NIGHT SWIM

US, 2023, 98 minutes, Colour.

Wyatt Russell, Kerry Condon,

Directed by Bryce McGuire.

In more recent times, there have been a number of “horror films” which are more widely accessible to a drama friendly audience. There are not horror films in the sense of blood and gore, the type of horror films popular at horror festivals. Rather, the new films are films of menace, haunting, often with what might be called PG characters. They can play well to a more family oriented audience but are denounced as to tame by the gore aficionados.

We are introduced to the touch of menace immediately, a little girl with her invalid brother, a toy floating in their pool, her deciding to retrieve it, but her then being dragged into the pool and disappearing.

What follows is, in many ways, the kind of plot we might have anticipated. A family, the father a baseball champion but debilitated and recuperating, a supportive mother who works in school administration, an older daughter, a younger son, deciding to settle down and buy a house. Of course, they are attracted by the house and the pool. So, we really know what is going to happen but the tantalising aspect of the film is how it will happen.

Audiences will be attracted by this pleasantly average American family, the father played by Wyatt Russell and the mother played by the Irish actress, Kerry Condon (Banshees of Innisfail). There are scenes with the doctor and hope of recuperation, there are scenes of swimming and the father getting better, there is exaltation in having the pool.

However, the daughter senses presence of others but no one there. The son enjoys a game of retrieving coins, but no one there. The mother senses eerie presences, but no one there. But, we know who’s there!

There is a happy sequence where the father takes his son to a baseball practice, the mother encouraging the somewhat timid son to hit the ball – and he does. But, the crowd persuades the father to demonstrate his past progress and he certainly smashes the ball. Happiness all round.

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So, what better than to have a party, to invite everyone from the school, the neighbours, a welcoming party. But, of course, the haunting strikes, everyone afraid, leaving, denouncing the family.

There are some complications, of course, the mother seeking out the owner of the previous house to get the story and learning of a strange mythology of the powers of water, the healing power but there always demanding a human sacrifice, giving up the weakest member of the family. Which leads them to a dramatic underwater climax, family confrontation – some saved, and a sacrifice made the sake of others.

1. Drama, touches of menace and horror? Wanting? Powers evil? But a family story?
2. The formula, Rebecca and the haunted house, the drowning? The empty house, sale, suppression of the truth? The buying of the house? Manifestations of evil, manifestations of healing?
3. The American family, middle American, the baseball background, reputation, loving father, loving wife, son and daughter, the wife of the school in administration, husband and his therapy? The stories about the birth of the children? The moves, wanting to set down roots, the house, the attraction of the pool?
4. The father, interviews with the doctor, diagnosis, therapy, improvement? The wife, work at the school, her bonding with the children, support of her husband?
5. Elliott, in the pool, the issue of the coins, no one present? The sound on the diving board? The presence of Rebecca, Elliot putting his hand in the entry, voice, his fears? Isabelle, in the water, a sense of presence, absence? The same with the wife? The husband in the pool, the relationships, the effects, the atmosphere?
6. The baseball episode, his mother encouraging Elliot, hitting the ball, the father and the enormous it, the ball, the souvenir the autograph?
7. Isabelle, friendship with Ronin, the pool, the visit at night, the eerie experiences?
8. The party, the friends and children arriving, the happiness, the mother’s discussion with the estate agent, the revelation of the Rebecca story?
9. The boy with the autograph, on the father’s shoulders, confronting the big man, the pressure, the boy almost drowning, the father, the blackness in the pool, absorbing it? The hostile reactions of the families?
10. The father, his physical health improving? Yet the aftermath of the incident, his being paralysed? Driving the car? The mother, seeking out the Japanese mother, the interview, the mythology of the lake, the power, healing but wanting a sacrifice? The son becoming wealthy? Rebecca expendable?
11. The buildup to the finale, the sacrifice of Elliot, being weak, in the pool, the father, Isabelle with the bat? Elliot, under the counter, his mother diving in to save him? Isabella, the haunting, saving Elliot, getting a baseball bat, confronting their father, the mother, Rebecca helping, the final confrontation? Elliot the weakest? The father and his self-sacrifice?

12. A haunting story rather gory? And a PG story?