'Night Swim' Drowns In Dull Horror Conventions
Speaking to a fellow critic before Night Swim started, she spoke to me of generic horror films that release in January. There's nothing special about them as they follow the same conventions. It's either a haunted house or a killer on the run. They lack the sort of creativity you'd find in a film like Talk To Me. The characters are bland, the setting overly familiar, and the cheap jump scares are plentiful. Night Swim checks all the boxes of a PG-13 horror film. It never goes far enough when it should, and the picture's restraint makes everything all the more predictable. In this film's horror checklist, it's a haunting that conveys horror.
The Waller family moves into a beautiful new house. They can afford such a place because the father, Ray (Wyatt Russell), is a pro MLB player. The only problem is that he's suffering from multiple sclerosis, which has taken him out for the season and possibly his entire life. Ray's wife, Eve (Kerry Condon), works for the local school district, getting her degree in special education. When the real estate agent Kay (Nancy Lenehan) shows them their new home, there's an insulting line made to draw laughs from Kay when hearing of Eve's profession. She says something to the effect of "it's never too late to follow your dreams." A loud burst of laughter came from the crowd I saw the move with. One gentleman, in particular, was especially noisy. Maybe some people like working in education and special ed is their dream. Is education a joke to Hollywood?
The Waller children are your normal kids. Izzy (Amélie Hoeferle) is a girl going through her romantic stage in high school. Her younger brother Elliott (Gavin Warren) is a shy kid who plays Little League ball. None of these characters are interesting to follow. We don't particularly see how Elliot fits within his social circle. Is he accepted or picked on? What makes him interesting? Furthermore, what makes Izzy, Eve, or Ray interesting? They're all trademark characters with little depth. The most nuance we get is Ray wanting to be cured of his MS., Yet we never see how it affects him personally. He's a ho-hum, upbeat gentleman who doesn't let life knock him down.
The Wallers are a typical family where we're waiting to see who gets killed. When the haunted pool starts terrorizing the Wallers, it's clear that the film will go only towards an arm's length in delivering on its horror premise. Seeing this is a PG-13 horror flick, the movie holds back to the degree where we know the outcome of our characters before the film wraps.
The haunted pool isn't very terrifying. Director Bryce McGuire uses the typical horror tropes to elicit fear. The pool lights start blinking when things start to go wrong. It's the usual strobe light effect you'd find in most modern horror flicks. There are the monsters that inhabit the pool within in its deepest depths, which have very cheesy-looking makeup that doesn't make them very convincing. And, of course, there's the jump scare that fails to make me jump, and I jump easily.
The elements of terror in Night Swim rips its inspiration from the pages of better horror films. The monsters that lurk in the water attempt to lure Elliot via the drainage ditch in the pool like they're Pennywise the clown from It. And what draws one of the kids out? It's a toy boat, just like Georgy's paper boat. Another Stephen King inspiration comes from Pet Cemetary, where a missing, presumably dead cat draws Elliot to the pool. Lastly, there's the element of Steven Spielberg's Jaws, where we see the victims from the beast's point of view.
None of these inspirations work well. They're not a ripoff, but none of the terror inspires originality. It's all very basic and boring, like the characters that inhabit the film. It's not until the picture's final act that things get mildly interesting. We never entirely learn what the abomination beneath the surface really is. We can tell it's a ghost but of what kind? When the film starts to reveal some of its answers, I find myself laughing more than being petrified. The film's revelations come in scenes that, if done well, can be terrifying. But if done with mediocrity, it can be unintentionally humorous. When the movie starts leaning heavily into the makeup department, it looks like the low-budget movie it is. It doesn't help when the main characters begin to make stupid decisions.
Night Swim's final moments create some questionable character moments. The movie's climactic scene is puzzling. Some chuckles came in the theater during that sequence, and I know it wasn't only me. Neither terrifying nor memorable, Night Swim is another run-of-the-mill horror film that doesn't have much beneath the surface.
