Night Swim Review: The Shallow End of Scary

Night Swim Is the feature-length telling of writer/director Rod Blackhurst and Bryce McGuire’s 2014 short film, which gained online attention for its simple yet effective premise and creative way of turning a home pool into a source of terror. However, McGuire’s feature-length version of Night Swim horror ultimately ends up being a shallow horror movie experience. 

The story of the film finds MLB star player Ray Waller (Wyatt Russell) dealing with a life-changing diagnosis and physical ailment while trying to find a new place to settle down with his family during recovery. The Wallers settle into a nice house with a modest pool in the back – not knowing about the dark history of the property. Of course, it isn’t long before the Wallers start to notice strange phenomena happening around their pool – especially after nightfall. But as the truth about their home starts to come to light, the forces in the water start to take hold of the Wallers, threatening to drag them all under. 

To the credit of Bryce McGuire, Night Swim is far from the worst feature-film debut out there. McGuire shows a competent hand behind the camera, as well as the directorial authority to compel some convincing drama out of his actors. The Waller family ends up being a set of core characters worth caring about – mostly bolstered by the chemistry between Russell and Kerry Condon (who plays Ray’s wife Eve). 

What ends up being the biggest impediment to Night Swim being an effective horror movie experience is the lore that McGuire creates for the haunted pool at the center of the story. Without dropping any spoilers, McGuire added “an epic, supernatural mythology with a gothic fairytale undercurrent for the story’s sinister swimming pool,” and in doing so may have inadvertently cut the claws off of his film. The framework of Night Swim and the “rules” of its specters and pool-portal centerpiece is at once a clever adaptation of classic fairytale lore, as well as a guarantee that the damage done will be limited – even for a PG-13 film.

Ultimately, it’s unfortunate that Night Swim puts so much emphasis on keeping the reveal of its core lore a mystery for so long during the film’s run time. It might’ve been a much more compelling film if the stakes were clear at an earlier point, as it would’ve put more emphasis on the family drama and the actors to land the plane. Instead, by the time the “mystery” is lifted, there’s little time left for anything but a rushed and truncated third act, which feels more like a crash landing than a maneuvered one. 

Night Swim is proof that creating a horror concept is far simpler than creating an entire horror story – and certainly a feature-length horror film to convey that story. Bryce McGuire shows promise as a filmmaker but needs to do a few more laps before he’s an able swimmer.

Rating: 2 out of 5

Night Swim is now in theaters.