The new movie “Night Swim” was just recently released in theaters on Jan. 5, 2024. This new PG-13 horror film has had mixed reviews since its release and is thought of as an average horror movie. This movie was based on the 2014 short film of the same name, but did the new version live up to the original? 

I recently saw the movie “Night Swim” in theaters, and I personally thought the movie was decent and exactly as described. This movie is about a dad and former baseball player Ray Waller, played by Wyatt Russell, who was forced into retirement due to a severe illness and moved to a new house with his wife and two children. The family has high hopes for their new swimming pool to be a fun place for the kids, and for Ray to work on physical therapy. This is until an evil reoccurring force is released into the pool and causes the family many horrors and complications.  

Night Swim featured many jump scares, some causing my friends and I to jump out of our seats from fear. Along with this, a possessed man is shown harming his family in very violent ways, blood being shown, and the movie even depicts suicide. That said, if you do not like violence or jump scares, this movie might not be for you.  

I liked this movie because there is not too much gore, but it has a deeper method of tapping into fear and is very intriguing to watch. There was a lot of suspension which also kept me on the edge of my seat throughout the whole movie, and it had a very interesting storyline to keep up with. I also liked how the movie was about a realistic situation of a regular family moving into a new house, but it turned out that their pool was haunted.  

There was also a lot I disliked about the movie. One thing I disliked was the open-ended plot holes. There was a lot of information about the haunted pools past, and the young girl named Rebecca who went missing and was later heard coming from the pool drains, but audiences are never able to see what happens to her. 

The beginning of the movie also moved slowly and suddenly jumped straight to the climax, making it somewhat hard to follow. In addition to this, the movie ended very suddenly with the lead, Ray Waller, sacrificing himself for his family and jumping into the pool, supposedly conquering the  creature and dying. 

Overall, Night Swim had its ups and downs, and I would rate it 3/5 stars. If you are into horror movies with jump scares but not too much gore, then I would recommend seeing this movie, but it wasn’t a film that particularly stood out.