Ever since 1982 people have become weary of swimming pools in the backyard of suburban homes. Poltergeist became a hit and nobody went swimming (just like after Jaws came out over a decade before). Swimming pools don't often show up in horror films but when they do, there is a reason and to start the New year off right, Universal Pictures decided to entertain audiences with Night Swim. Three months later and as the weather gets warmer, it's time we get reminded about water safety with the Blu-ray and digital release of the film. Night Swim hits stores on April 9. 2024.
Thirty years ago, a young girl was killed in her backyard pool. Now, retired baseball player Ray Walley and his family move into the house where the girl and her family lived. Ray, who is battling Multiple Sclerosis, feels the idea of using the pool for his regular exercise is a great one and once the family spends some time getting the pool ready, they jump right in. However, the more they use the pool the more they find strange things happening around them.
First-time feature director/writer Bryce McGuire managed to convince the powers that be to allow him to direct which may not have been the brightest idea. The pacing is slow and the jump scares aren't that scary since you can see them coming a mile away. The story is an expansion of the short film McGuire wrote but it seems there wasn't enough material to make the movie longer and he didn't write more to make the movie more interesting, The plot is fairly simplistic and the "creature" that possesses the water could have been expanded upon further. McGuire could have given the audience some backstory about the creature and the water.
As far as the video quality goes, Night Swim sits in the mid-range of Blu-ray releases. The 1080p gives the film some depth (no pun intended) but there is still more that could be brought out. Much of the color palette is dark and muted in tone which makes the movie blurrier around the edges, harder to focus on, and get more detail. The "creature" also looks like a 10-year-old put it together in the basement. It looked unprofessional and kind of "clownish"
While the DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 is very good overall, the ambient noise could be sharper and the dialogue should have been cleaner. The home entertainment release should have been given a boost to help offset the lack of details from the video. The overall quality isn't bad but there is no doubt this could be better.
The extras are decent enough - let's face it, you can't have great extras without a solid feature film- but I wouldn't necessarily buy a Blu-ray based on the extras. They include Masters of Fear, Demons from the Depths, Into the Deep, Marco Polo, and Feature Commentary With Co-Writer/Director Bryce McGuire. As I mentioned...decent enough but not something that would be a "must buy" category".
As a concept, the plot of Night Swim has its merits. However, the execution left much to be desired and the scary-looking monster living in the pool water was so bad that it was almost comical. It seemed inconsistent as well, since sometimes it was hairy, like a person, and other times it was a blob that could have been the mutant sibling of Pennywise the Clown.
Finally, the worst part is the whole film could have been avoided (potentially) if the Wallers had done in the beginning what eventually became the outcome in the end. The movie could have been over, even before it had started which would have saved me an hour and a half of my time.
Grade: D+
