Swimming pool horror ‘Night Swim’ is getting brutal reviews

6 January, 2024

Kerry Condon in 'Night Swim', courtesy of Universal Studios 2023

Reviews for a new horror film about a haunted pool have come flooding in – and they haven’t gone very swimmingly.

‘Night Swim’ was just released yesterday (January 5), and stars lead actors Wyatt Russell and Kerry Condon (Banshees of Inisherin). The feature debut of director Bryce McGuire, the film concerns a possessed swimming pool in a suburban family’s backyard. The movie is based off a 2014 short film of the same name by Macguire and Rod Blackhurst.

In the first wave of reviews, critics have near unanimously panned ‘Night Swim’. In a two-star review, Benjamin Lee at The Guardian wrote: “It’s the sort of bottom-shelf concept that feels more at home in the 80s, alongside Blood Beach, Death Bed and Killer Workout and there’s not not some trashy fun to be squeezed out of such a lurid premise.”

“The essential problem with ‘Night Swim’ is that no matter how McGuire might try (and credit to his ability as director, he really does put in the effort), the pool is never the terrifying setting it needs to be,” he wrote.

Kerry Condon in 'Night Swim', courtesy of Universal Studios 2023
Kerry Condon in ‘Night Swim’, courtesy of Universal Studios 2023

Zachary Barnes at The Wall Street Journal agreed by writing that ‘Night Swim’ “doesn’t have the smarts to embrace its own stupidity”. He went on to praise Condon’s acting performance as “good”, in contrast to Russell, calling him “as wooden as the baseball bat hung up in his character’s garage.”

He added: “Mr. Russell, son of Kurt (and Goldie Hawn), here gives a performance of such absent charisma that one can’t help but wonder how a real nobody might have done. It certainly couldn’t have been worse.”

Robbie Collin at The Telegraph gave the movie three stars, comparing the movie’s premise to “an adaptation of a Stephen King short story that King himself never got around to writing up.”

“Nothing in ‘Night Swim’ will change how you feel about horror, or even swimming, but it fulfils its brief with efficiency and style,” he wrote. “If a film about an evil pool appeals, then come on in: unlike the water, it’s fine.”

However, in a glowing four-star review, Ben Travis at Empire praisedthe film as “a largely impressive popcorn shocker”.

“With smart scares, stylish camerawork, strong sound design (all washed-out underwater sounds, panicked splashing, and nerve-jolting diving-board rattles) and engaging performances, it earns the horror equivalent of a Kellogg’s Rainbow swimming badge.”

Check out more reactions to the film below:

 

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