Naty's Spooky Corner

Night Swim

★★★★★

Sunday, January 21, 2024, 5:45 AM

“There’s something wrong with that pool!”

Welcome back everyone, your favorite horror loving weirdo is back in action and ready to spin a tale around more spooks! This year we’re opening up with what is undoubtedly the best quote so far of the year 2024, coming at us from none other than our very own blumhouse feature, Night Swim.

Now I know what you’re thinking, “Naty, how could a movie possibly be centered around a haunted pool?” I know my dear reader, I too thought the very same thing heading into the theaters to watch this spectacular wet mess. This film opens up exactly as you’d expect - a middle class suburban family moves into a new neighborhood, and oh what’s that? Discovers that their pool is haunted. By what exactly would that be however? That’s a really good question that you and I have yet to uncover my dear friend. I did however learn more about baseball than I would have ever wanted to.

Yup. 
You read that right.
Baseball.

You see, this suburban family isn't just any old regular family. The father, Ray Waller, is a former professional baseball player looking to use some water therapy to help reduce the effects of his ever-worsening MS. The more time he spends in the pool, the better he begins to feel. But of course, this is only due to the fact that within the spring-fed pool lies an entity (I like to call her the pool witch) who has the ability to grant a wish, but at a drastic cost. Driven by the insatiable need to once again reign supreme, Ray is more than happy to sacrifice a kid or two, and predictably becomes possessed by our featured creature. Now add in some epic diving scenes, a scary game of marco polo, and you’ve got yourself a movie!

Truth be told, what I ultimately would have wanted from this movie, other than less baseball of course, was just a little more complete story telling. We see the mother of the previous family be monstrous by choosing to sacrifice her daughter Rebecca for the survival and eventual accomplishments of her terminally-ill son. Cut-forward to the present, and we are welcomed with 
the strongest performance in the film from Kerry Condon, the matriarch of the Waller family, who investigates her way into eventually saving her children from being snatched by the sea witch. Now since this story so closely follows two very different sides of motherhood, it would have been more robust if it were revealed that this sea witch was some twist on the classic La Llorona tale. You know - big scary loses her own children, blinded by rage and jealousy, eventually possesses a body of water, and of course, continues on for eternity trying to fill the void of her own creation. What ended up being truly shocking, was that by the third act of the film, our beloved sea witch was nowhere to be found! Instead, the final diving scene is literally filled with drifting bodies of the previous victims that left me more confused than when the movie started. For a movie that seems to be so grounded around monstrous motherhood and family drama, it lacked the additional depth into one particular relationship that truly left me treading for water.

Diving action: 5/5
Baseball mentions that no-one expected: 5/5
Overall???? Major sink

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