Night Swim is a 2024 supernatural horror film directed by Bryce McGuire in his directorial debut, based on his 2014 short film of the same name. The first film to be released by Blumhouse Productions after merging with producer James Wan's Atomic Monster production company, it stars Wyatt Russell and Kerry Condon.
Ray Waller is a baseball player who was forced to retire due to an illness. While Ray and his family (consisting of wife Eve, daughter Izzy, and son Elliot) are house-hunting, they come across a house that has a pool in the backyard. As they settle in, mysterious and strange happenings start to occur, and it soon becomes clear that there is something in the pool…
This film provides examples of:
- Addictive Magic: Here, the magic is the pool's healing ability. Ray ends up addicted to it after his wound disappears.
- Bittersweet Ending: Eve, Izzy, and Elliot are able to survive the pool; however, this comes at the cost of Ray sacrificing himself to it. Fortunately, the Wallers make sure that no one ever falls victim to the pool anymore by staying at the house and covering it up.
- Chekhov's Skill: Eve says that her father, a Navy veteran, made her do dive rescue drills since she was a child, so she is a a strong swimmer and can hold her breath for a long time. These skills enable her to save Elliot from drowning in the pool during the climax with help from Rebecca's ghost.
- Demonic Possession: The pool's entity possesses Ray in order to bring in a sacrifice.
- Descent into Addiction: After learning of the pool's healing powers, Ray starts to use it more, thus making him vulnerable to possession by the pool.
- Evil Is Petty: Possibly the only reason the pool murders the cat. There is no way the cat is somehow an adequate sacrifice when it's been taking humans as tributes instead.
- Foreshadowing: Early on in the film, the Wallers learn that there were many natural springs in the area, before the neighborhood was built over them. The pool's supernatural properties come from the fact that it was built over one of these springs.
- One of the diving exercises Ray does with his kids is tossing coins into the pool and having them swim to get them. The image calls to mind wishing wells, where people toss coins in to have a wish granted. The pool is revealed to be a more sinister take on the concept.
- Healing Spring: Where the pool gets its water from. For someone to be healed, someone else has to be sacrificed.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Ray, who walks into the pool to make sure that his family isn't killed by it.
- Human Sacrifice: The pool requires one to heal a chosen person.
- Kick the Dog: The pool ghosts take out the family cat, for no reason other than For the Evulz, as it seems far more interested in human lives for the sacrifices than animal lives. Poor thing.
- Ms. Fanservice: Downplayed, since neither one is overly sexualized, but both Eve and Izzy are attractive women who wear revealing swimwear:
- Eve, the wife and mother, goes for a night swim in a form-fitting one-piece that shows some cleavage and accentuates her figure, particularly her butt.
- Izzy, the daughter, swims with her new boyfriend while wearing a bikini, with the bottoms showing off enough of her butt cheeks to qualify as a thong.
- Night Swim Equals Death: Clearly. However, while many scenes (including the climax) do happen at night, some horrors also happen in the daytime.
- Rule of Pool: Multiple. Besides the casual dives, the pool also drags people into it. And cats, unfortunately.
- Would Hurt a Child: The pool's victims are not limited to adults – Kay Fuller sacrificed her daughter, Rebecca, to the pool, which resulted in her son Tommy being healed. Not to mention, the pool tries to sacrifice Elliot when possessing Ray.
