Night Swim (2024) * *

 

Directed by:  Bryce McGuire

Starring:  Wyatt Russell, Kerry Condon, Gavin Warren, Jodi Long, Ellie Araiza, Eddie Martinez

If you ever wondered why there was never a movie about a swimming pool which devours people, then worry no more.   Night Swim is here.  It heavily relies on jump scares and things going bump in the night.  I'm reminded of Eddie Murphy's classic stand-up segment about why people don't just leave the house when there is a ghost running around.  In Night Swim, it's a killer pool, but all the same.  

Night Swim begins with a young girl drowning in a swimming pool circa 1992.  She didn't drown, but was rather engulfed by a spirit in the pool.  Fast forward to thirty years later, a nice suburban family buys the house because it has a pool.  The father is former baseball player Ray Waller (Russell), who was forced to retire due to MS.   His wife Eve (Condon) takes a job as an administrative assistant at the local school.  They have two children, both naturally excited to finally have a pool in the backyard, but that enthusiasm quickly wanes when the pool attempts to suck them into the drain.  

The pool isn't all bad, per se, since Ray finds his condition improving after swimming, but of course there is a catch.  There always is.   The pool is built above a mythical spring which is said to have healing powers.   However, for each person it heals, it must accept another as a sacrifice.  Apparently from the same family.  Don't you just love when strings are attached?   Ray finds this is a compromise he can live with.   His wife Eve notices the difference in Ray, and finds the mother of the girl who died thirty years ago and finds that the mom is willing to accept trading a healthy child for the sickly one.  Sophie's Choice wouldn't be nearly as heartbreaking if these parents had to make the choice of which child should live or die.

There are solid actors giving the best performances possible given the material.  Kerry Condon was a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee just last year.  Wyatt Russell, son of Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn, is a steady, somewhat conflicted hero.   Or is he a villain?   Or is he under the spell of this evil in-ground pool?  Night Swim knows it is silly at its core, and tries hard to be scary and amusing.  It isn't much of either, which makes it a mostly forgettable exercise in B-movie horror.