Night Swim - Film Review

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Ray Waller has to step back from his career as a professional baseball player after being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. He and his wife, Eve, and their two children want a fresh start, so they buy a house in a quiet neighbourhood, which has a pool to help with Ray's physical therapy. At first, things seem to be going well, with Ray's health taking a turn for the better, but the family begin to notice something strange about the pool. Eve does some digging and learns that the daughter of one of the previous owners disappeared, and was presumed to have drowned in the pool. Eve and the children begin to see strange things in the water, and Eve fears that her family is in danger.

Night Swim (2024) is a supernatural horror movie written and directed by Bryce McGuire, and produced by Jason Blum and James Wan. It's one of the best films to come out of Blumhouse Productions (the creators of M3GAN, Split and The Purge), along with Freaky and Get Out. That's not to say it's Oscar-worthy, but it has a coherent, interesting plot and characters you can care about. I didn't find it scary, but it at least has some beautiful atmospheric shots to build the mood instead of relying entirely on jump scares.

The underwater scenes were actually filmed in water rather than using CGI, and it shows. The effects were mostly well used, except for one laughably bad moment when a monster appears in shot that looks like something from 1980's era Doctor Who, which you may glimpse in the trailer.

I liked the premise because those of us who were lucky enough to grow up with access to a swimming pool know that they can be scary places at times. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has ever gotten my foot caught in the house of the pool cleaner and thought someone was grabbing me. This movie taps into those fears. People, especially children, do drown in pools, which is why it was really jarring, as an Aussie, to see that the pool in the movie is unfenced. I suppose that's not a legal requirement in the US, which seems insane.

Ray is played by Wyatt Russell (from The Woman in The Window and the upcoming Thunderbolts), who is himself a former professional sportsman forced to change careers due to injury. Kerry Condon (from Rome and The Banshees of Inisherin) channelled her inner Sarah Connor as Eve, which was satisfying to watch.

Night Swim is a watchable horror movie about terror in suburbia. It is currently streaming on Netflix.



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