NIGHT SWIM -- This Haunted Pool is Worth Diving Into

Review by Cole Groth

Have you ever gone out swimming all alone at night? After watching Night Swim, I doubt you ever would again. This creepy Blumhouse production is the first wide release of 2024, and if it’s any indication of how the year will go, we’ll be fine. It’s certainly better than your average studio horror flick. With great scares and a fresh premise, this horror film is worth the dive.

Night Swim is the directorial debut of writer/director Bryce McGuire, who made a short film of the same title a decade ago. The premise is simple: after being pushed out from his life as a professional baseball player because of an MS diagnosis, Ray Waller (Wyatt Russell) and his family, including wife Eve (Kerry Condon), daughter Izzy (Amélie Hoeferle), and son Elliot (Gavin Warren), settle into a new house. It’s a quaint home in a lovely city. The only problem? The pool’s haunted.

Typically, films with this type of silly premise don’t embrace what’s advertised and find a way to turn it into your average ghost story. Here, the pool is haunted, and McGuire does not lose focus of that. It works very well because it’s a believable story. The family starts experiencing scary things when they swim in the pool at night, but they’re initially hesitant because why would anything bad happen in their pool? When things get too freaky, Eve works with her children to figure out what’s happening. Meanwhile, Ray is drawn to it because of the mysterious healing properties helping him with his illness. There are a few moments where the film drags, and at a 98-minute runtime, you can’t help but wonder if it would be better at an even 90 minutes. Outside of that, though, there isn’t much to complain about.

For a PG-13 horror movie, this is full of surprisingly great scares. There’s a good combination of your typical jump scares, creepy monsters, and weird blood things, keeping the film feeling very original. It’s not afraid to get gory, but it also isn’t a gross experience. There’s one particular scare toward the end of the film that, without spoiling anything, works so well that you almost wish the rest of the film was intense. McGuire does an excellent job of balancing body horror with ordinary scares and crafts a horror experience worthy of a big-screen watch.​

On a technical level, there’s a lot to appreciate here. The cinematography stands out as particularly interesting, with cinematographer Charlie Sarroff taking advantage of the creepiness of being alone in the water at night. The set design is great because the home and pool used by the family in this film actually feel lived in. It’s a little thing, but so many movies fail to make homes feel like actual places of residence, and that’s not the case here.

Night Swim ticks all the boxes you’d want from a horror movie. First and foremost, it’s scary. It doesn’t rely on one method to get you out of your seat and instead crafts a creepy narrative that’s original in its scares. It’s nicely shot and has great performances. Kerry Condon, in particular, stands out. McGuire is confident in the premise of his film, which makes it work so much better. His script has plenty of well-timed jokes that cut through the tension, but he never once makes a joke out of the creepy pool where the film takes place. It’s an all-around solid experience that earns its title as the first good theatrical release of 2024.

Night Swim releases in theaters starting January 5.

Rating: 3.5/5