Once again Blumhouse has shown that they will throw any idea at the wall to see if it sticks and their latest release “Night Swim” does not.
“Night Swim” follows the Waller family as they move into a new house after Multiple Sclerosis has halted Ray Waller’s (Wyatt Russel) career in baseball. In their backyard happens to be a nicely sized pool that will be good for his physical therapy. This house seems like a dream come true for the Waller family, but as they move in and get comfortable a dark secret from the pool’s past starts to rear its head unleashing an evil force onto the family.
Outside of the actual movie the premise alone is kind of half baked, a haunted pool. The lack of actual ideas comes through with derivative plotting that feels like they asked “how can we apply this idea from a better movie to a haunted pool?”. The telegraphed twist that is present in 90% of Blumhouse movies is present in this one to no avail. The movie relies too heavily on cheap jump scares to elicit fear rather than actually developing a fearful premise.
It also had a major problem holding a tone or even balancing the tones of the movie. It would pretty rapidly switch between happy family fun and somewhat spooky horror. This made the movie feel like it dragged on and on. Although the movie is only 98 minutes the nearly constant need to check the time on a watch was always there.
The third act was enjoyable, but only because you will get to witness the movie faceplant while trying to create a scary marco polo game with so bad they’re good pun one liners as jumpscares. There is one scene that was very good having to do with the pool in the third act that was well crafted and is one of the movies only saving graces.
With half baked plotting, flat characters, and a mediocre premise “Night Swim” may not be worth seeing for horror fans, but if you like other Blumhouse movies like “Smile” you will probably enjoy this one. “Night Swim” was one of the first movies to release theatrically in 2024 and is clearly not a great start to the 2024 horror season.
Directed by Bryce McGuire
Starring: Wyatt Russell, Kerry Condon, Amélie Hoeferle, Gavin Warren, Jodi Long, Eddie Martinez, Elijah J. Roberts, Rahnuma Panthaky, Ben Cinclair, Ellie Araiza, Nancy Lenehan
Rated R
Runtime: 98 minutes
My Rating: ★½
