseball related curse has arrived in the form of Night Swim!
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