Believe it or not, Night Swim was one of the movies that I was looking forward to the most in January 2024! I guess the fact that my theatre only had this on twice each day was probably a good indicator of how little faith they had in it. Still, anything with the Blumhouse tag gets me excited as they more often than not hit it out of the park, but Night Swim I have to say was not one of their best!
How to Download Night Swim
Night Swim was released on January 5, 2024. You can expect it to become available for download or streaming in about two months from this date. Click on the Download button at the end of this review. Check out other Blumhouse horror films such as Happy Death Day, The Black Phone, or M3egan.
The Movie Review: A Haunted Swimming Pool Tale
I told my friend I went to see this and he asked me “Is Night Swim really about a haunted swimming pool?” I had to think for a second before I answered, but the truth is, if you break it down into its most simple form then yes, Night Swim is a movie that is about a haunted swimming pool. To be honest, I knew this going in, but that did not lessen my excitement as it had the Blumhouse seal of quality.
Fans of The Simpsons reading this may think I sound like Bart when he is at Camp Krusty! Night Swim is a movie that is actually based on a short movie from around a decade or so ago. Taking a short movie and trying to extend it into a full-length feature has been done before very successfully. However, Night Swim is an example of where the short story was good because it was short.
Dissecting Night Swim’s Story and Execution
The story is about a family that moves into a new home. Wyatt Russel plays the dad, Ray and he lives here with his wife Eve, and their two kids. Ray used to be a pro baseball player, but he was forced to retire early. This new house has an old pool in the backyard and Ray thinks that it will be fun for the kids to play in and also to help him get through his rehab too.
As I have said a few times, turns out that the pool is haunted and I know that this sounds laughable, but there is a reason for it and it does have more depth than you would think. However, after the first kill that the pool does (which is pretty cool), you are kind of just left waiting for things to pick up again and get exciting and they sadly never do.
Concluding Thoughts on Night Swim
The movie does look good, a few of the underwater scenes look fantastic and if you are scared of the deep end, you will be on the edge of your seat. However, the thrills are few and far between here. It really sucks too as I so wanted to like this movie and when I first came out of the theatre, I thought it was ok, but the more my wife and I talked about it on the drive home, the more I realized that it did not click with me.
I am not flat-out saying that Night Swim sucks, but it was a very disappointing movie for me. I would put it near the bottom of my Blumhouse movie list, but the very bottom is still home to The Craft 2. I would not go out of your way to see this to be honest with you. However, as it is a Blumhouse movie, I will give it a second chance when it hits one of the million streaming services I seem to be subscribed to these days.
