Night Swim (Blu-ray + DVD + Digital)
(Wyatt Russell, Kerry Condon, Amélie Hoeferle, Gavin Warren, et al / Blu-ray + DVD + Digital / PG-13 / 2024 / Sony Distribution Services)
Overview: The producers of M3GAN high dive into the deep end of horror with the supernatural thriller, Night Swim. Wyatt Russell (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier) stars as a former major league baseball player, forced into early retirement by a degenerative illness, who moves into a new home with his wife (Oscar nominee Kerry Condon) and their two children.
The new home comes complete with a backyard swimming pool, but a deep secret surfaces and unleashes a malevolent force that will drag the family into the inescapable depths of terror.
Blu-ray Verdict: Noted as being the first real horror movie of 2024, Night Swim is not a gory one, although there is lots of blood, but moreover is mostly dread-drenched along with some good camera work.
Based on a short film now turned into a feature by Bryce McGuire and Rod Blackhurst, it does the job of a good scare story, getting great use out of actors Wyatt Russell, Kerry Condon, and Amélie Hoeferle.
The creature is an Undine, a water spirit, so it’s all water based terror, which makes a change, with the reveal at the last being something you can work it out well beforehand (if you are playing along throughout), but even if you have a deep knowledge of sea/water creatures, the pool really does get some great use out of camouflaging what is to come.
I mean, sure, it is not what anyone could call a big horror film, but as it was the first of its kind released this year, it still manages to thrill and chill in equal measures.
As for the story itself, an injured baseball player has moved his wife Kerry, his daughter Amelie and his son Gavin to a new house with a swimming pool in the backyard. What the realtor failed to inform them was that the house has a past ie: it is haunted!
It seems that people have died in the pool and are now living there, waiting for new residents to join them. Along the way you do learn more about the history of the pool and it’s inhabitants and the cost they paid-and why, along with a whole host of lovely, good old-fashioned jump scares!
BLU-RAY™ & DVD + DIGITAL EXTRAS:
● Masters of Fear
● Demons from the Depths
● Into the Deep
● And More!
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