Unfortunately, the streak of flops to start 2024 continues with the newest Blumhouse property, Night Swim.

The movie doesn’t start poorly – it’s actually interesting enough. As so many horror movies do, it begins with a flashback to the “first haunting” when a young girl vanishes from the pool in her backyard late one night. 30 years later, a major league baseball player who recently suffered an injury moves with his family to a suburban home near his wife’s new job…and yes, it’s that same house. With the same pool.

A string of mysterious hauntings begin to appear to the family members as they each individually spend time in the pool (I’ve never seen a family who swims more than this one). What is totally unclear are the correlations between the apparitions, and also the rules that govern them – most of the time, they appear in the pool, but other times, they are around the pool, and there’s even an instance where one seems to make something happen inside the house. The pool seems to haunt some people, but the father seems to be healed by it. Like - what? The lore surrounding what’s going on is incredibly, frustratingly vague. This is only made worse by an intentional obfuscation of the truth, and most of the movie is spent wasting time while the characters really do nothing to investigate what’s happening.

After a sudden and confusing crescendo at a pool party, the movie totally derails. Wyatt Russell’s performance also falls apart here, with some line deliveries that are extraordinarily questionable (you’ll know what I mean when he asks, “is he ok?”). The most egregious mistake here, though, is the decision to explain the entirety of what’s going on in the movie in a five-minute conversation with a somewhat related character who, up until that point, had not been involved with the plot whatsoever. What cripples the effect of this reveal even more is how late in the movie it comes; once we know what’s happening, there’s no more room for tension to build or dread to creep, and therefore, it limps across the finish line with a climax that attempts and fails at multiple solemn emotional connections.

The only thing I agree with here? The decision on what becomes of the pool in the last scene. Finally, logic.

Impressively boring for a film about a killer swimming pool. It had some nice shots in the pool and the acting was decent but the script was just so lame.

I think the biggest issue is that it took itself way too seriously. The concept is so absurd that it should've been campy and fun, like M3GAN or Malignant, but this was clearly trying to be a Real Horror Movie for the most part.

It's also padded to shit. This could've lost 20 minutes and been a tight 80 minute movie and been all the better for it. By the time Kerry Condon is googling the past of the house I was just totally checked out.

PG-13 rating also made it feel very tame. The pool party scene should've been like the climax of Piranha 3D with just a bunch of gory kills in the pool with people unable to escape, or even PG-13 it would've been interesting if the pool just disappeared a shit ton of people at once and the surviving families were left to make sense of it, but that's probably a totally different movie.

Also the Marco Polo scene was laughable. Girl, the second the music cuts out and the pool starts flickering (she would've been able to see that through her eyelids), I would've opened my eyes.

Some short films should just stay short films.

A passable supernatural horror.

I had a fine time viewing 'Night Swim'. It brings nothing new to the genre and takes plenty from other productions, though it honestly flew by for me and I enjoyed the horror elements alongside some solid onscreen performers. It does feel like it's missing something, I admittedly can't put my finger on exactly what, but that thought doesn't hinder how I see the flick post-watch.

Wyatt Russell and Kerry Condon are good in the lead roles, the latter is the stronger but well cast they both are. Younger cast members Amélie Hoeferle and Gavin Warren are decent, as are those supporting behind the main four. They appear in some solid scenes, which kept me interested in what I was watching - and with a run time of roughly 90 minutes, I was never bored of the portrayed events.

It isn't anything truly memorable, though I'd happily rewatch it if needed. Or perhaps I have bad taste, who's to say?

FULL SPOILER-FREE REVIEW @ https://fandomwire.com/night-swim-review-yet-another-forgettable-january-horror-flick/

"Night Swim fails to rise above the limitations of its generic horror foundation.

Despite commendable performances from Wyatt Russell, Kerry Condon, and the emerging Amélie Hoeferle, Bryce McGuire's reliance on exhausted tropes, predictable jumpscares - even if well-executed - and underdeveloped themes and characters ultimately sink the movie under the weight of its own uninspired narrative choices, namely the rushed ending with frustrating messaging.

Sadly, it's not the film I wish I could use to counterargue the idea that January can't have memorable horror."

Rating: D+

Wyatt Russell is former baseball star "Ray" who has been diagnosed with MS and is now looking for a home for his wife and two children that he can more readily navigate. They alight on a rather run-down property that has a large swimming pool and that's that! In they move and after having had some fairly toxic looking gloop removed from the pipework, discover that it is fed directly from an aquifer and could contain minerals to help his treatment. Boy, does it help! After a few swims his health is improving no end, but his family start to believe that the water is the source of some wickedness. They each experience a malevolence that drives his wife "Eve" (Kerry Condon) to track down the previous owner who eventually and rather menacingly confirms what she has already discovered on Google! It appears that this pool has a benevolence but in return requires an horrific sacrifice - whether you agree it's term or not! It's quite a well paced little horror film, this, with no attempt to create much by way of special effects. The audio, flickering lighting and the frequently murky water do all of the heavy lifting as we gradually realise what's going on. The acting isn't really up to much, nor is the standard of the writing, but I still found it at the slightly more threatening end of the Blumhouse scale of scary stories. It will work better in a big dark cinema - on television it will be completely unremarkable.