“Night Swim”: The January Curse Continues
I’m not even sure BlumHouse had faith in this one
Another January Horror Release
January and Horror are often two words that don’t mix very well. With some exceptions, I tend to find January horror movies boring and uninspired. In fact, I tend to find many January releases of any genre boring and uninspired (also with some exceptions). There is a reason for this, and it’s colloquially known as “dump month.”
See, after the holiday season, a time when studios drop many of their Oscar-contending releases in hopes that families and friends will get together to go see them, the lull hits. While there isn’t an exact factual answer as to why this lull occurs, the main belief is that people just need a break from watching movies. So, studios will drop movies that they either think will:
A. Not make a ton of money
B. Not be seen as good
C. Be a sleeper hit that stands out in a month often ridden with shit
I’m not exaggerating; there is an actual science behind this (okay, there may be some exaggeration, but I’m not kidding about the science).
Even so, not every studio sticks to that “science,” and January has seen its fair share of financial hits, the most notable being 2015’s American Sniper. I can’t even say that I’ve disliked all January releases. The 2022 Scream requel was very fun, Split was surprisingly good, and Cloverfield is my favorite found-footage flick of all time. Still, I rarely ever look forward to January releases, and Night Swim was no exception.
But were my expectations warranted?
Night Swim: An Extended Short
Night Swim, much like David F. Sandberg’s Lights Out, was originally a short film. Released in 2014, the short was created by Rod Blackhurst and Bryce McGuire, who both would go on to play roles in the creation of the feature-length film nearly 10 years later, with Blackhurst helping with the writing and McGuire acting as the solo director. However, the biggest thing holding Night Swim up was James Wan and his production company Atomic Monster. While James Wan has had his misses, his name tends to bring people in thanks to his many successes. While we have yet to see how successful Night Swim will be, I can imagine fans of Wan going out and seeing this thing regardless of the reviews it gets.
The original short film is simple yet effective, leaving things ambiguous while making it very clear that the pool is not what it seems. Surprisingly, you can do a lot in four minutes if you use your time wisely, and Night Swim spends the majority of its short runtime building tension to ultimately release it in one final scare.
I can’t say the feature film does the same. Yes, it does build tension, but the scares the tension builds to aren’t that effective. In fact, they are pretty generic and easy to see coming — a creepy face here or a hand shooting out of there — which may just be another indication of originality’s waning.
OR it’s a sign of the creators not knowing what else to do with their concept other than the generic stuff.
Bigger Isn’t Always Better
I think the film’s biggest issue is the fact that it is an extension of something meant to be much smaller. It is just over an hour and half in length, yet, with all the extra padding added to extend the runtime, it feels even longer. In fact, for a movie titled Night Swim (emphasis on night), so much of it takes place during the day. In fact, night isn’t even necessary for the evil pool to be evil: it’s merely added to the movie because night is traditionally scarier. The title works well for a short film that takes place on a single night — it’s not as effective in a movie that takes place during multiple times of day over multiple days.
Along with a bigger runtime, you also get a bigger budget (14 million more dollars, to be exact (if the estimate of the original short is correct)). But was it utilized well? Gaining the ability to film at certain locations takes a huge chunk of the budget, and much of the extra locations in this movie played a role in the unnecessary padding. So, that’s a no. Actors also need to be paid a decent amount, and there were plenty of characters in this movie who were completely underutilized and just there to be there. Moreover, characters with developing arcs didn’t really get a decent conclusion; the movie ends before the characters can complete their arcs. That’s another no. Money also goes into special effects, and while not all of the FX in this movie is bad, there are instances where it feels incomplete. There were also makeup effects, and I will admit that the clear views we get of the makeup looks good; however, there were also plenty of makeup effects that went unseen, being obscured by darkness, murky water, or both, which is a real shame given how many “ghosts” there were that ended up barely visible when the creators could have found a way to showcase all of them in the open.
A January Bore
Night Swim isn’t really offensive in any way. You can tell both McGuire and Blackhurst had some interesting ideas… they just weren’t executed in the best of ways. This leads to a horror movie that isn’t completely bad; it’s just extremely boring. The performances are good (if you ignore some cringe-inducing dialogue, which is probably the fault of the writers rather than the actors). And, as I said before, there are decent effects that keep this movie from looking absolutely terrible. I can’t even call the tension terrible… it just leads to nothing special. When there aren’t scares happening — or attempted scares — I’m twiddling my thumbs wondering when things will start getting semi-engaging again.
But some people may consider boring even worse than bad. Because while you can still have fun with bad movies — laughing at poor effects and cringey line delivery is extremely fun to do with friends — it’s hard to find enjoyment in boring content. Night Swim is inoffensive and has signs of quality — it just fails to gauge my interest long enough for me to care.
The Verdict
When it comes to short films being turned into feature-length films, I usually go in cautious, and movies like Night Swim are the reason for that. The boring padding, to me, at least, proves that the concept should have stayed with a shorter story. Not everything is made to be long; some stories, especially those within the genre of horror, benefit from shorter lengths, and I think Night Swim is one of those stories. In the end, adding more time made the concept appear a whole lot worse. I don’t think I ever need to see a movie about an evil pool ever again.
Night Swim gets a: 4/10
