NIGHT SWIM (2024)
Collector's Edition Blu-ray + DVD + Digital
Label: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
Region Code: A
Rating: PG-13
Rating: PG-13
Duration: 98 Minutes 12 Seconds
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 7.1, French Canadian DTS Digital Surround 5.1, Latin American Spanish DTS-HD High Resolution MA Audio 7.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.391)
Director: Bryce McGuire
Cast: Kerry Condon, Wyatt Russell, Amelie Hoeferle, Gavin Warren, Jodi Long
Night Swim (2024) is the latest from Blumhouse, co-produced by James Wan's Atomic Monster, directed by Bryce McGuire, who also directed the same-titled short film from 2014 which it's based on. It's a supernatural thriller about a former major league baseball player Ray Waller (Wyatt Russell, Overlord) who retires because of a degenerative illness. He moves his family, wife Eve (Kerry Condon, The Banshees of Inisherin), teen daughter Izzy (Amélie Hoeferle, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes) and young son Elliot (Gavin Warren, Fear the Walking Dead), into a new home in the suburbs complete with a backyard swimming pool, which is fed by an underground spring said to have restorative properties.
They move in and are enjoying their new digs, it's located close by to the school were Eve has taken a job, and the pool allows Ray to engage in water physical therapies, and soon his illness seems to go into remission. Unbeknownst to the family however is that the pool harbors a dark secret beneath it's surfaces, a malevolent force that threatens to drag Ray and his family into the deepest depths of terror.
The flick is a well-made, well-acted supernatural slice of suburban fright, it is fine, it's totally in line with what the House of Blum is known for; slick, low-budget mainstream, PG-13 creepers. It is also pretty much a pastiche of better films, combing the suburban possession of The Amityville Horror, but feeling more like the remake the the original, with a well-meaning dad falling under the dark spell of a malevolent entity putting his family danger, it's also got thew cursed object feels of the later Amityville sequels, plus a bit of the demonic object flicks like Death Bed: The Bed That Eats (1977). The twist here is that the threat is a swimming pool, not an old dark house, but a normal looking pool. They do a lot of work to make this pool terrifying, there's a ghoul that hangs out in the black bottomless deep-end, the spirit of a girl that hangs out in the pool skimmer in the wall of the pool, luring a kid close so that the ghoul can grab your arm like It's a waterlogged Pennywise, a toy boat the appears as a portent of doom, black goo leaking from eye and mouths, spectral apparitions that appear in the periphery around the pool, and of course the threat of a pool-covering that threatens to trap swimmer below the surface, and they try hard to turn the pool-game of Marco Polo into something creepy like Hide & Clap from The Conjuring.
It's totally fine, but it's hard to shale the been there and watched that before (and better) geeling, and to that end it was kind of dull, it didn't go anywhere other than what I expected. I was a bit surprised that we did not get more flashbacks to past victims of the pool, judging my how many different spectres we see haunting the pool there must be quite a few. I probably sound like I hated this flick, but I did not, I thought the cast was terrific, I am a huge Wyatt Russell fan and I always dig him when he shows up, ever since I discovered on the TV series Lodge 49, and Condon and the actors who played the kids are all quite likable. I just get persnickety when I am watching a film, even if I am enjoying it, and I just start calling the other movies the movie I am currently watching is biting from. That said, it's a decent popcorn muncher that is attractively lensed with some interesting and handsome compositions, it's just real light on originality but it gets by on some decent tension, it's just a bit silly and never frightening.
Audio/Video: Night Swim (2024) arrives on Blu-ray from UPHE in 1080p HD widescreen (2.39:1) looking quite pleasing, colors are well-saturated and vibrant, skin tones are natural, depth and clarity are top-notch. Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 7.1, French Canadian DTS-HD MA 5.1, Spanish DTS-HD MA 7.1 with optional English subtitles. It's a solid modern surround sound presentation with excellent depth and fidelity, we get some great use of the surrounds for the watery scares, and dialogue is always clear and precise, The suspenseful score from Mark Korven (The Black Phone) also comes through full-bodied.
Audio/Video: Night Swim (2024) arrives on Blu-ray from UPHE in 1080p HD widescreen (2.39:1) looking quite pleasing, colors are well-saturated and vibrant, skin tones are natural, depth and clarity are top-notch. Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 7.1, French Canadian DTS-HD MA 5.1, Spanish DTS-HD MA 7.1 with optional English subtitles. It's a solid modern surround sound presentation with excellent depth and fidelity, we get some great use of the surrounds for the watery scares, and dialogue is always clear and precise, The suspenseful score from Mark Korven (The Black Phone) also comes through full-bodied.
Extras include featurettes by way of the 7-min Master of Fear; 7-min special effects featurette Demons from the Depths; the 6-min Into the Deep; the 4-min Marco Polo; and an Audio Commentary with director Bryce McGuire. I thought it was a missed opportunity not to include the original short film from 2014. The 2-disc BD/DVD arrives in a dual-hub keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork and a slipcover with the same artwork, inside there's redemption code for a digital HD copy of the film.
Special Features:
- Master of Fear – Horror legends Jason Blum and James Wan discuss why they chose to collaborate on this project, what drew them to this story and why first-time director, Bryce McGuire, was the perfect man for the job. (6:45)
- Demons from the Depths – Dive into the world of special effects and learn how the creatures in NIGHT SWIM were created to withstand the trials of filming underwater. (7:16)
- Into the Deep – Go beneath the surface and hear from cast and crew on the physical and technical work that went into creating a movie that contains so many underwater sequences. (5:50)
- Marco Polo – Director Bryce McGuire breaks down the pivotal scare scene and how the film took a simple children’s game and turned it into a nightmare. (4:03)
- Audio Commentary with director Bryce McGuire
Buy it!
- Master of Fear – Horror legends Jason Blum and James Wan discuss why they chose to collaborate on this project, what drew them to this story and why first-time director, Bryce McGuire, was the perfect man for the job. (6:45)
- Demons from the Depths – Dive into the world of special effects and learn how the creatures in NIGHT SWIM were created to withstand the trials of filming underwater. (7:16)
- Into the Deep – Go beneath the surface and hear from cast and crew on the physical and technical work that went into creating a movie that contains so many underwater sequences. (5:50)
- Marco Polo – Director Bryce McGuire breaks down the pivotal scare scene and how the film took a simple children’s game and turned it into a nightmare. (4:03)
- Audio Commentary with director Bryce McGuire
Buy it!
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