John Mulderig
Long ago, when the world was young, B-52s frontman Fred Schneider warned his listeners to stay away from “a pool fraught with danger.” The virtually bloodless but uneven horror yarn “Night Swim” (Universal)-which is possibly acceptable for older teens as well as grown-ups-offers a similar caution.
In this case, the potential victims of the problematic amenity are the members of a close-knit family already facing more down-to-earth challenges. Dad Ray Waller (Wyatt Russell) is a celebrated baseball player recently forced off the field by multiple sclerosis.
Supporting Ray in his battle with the disease are caring wife Eve (Kerry Condon) and their two children, adolescent Izzy (Amélie Hoeferle) and preteen Elliot (Gavin Warren). Though Eve initially favours moving into a care home, Ray convinces her that buying a nearby suburban home they happened to pass will enable the clan to lead a more normal life.
Ray also hopes that the pool with which their new house comes equipped will provide him with a venue for helpful aquatic therapy. And so, after a few dips, he starts to make a remarkable, almost inexplicable, recovery.
At the same time, however, Izzy and Elliot are gradually discovering that theirs is a cement pond with a spirit all its own. A backstory concerning the mystical spring by which the pool is fed leads to a potentially intriguing but not especially well-handled exploration of the nature of propitiation and the many varieties of sacrifice that can be made, from the self-serving to the altruistic.
In expanding to feature length the eponymous 2014 short he helmed with Rod Blackhurst, writer-director Bryce McGuire serves up some suspenseful sequences. They culminate in a frightening game of the Marco Polo Eve plays with Ronin (Elijah Roberts), the schoolmate she would like to make her boyfriend.
Yet the briefly glimpsed personification of the pool’s evil genius is straight out of a low-budget 1950s monster movie while over-the-top moments, especially toward the end, lend a daft feel to the proceedings as a whole. In fact, as soon as black liquid starts running out of the eyes of possessed characters, it’s a pretty sure sign that this gothic pool party has gone out of bounds.
Director Bryce McGuire recently told thewrap.com about the importance of the pool -and how it is almost becomes a character in itself in the film.
“There’s got to be a bigger mystery, a bigger idea there, that anchors that was not really until I realised what the pool could do, what it represented for this family – a chance to start over,” he said.
“And then also I knew I wanted the pool to be the villain. But I also knew there needed to be more than just scary water, there had to be something in that water that wanted to harm you. And that certainly, you know, took a little bit of developmental. Like how far do you go with that? What are those things? And what is that thing?”
Picture: Pictured clockwise are Amélie Hoeferle, Gavin Warren, Nancy Lenehan, Kerry Condon, and Wyatt Russell in a scene from the film “Night Swim.” (OSV News photo/Anne Marie Fox, Universal Pictures)