January has long since been the dumping ground for studio films that executives and test audiences have deemed to be the low points of their upcoming slates, whether it be cheap action films, cheesy horror films, unfunny comedies, or cliché romance films, no bad movie has ever been off limits for the month of January. Long after the holiday crowds and awards films have gone, and long until the first blockbusters of mid-spring will drop, January will always be January. Yet, in recent years, some studios have been cleverly sneaking some surprise hits into the low month as a way to position mid-budget, but high quality projects apart from the riff-raff that usually populates the month. Just last year alone, Lionsgate dropped surprise hit Plane to shocking critical and commercial success, but it was masters of subversion, Blumhouse, who dropped cultural phenomenon M3GAN into the dreaded first weekend in January, grabbing a 93% Rotten Tomatoes score, and making $181 million on a $12 million budget, Blumhouse found a new way to fit their low-to-mid-budget hits in a strategic spot for the ultimate payoff. Now, one year on, as we await the release of M3GAN 2.0, Blumhouse is utilizing the same strategy for their new film, Night Swim, based on the short film of the same name, starring Wyatt Russell (Everybody Wants Some!!), and Academy Award-nominated Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin). It also has a truly awful trailer set to a “bury a friend” by Billie Eilish for no good goddamn reason, but I refuse to let a studio’s marketing department affect how I feel about a film from a studio I generally like with a very talented cast at its center.
Though, perhaps I should, because Night Swim isn’t as much a “strategic release” as it is just “another January movie.”
From Left: Izzy Waller (Amélie Hoeferle), Elliot Waller (Gavin Warren), Ray Waller (Wyatt Russell) and Eve Waller (Kerry Condon) in NIGHT SWIM, written and directed by Bryce McGuire. Photo courtesy of Anne Marie Fox/Universal Studios.
Forced into retirement due to a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, former Major League Baseball player Ray Waller (Wyatt Russell) moves his wife, Eve (Kerry Condon), and children, Izzy (Amélie Hoeferle) and Elliott (Gavin Warren), to Minneapolis to get medical treatment. Their new home features a large swimming pool that begins to help Ray with his MS via water therapy, and his condition begins to improve. Though, conversely, his family finds themselves tormented by strange occurrences in and around said pool, and begin to surmise a supernatural presence within the water, one that could have a hold on Ray.
Kerry Condon as Eve Waller in NIGHT SWIM, written and directed by Bryce McGuire. Photo courtesy of Anne Marie Fox/Universal Studios.
Haunted house movies are a dime a dozen, but, more recently, we’ve gotten more of the “specific thing within our house” (Annabelle (2014); Oculus (2013), etc.), and while pools have long been a staple in the horror genre, I will give Night Swim some credit in that I can’t say I’ve ever seen a film dedicate 98 whole minutes to a pool being haunted before. Is it some late-stage Stephen King nonsense? Absolutely, but it’s novel, and I will give it that. The issue is that it is so incredibly clear that this is the concept of an effective short film, but not something that can sustain itself beyond a single scene of its premise. At that point, in seeking to expand upon the “lore” of the pool, we simply find ourselves with a whole bunch of filler plot that doesn’t really go anywhere, as well as unscary and (more egregiously) repetitive horror sequences that are cookie-cutter at best.
Wyatt Russell as Ray Waller in NIGHT SWIM, written and directed by Bryce McGuire. Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures.
Even the performances in the film from its talented leads don’t do much to inspire. Condon is fine, and never actively bad, but is clearly struggling with a silly screenplay that takes itself far too seriously. Russell, while good in the grounded first half of the film, really loses the plot once Ray begins to be taken more by the force within the pool. While the film is self-serious, Russell seems to be trying to have fun with the more menacing elements of his role, which would be commendable in a film that gave him the breathing room to do so, but in this case, ends up in a real “fish out of water” scenario where he is in an entirely different film than everyone else. Is it a film I would rather be watching? Definitely, but it’s not the one on display here.
From Lower-Left: Izzy Waller (Amélie Hoeferle), Elliot Waller (Gavin Warren), Kay (Nancy Lenehan), Ray Waller (Wyatt Russell) and Eve Waller (Kerry Condon) in NIGHT SWIM, directed by Bryce McGuire. Photo courtesy of Anne Marie Fox/Universal Studios.
Night Swim isn’t an offensively bad film, mostly because I can usually have fun with something so terrible that I can only laugh at it. Night Swim isn’t engaging enough for me to do that, it’s far too self-serious for that sort of thing. It’s simply boring up until the point that it becomes stupid, but it becoming stupid doesn’t suddenly make it interesting. It’s a testament that having a successful short film doesn’t always mean having to adapt said short film into a feature. I’d rather studios like Blumhouse and Atomic Monster (since they are one in the same now) would give filmmakers like Bryce McGuire the freedom to take the ingenuity they showcased in their short film and craft something else that was meant to be a feature from the start. Sometimes, doing that can work out for a filmmaker (e.g. Lights Out (2016), Mama (2013), etc.), but in this case, Night Swim is a feature that was clearly worked from a short that was made to be a short only, and suddenly feels like said short film repeated ad infinitum, with nowhere to go, nothing to say, and no one to scare.
Is this what a Best Supporting Actress nomination gets you these days? Inflation is kicking this country’s ass.
In theaters January 5th, 2024.
For more information, head to the official Universal Pictures Night Swim website.
Final Score: 1.5 out of 5.
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Categories: In Theaters, Reviews
This was already a big nope from me. Haunted pool. Nopey, nopey, nope, nope, nope.