Night Swim is another example of a horror movie that seems slapped together without an original idea. It’s another thriller with an intriguing, albeit goofy, premise that gets wasted by ridiculous execution.
The more it progresses, the more it sinks.
The movie features a family moving into a new home with a swimming pool in the backyard. The dad (Wyatt Russell) is a former baseball player who suffers from a painful illness. Kerry Cordon is the mom, and they have two kids.
One day while swimming together, the dad discovers that his illness has gone into remission, but the mom and kids are suspicious. The kids, in particular, believe there’s something in the water. The pool starts attacking the family more and more.
The mom continues to be skeptical because that’s the structure for a screenplay of this sort. There always has to be at least one character who has to remain dumb until they see the menace for themselves.
Night Swim is one of those horror movies that has nice moments when it shifts its attention away from the horror and more to the family dynamic. The scenes involving the family do provide some decent moments, but once we’re whiplashed back into the pool, it ends up being dull and scare-free.
Plus, once the secret of the evil in the pool is revealed, it’s one of the most frustrating plot twists in recent horror movie history. It’s so bad you almost want to ruin it.
Night Swim attempts to aim for something deep with its concept, but the way it unravels makes it nothing less than shallow, shallow, shallow.
Grade: C-
(Rated PG-13 for terror, some violent content and language.)
