It's a real shame then that between the opening and the hook reveal, Night Swim fails to entice or unnerve with far too much filler and empty scares. And it's not as if McGuire has the worst idea to emotionally ground his story either, with the Waller family at the film's heart proving a likeable collective, and Wyatt Russell and Kerry Condon as the head of the clan delivering fine work. Russell's Ray Waller is a pro baseballer seemingly on the verge of a resurgence when he is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, bringing his playing days and the family's itinerant lifestyle to an end. Nothing some water therapy won't potentially mitigate though, so it's wonderfully coincidental when Ray and his wife Eve (Condon) spot an expansive house in the suburbs for far too good a price; the chipper realtor (Nancy Lenehan) smart enough to know to bank the sale she'll conveniently leave out the house happened to have a habit of children going missing in the pool in the backyard. IN CONCLUSION: Night Swim is unable to muster up much of the alternative - that being atmospheric jump scares - that you almost wish it had splashed on unnecessary blood just to keep us cheaply entertained. Sadly, it drowns across most of the board, resulting in a tepid scarer that doesn't do justice to its intriguing premise and McGuire's evident enthusiasm for the genre.
With a script that plays out like it was written using ChatGPT, we have a family looking for a fresh start by moving into a new house. Dad's sick but gets better when he swims in the pool. The rest is generic horror at its best. I'm sure you can predict every scene without having seen a single frame of this movie. From the husband's mysterious health improvement (he's possessed. Mystery solved) to the kids knowing there's something wrong but keeping secrets, to the wife *sigh* Googling the history of the residence to locate previous occupants. It's all Amityville but without a shirtless Ryan Reynolds on screen keeping your attention. Speaking of a lack of charisma.
Wyatt Russell is bland as hell. He's Kurt Russel without the energy and charisma that made his dad an icon of the 80's. Yes, I've seen him in other stuff too and my statement stands. His character is supposed to be a big part of the plot here and there were moments when I genuinely forgot about him! Say what you will about the Amityville remake, but Ryan Reynolds is genuinely chilling as the stepdad who slowly loses himself to evil of that house. I honestly felt like his family was in danger during the final act whereas Wyatt runs around with a grimace on his face and chases his daughter with all the energy of a zombie that needs to go to the bathroom and the lame CGI makeup effects doesn't do him any favors either. I honestly don't know what the deal is with Blumhouse productions. One minute they give us gold, the next we get uninspired nonsense like Night Swim. I would say they're the Nic Cage of horror studios except no matter how bad the movie is Nicolas Cage never fails to delight me. This movie on the other hand isn't even worth showing to that one friend who scares easily because you would have to watch it with them, and no one deserves to suffer that much boredom in their life.
With a script that plays out like it was written using ChatGPT, we have a family looking for a fresh start by moving into a new house. Dad's sick but gets better when he swims in the pool. The rest is generic horror at its best. I'm sure you can predict every scene without having seen a single frame of this movie. From the husband's mysterious health improvement (he's possessed. Mystery solved) to the kids knowing there's something wrong but keeping secrets, to the wife *sigh* Googling the history of the residence to locate previous occupants. It's all Amityville but without a shirtless Ryan Reynolds on screen keeping your attention. Speaking of a lack of charisma.
Wyatt Russell is bland as hell. He's Kurt Russel without the energy and charisma that made his dad an icon of the 80's. Yes, I've seen him in other stuff too and my statement stands. His character is supposed to be a big part of the plot here and there were moments when I genuinely forgot about him! Say what you will about the Amityville remake, but Ryan Reynolds is genuinely chilling as the stepdad who slowly loses himself to evil of that house. I honestly felt like his family was in danger during the final act whereas Wyatt runs around with a grimace on his face and chases his daughter with all the energy of a zombie that needs to go to the bathroom and the lame CGI makeup effects doesn't do him any favors either. I honestly don't know what the deal is with Blumhouse productions. One minute they give us gold, the next we get uninspired nonsense like Night Swim. I would say they're the Nic Cage of horror studios except no matter how bad the movie is Nicolas Cage never fails to delight me. This movie on the other hand isn't even worth showing to that one friend who scares easily because you would have to watch it with them, and no one deserves to suffer that much boredom in their life.