Night Swim

Warning I normally do not use profanity, but it was warranted here, and I have used * to edit, so I do not offend anyone. You get the gist without spelling the entire word. It’s a compromise, as I am normally family friendly. The swearing helps get the point across. Sorry. But not really.

Night Swim is a movie that is caught between two narratives that should mesh, but just don’t. I would love to keep this spoiler free, but cannot. The opening is bleak, and suddenly they thrust us into the colorful world of the Waller’s. A world that is not so bright after all. And frankly, I wasn’t prepared for the disappointment that was the Waller family.

We learn Ray has multiple sclerosis, a storyline I was not prepared for. That was probably the only plot point they did not give away in the trailer. I have fibromyalgia, endometriosis, and arthritis and have been going through a diagnosis for the last few years. It is likely I have an autoimmune disease as well, I am going through a diagnosis. So this point was something I was not very excited about that. I felt like I was trying to go to this movie to escape my life, and yet somehow it followed me to the theater, and that was the only part of the movie that haunted me. And that actually has nothing to do with the movie, does it?

Currently, I am going through what Ray went through, where suddenly my house isn't accessible. I don't know where I'm going to live when things get worse, and I do not know what's going to happen to me. It was a total bummer. I was prepared to watch a horror movie about a haunted pool, not something that pertains to dealing with a chronic disease. When I went to the theater, I was expecting an escape from my life not to have to deal with that aspect as well, which soured the movie early on for me.

I wanted to leave the theater. But stayed thinking they cannot possibly focus on Ray the whole time because there is a haunted swimming pool.

I wish I had because the Waller’s are boring as hell.

They did not incorporate the pool into the movie enough. A good portion of the movie takes place outside the pool, which is understandable, but the haunting part needs to follow them throughout the movie. The family should've released whatever the f*ck was living in the pool, and it follows them throughout the f*cking movie, but it didn't. The movie is actually pretty f*cking boring because you can only swim for so freaking long. There isn't enough cohesiveness, and it just feels like it’s filler when they're not at the pool.

I don’t want to spoil the entire movie for you, but there’s a whole subplot with a cat and the cat disappears. No one talks about the cat for a while, then suddenly they mention the cat! But they drop that thread again, and then you don’t know what happens to the cat. I’m sorry, I’m more invested in the cat than any other character in this movie, and you don’t even bother to tell me if the cat’s OK? What the f*ck.

Ultimately, the movie is about a haunted pool. And most of the bad stuff happens at the pool. Anything interesting only happens when they're swimming! Night Swim is pretty boring. It's like Atomic Monster let somebody who decided one day to make a movie, make a movie. And they did not know what they were doing. After doing a deep on dive, IMDb, I think that actually might be the case. Let us hope Baghead is better.

I think the Rod Blackhurst did not share the vision of Bryce McGuire the writer of the short who inspired the feature length film who co-wrote this. It feels like two people with very different ideas made two different movies and merged it into one script. If you watch the short, you can tell they did not have enough material to make this into a feature. And this feels like a poorly written cash grab.

The writers had two different ideas of what they wanted to do with this movie, and instead of compromising and meeting each other in the middle and writing a cohesive script, it just became a total clusterf*ck. Where it felt they wanted to tell a redemption story and a horror story but could not marry the two concepts.

And it's not scary at all! The first time I saw the entity that lives in the pool or whatever the f*ck it is, it looked literally like a turd that someone had drawn a face on. It wasn't scary, and I laughed hard. Honestly, I'm convinced someone in post-production hired someone on Fiverr to make the entity with Adobe. The entity was that f*cking bad.

There is barely any character development for the teenage children, so they weren't enjoyable. You didn't care what happened to them. Eve (wife and mother) was the most insipid person on the planet. The only person who was even interesting was Ray. Ray’s flashbacks were depressing, and you could tell it was a sad cliché. Like Ray had not grieved and made peace with his diagnosis. Which was such a f*cking downer.

And then there is the cat. Where the hell is the cat?

They don't mention any information you need to know about the pool until it's too late, and even then it's vague. We need more information, people! The pool being haunted (possibly possessed) is pointless because they don't lean into it enough. Had they had given this information earlier, it may've helped us know what the f*ck was happening.

What pisses me off the most is Ray has Multiple Sclerosis, and they could've done a lot with the storyline, especially with body horror. It's like the scriptwriters had absolutely no f*cking clue what MS was. They did not know what it's like to live with a disease or an illness where you have no control over your own body all the time.

When you're dealing with chronic pain and your mobility is being challenged, it can be harrowing. Living in a body that you cannot control is scary, and they f*cked that up, too. This one point that is easy to get across. Yet they don’t use that. That alone could've been an entire movie, and then they added a haunted pool. On paper, this should've been amazing.

Maybe I should write Fibromyalgia: I don’t think you’re really sick the movie and make it. If they made this, then I could make my movie too! Or I could write Arthritis the musical!

Body horror combined with possession/haunting, that could've been something amazing. You would've never known was it was a ghost or was it his illness? It would've kept you on the edge of your seat, and they f*cked it up. There could've been a lot of beauty and symbolism in this movie, and instead they write this utter garbage.

Ray was looking into moving his family into in an independent/assisted living community. Instead, they buy this enormous house with a decrepit pool. And Eve puts an extra plastic railing on the stairs, like that's going to make it f*cking accessible?

This movie had me scratching my head because most of the things they were doing made no f*cking sense. Living with a disability that affects your mobility is hard as f*ck. If you are dealing with a chronic disease where your body is no longer functioning the way it is supposed to, you will not buy a fixer-upper house, where you have to climb up the stairs to go to bed at night during a flare. This movie just kept pissing me off.

I could see it in the beginning of the movie how unsure Ray was. He worried that his family wouldn't want him to live with him anymore or that he would be a burden, and they didn't lean into that more. They could have, and I don't think it would've been offensive if done right. I think it would've been an eye-opening and heart-wrenching subplot that would've made you become more invested in Ray and the rest of the Waller family.

There were so many wasted opportunities in this movie

It was like nobody knew anything about being disabled, and it f*cking pisses me off as a disabled person. It could've been so raw and visceral. Yes, I wish I could have my old life, but your disability helps makes you who you are now. And that is touched upon and wasted.

Being disabled is not always horrible, and sometimes it gives as much as it takes. It depends on perspective. Not being able to control your body is scary and something unless you have been through it, you will never know. This aspect could have been powerful and taught the audience a lot. There were many missed opportunities.

Ultimately, what you got was somebody trying to make a movie based on someone else's short film that was written and made 10 years ago, but instead of leaning in to the original vision, they added this dad used to be a Baseball star but is now disabled subplot. A subplot that was bungled.

If you're going to make a movie, where one of the main characters has a disability, do better. Ray’s multiple sclerosis was just a subplot to the writers. They could've had Ray suffer from an injury that made it impossible for him to play baseball anymore instead. That would've made more sense and would've been less offensive than using a serious as a disability as a plot device. And it is a waste not to be more factual and accurate to bring awareness to said disability.

Longer story, longer Night Swim sucks. It uses a serious disease as a plot device that goes nowhere except to say disabled people should sacrifice themselves. And you never learn what happened to the cat. F*ck that sh*t.

Skip it. It will likely be on Peacock in a few months. Save your money.