**This post contains spoilers**
The Story- Suffering from Multiple Sclerosis, retired baseball star Ray Waller (Wyatt Russell) and his wife, Eve (Kerry Condon) are looking for a fresh start. Wyatt and Eve move into a new home with their children, Elliot (Gavin Warren) and Izzy (Amelie Hoeferle), with hopes of firmly settling into a new life.
Ray’s illness severely limits his day to day activities, but the swimming pool in the backyard miraculously heals him. Ray enjoys his rejuvenated health, but any chances of a bright future are cut short, when Eve learns the truth about the pool’s dark past.
My Thoughts- Ray is a broken man, who’s trying to find his confidence again. Wyatt Russell captures Ray’s roller coaster of emotions with a solid performance. There’s a big shift from the sadness in Ray’s weakened state to the spark and new found sense of energetic joy, when the effects of the pool kick in. Wyatt has this genuine sinister attitude. He’s more aggressive and kind of cocky. It’s done in a way, where you’re not completely sure if there’s something wrong with him or not. Although, when the evil forces fully consume Ray, Wyatt’s performance gets a bit too hokey and over the top, following the same pattern for the ghosts that haunt the pool.
Gavin Warren is another standout in the cast. Good facial expressions, body language, and it’s easy to buy into him as this shy and socially awkward kid. The scene where Ray smashes a home run during Elliot’s little league practice was so good. The team is celebrating with Ray, because after everything he’s been through, he finally gets to enjoy a moment of happiness. But Elliot is standing off to the side alone, and that sad look on Warren’s face is impossible to ignore. Elliot was struggling to get a hit, but his dad stepped up, and Ray unintentionally stole his moment.
I was hoping for more screen time for Ben Cinclair. He’s hilarious as the kooky and eccentric pool tech. But I guess you could say his presence would’ve added too much comedy to what’s supposed to be a serious horror movie.
Ray has to sacrifice himself to save Elliot in the end. The dark forces in the pool wouldn’t allow Ray to leave the house. Ray was able to will himself to force the evil out of his body by remembering how much he loved his family, but that wasn’t enough.
In the summer of ‘92, a girl named Rebecca (Ayazhan Dalabayeva) was a victim of the pool’s evil, when her mother, Lucy (Jodi Long) orchestrated a plot to sacrifice her to the pool to save her terminally ill son, Tommy (Joziah Lagonoy). It’s revealed that’s how things work with the haunted pool. A human sacrifice is required, so someone else can receive prosperity and a new beginning.
The difference between Ray and Lucy’s sacrifice is, Ray willingly allowed the pool to take him, because he wanted to save his son and his family. That was a true example of love and a selfless sacrifice. Lucy? She basically killed her own daughter to save her son and get a fancy house. Still, Lucy didn’t get away without any problems, because she’s still infected with the pool’s evil, needing an oxygen tank to breathe.
It’s a good emotional ending, with Ray looking at his family one last time and telling them “don’t look back” in a somber but confident tone. I’m also glad they didn’t go with a cheap cliffhanger. Eve, Elliot, and Izzy decide to stay in the house to honor Ray and to keep anyone else away from the pool. And to put the definitive final nail in the coffin, Eve makes the decision to drain the pool and fill it with dirt.
Night Swim features a poignant ending, and all the loose ends are tied up, but it’s almost impossible to ignore the bad stuff. Too many cheap and predictable jump scares. When the lights in the pool start flickering, you know it’s only a matter of time before ghosts or ghostly visions pop up out of nowhere. And there’s no other way to say this, but the ghosts are not scary or intimidating. The ghosts in Night Swim just look too goofy to take seriously, and that’s a big problem.
I also wasn’t a fan of certain scenes with the black water seeping through the eyes and mouths of a few characters. It looks silly, so I couldn’t buy into the creepy and gross out reactions they were obviously going for.
They tried to put a spin on the haunted house sub genre by limiting the haunting to the pool, but Night Swim still follows the haunting playbook step by step. Almost everyone in the family knows something is wrong with the pool, and they’re not safe. They wait until it’s too late to get out, and evil forces spoil the family’s plans for escape, because the spirits won’t let Ray leave the house.
Night Swim brings some realism and emotion to the story with Ray trying to find some normalcy in his life, and Eve urging Ray to buy the house. She’s tired of uprooting the family, and you can understand why she wants everyone to have a more permanent home. Izzy and Elliot are young children. They need friends, and Elliot already has trouble fitting in.
Giving credit where credit is due, Night Swim delivers, if we’re talking about fears of what can go wrong in a swimming pool. The fear of drowning and how quickly it can happen was more than enough to deliver a few squeamish moments. It might sound ridiculous, but Night Swim convincingly pushes the idea that water is just as terrifying and menacing as any ghosts or evil spirits.
Presenting the pool as this dark and evil wishing well was a nice touch, but overall Night Swim has more misses than hits for the spooky side of the film. It’s just the usual haunting horror film, with the only difference being the swimming pool is the center of attention.
Rating- 4/10
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