I respect a movie that tries to find something horrific in the ordinary. Death Bed: The Bed that Eats (1979), The Lift (1983), and my personal favorite, Rubber (2010), are all entertaining in their own way, as are many other entries in this genre. Are they successful in making me fear beds, elevators, or telekinetic tires? Not really. But I had a lot fun watching them try. And so, I respect writer and director Bryce McGuire for attempting to turn a pool in the suburbs into the monster of a horror movie. It was a radical undertaking, but someone had to do it. Kudos!
This first foray into the “killer pool” sub-genre fell short on some of the successes delivered by its predecessors in the larger “evil everyday-thing” genre. I love a good B movie, so I tend not to get too hung up on things like plot or acting if I’m having fun. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much entertaining or suspenseful about this film while also under performing in almost every aspect of the production.
The script was clunky with intermittent attempts by characters to express themselves in unnaturally profound ways. I’m thinking here of the pool tech that visits the house and leans against the diving board to ponder how despite our reptile brains’ impulse to avoid the water, we remain drawn to it. Was this intended to be more tongue-in-cheek then it played? I considered it but experienced a similar feeling when the mother dives into an emotional retelling of how she gave birth to her daughter. It seemed to come out of nowhere, and didn’t feel earned based on any of the interactions we’d witnessed between the two characters up until this point. From one writer to another, sometimes you gotta kill your darlings.
I think most of the films that try to pull off a similar trope are successful because they don’t take themselves too seriously. They know they’re not actually going to incite fear of a car or a microwave, so they lean on the action and the gore. Not the case with Night Swim, which I am sad to say, is rated PG-13 🙁
Now I need to talk about the main character, Ray Waller, played by Wyatt Russell, the son of Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn. He’s a former major league baseball player whose career is thwarted by the diagnosis of a degenerative and terminal illness. The pool heals him of his disease and then possesses him so he’ll bring it a sacrifice as compensation.
This is a terribly weak premise as nothing active is being done on the part of the main character. He doesn’t actively request or agree to the pool’s terms, and he is not in control when he attempts to drown one of the boys at the pool party to fulfill the bargain. If this is the story you’re going with, show me how he’s driven mad by his inability to play baseball. Make me believe that he wants it so bad that in a moment of weakness, he would agree to murdering a neighborhood child. Otherwise, I’m just watching things happen to this guy, and there’s no impact at the end when he wades into the deep end of the killer pool to drown himself so that his son can live.
I just have to say, this is a lot more critical than I enjoy being when it comes to B movies, but I feel some small amount of indignation due to the ratio of fun to the film’s box office profit. All the same, there were some things I liked.
There were some nice edits. For example, the establishing shot of the pool party sign; we see a balloon pop, and the instant before we can fully process it— cut to the next scene.
Nancy Lenehan was great as the realtor.
I liked the part where the ghost cat knocked the glass of water to the floor.
All in all, probably best to wait for subsequent entries in the “killer pool” genre to perfect the formula.
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