Night Swim is a 2024 American supernatural horror film short film of the same name, Ray Waller (Wyatt Russell) is a former major league baseball player forced into early retirement by a degenerative illness. Secretly hoping, against the odds, to return to pro ball, Ray persuades his wife, Eve (Kerry Condon), that their new home’s shimmering backyard swimming pool will be fun for the kids (Amélie Hoeferle and Gavin Warren) and provide physical therapy for him. But a dark secret in the home’s past will unleash a malevolent force that will drag the family under, into the depths of inescapable terror.
Horror classics such as Poltergeist, Christine, Burnt Offerings and Jaws inspired Night Swim – well, these and a touch of aquaphobia.
“I’ve always had water on the brain,” director Bryce McGuire says.
As a kid, McGuire loved movies and as he became increasingly interested in the medium, his wary regard for the water flowed naturally into an interest in seaside thrillers. “I saw Jaws when I was 10 years old. We had a swimming pool at the time, and I remember treading water by myself at night when my younger brother turned the lights out. And even though I knew the pool was only 9 feet deep and 18 feet wide, I was certain beyond any doubt that the water was an abyss and something horrible was rising toward me from the depths.”
All of McGuire’s terrors and tastes find potent and poignant expression in Night Swim. “The pool represents status, diversion, fun,” McGuire says. “It’s sexy; it’s seductive, and that’s what makes it deadly.”
