Night Swim (2024)
September 7, 2024 10:04 AM - Subscribe
[TRAILER] Blumhouse makes a PG-13 haunted swimming pool movie.
People are in this, Kurt Russell and Goldie Shawn's son, for one. People made it, too. But ehhhh. I'm not listing all of that.
20% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Does it even sound good? It's not.
JustWatch listing.
People are in this, Kurt Russell and Goldie Shawn's son, for one. People made it, too. But ehhhh. I'm not listing all of that.
20% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Does it even sound good? It's not.
JustWatch listing.
I think, as with a lot of movies, there was a chance for someone unafraid to lean into camp to make something fun here. But they didn't stick their neck out like that. But, also as is the case with those movies, people with a stronger affinity for cheese, as well as people who may see this in twenty years when said cheese has aged a bit, may be able to enjoy it more than I did.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:58 AM on September 7 [1 favorite]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:58 AM on September 7 [1 favorite]
I haven't watched this, but I feel like my ability to take Wyatt Russell seriously was hampered by Marvel's decision to put him in a ridiculous ear-exposing/-accentuating helmet as USAgent. Without the helmet, he looks like a normal person, a lantern-jawed clone of his dad, but the helmet just makes his ears stick out so much that when the wind catches them you're afraid he'll simply be carried away. Anyway, that's all I can think of when I think of him.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 1:10 PM on September 7
posted by kittens for breakfast at 1:10 PM on September 7
I think this was a case of a writer/director getting a feature film based off a good short, but then over-writing to justify the additional 85 minutes.
Like, Mama was a good short that was built out into a good feature. Smile was a good short that made mostly a good feature, though the ending strayed from the original idea. Night Swim was a good short that became overly complicated and ridiculous as a feature. Sure, a haunted pool sounds silly described in so many words, but they could have still made it scary by committing to it! Instead they made it incoherent by explaining it as a force that lives underground that grants wishes then takes sacrifices and also possesses the people whose wishes it grants, et cetera.
Reminds me of when the director of Donnie Darko made a movie version of the Twilight Zone episode where you press a button to make a million dollars but it kills someone you don’t know—a nicely vicious premise that didn’t need a 90 minute treatment. (The movie was called The Box in case you didn’t know)
posted by ejs at 6:21 PM on September 7
Like, Mama was a good short that was built out into a good feature. Smile was a good short that made mostly a good feature, though the ending strayed from the original idea. Night Swim was a good short that became overly complicated and ridiculous as a feature. Sure, a haunted pool sounds silly described in so many words, but they could have still made it scary by committing to it! Instead they made it incoherent by explaining it as a force that lives underground that grants wishes then takes sacrifices and also possesses the people whose wishes it grants, et cetera.
Reminds me of when the director of Donnie Darko made a movie version of the Twilight Zone episode where you press a button to make a million dollars but it kills someone you don’t know—a nicely vicious premise that didn’t need a 90 minute treatment. (The movie was called The Box in case you didn’t know)
posted by ejs at 6:21 PM on September 7
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posted by miss-lapin at 10:43 AM on September 7