Forced into early retirement, a former baseball player moves into a new house with his wife and two children. Soon, a dark secret from the home’s past unleashes a malevolent force that drags the family into the depths of inescapable terror. A film by Bryce McGuire, starring Wyatt Russell, Amélie Hoeferle, Gavin Warren, and Kerry Condon.

In 1992, Rebecca Summers (Ayazhan Dalabayeva) wakes up to a strange noise in the middle of the night. Peering through her bedroom window, she sees her terminally ill brother Tommy’s missing toy boat floating eerily in the pool. Determined to retrieve it for him, Rebecca sneaks out of the house. However, as she reaches for the boat, a mysterious force pulls her under the water’s surface.

Fading from the tragic past, the film cuts to the present day. A new family arrives at the same house that has been vacant since the tragic incident. Ray Waller ( Wyatt Russell), a once-renowned baseball player, was sidelined by illness, forced into early retirement. Despite doctors’ pronouncements of his playing days being over, a flicker of hope burns within him. He and his wife Eve (Kerry Condon), seek permanent residence and a fresh start in this new home, drawn by the pool – a doctor-recommended form of physical therapy for Ray’s recovery.

As Ray lunges for a rogue baseball bobbing in the pool, he loses his footing and plunges in. Sinking towards the bottom, he sees a vivid vision: himself standing tall on a Major League field, launching a towering home run. Gasping awake, he claws his way back to the surface. Later, Ray is deeply cut on the hand while trying to unclog the main drain.

The following night, a chilling sequence of events unfolds. While Eve glides through the pool, a fleeting mirage shimmers before her: Ray, standing tall on the deck, then gone in an instant. The pool lights stutter, casting shifting shadows that send shivers down her spine. Eve scrambles out, her heart pounding, and hurries back to check on her kids. Back in their bedroom, she finds Ray already asleep.

The morning after, Elliot (Gavin Warren) screams for his parents when he finds his cat Cider’s collar floating in the pool. Eve attempts to calm her son by telling him that the cat probably fell and got scared, and that the cat will come back when he’s hungry. Ray’s hand is mysteriously healed, without any visible mark. Ray’s recovery has improved significantly within a remarkably short time, giving him more hope.

Meanwhile, something sinister slowly reveals itself around the pool, even in broad daylight. Elliot is lured and ambushed by the ghost of Rebecca Summers. His sister Izzy (Amélie Hoeferle) is later dragged underwater by a bloated cadaver, but remains tight-lipped about the encounter, fueling Elliot’s growing conviction that something is terribly wrong with the pool. Elliot is determined to uncover the truth, whatever horrors lurks beneath the surface.

A supernatural horror film written and directed by Bryce McGuire in his feature debut, expands on the 2014 short film of the same name by McGuire and Rod Blackhurst. While the ambiguity and unpredictability of the original 3-minute film works in its favor, the 90-minute version fails to deliver the same satisfying experience.

Four main cast members deliver believable performances, particularly Wyatt Russell and Kerry Condon. Most of the characters exhibit sound logic, like normal people. When they realize something sinister lurks in the pool, they wisely choose to avoid it.

The film dedicates a lot of time to building up the atmosphere, but relies on technical jump scares that fall short of being truly scary. While the concept of an evil entity inhabiting the pool is intriguing, the filmmaker seems to take the story too seriously by attempting to explain the entity’s origin. Unfortunately, the revealed secret undermines the meticulously built suspense. It feels illogical and raises numerous questions. Why would a powerful, evil spirit need to trick victims into the pool or use other spirits to capture them when it could simply possess a body and do the job itself?

The most curiously unnerving scene for me is the kitchen one, where Eve rhythmically chops a watermelon. Despite the apparent normalcy of the scene, a memorable chill hangs in the air, as if the rhythmic thud of the knife against the fruit’s crimson flesh is a sinister countdown to something unseen.

NIGHT SWIM was theatrically released in the United States on 5 January 2024.