“Night Swim” is a new horror film based on the 2014 short film of the same name starring Wyatt Russell and Kerry Condon.
Let’s dive into some trivia and facts about the film.
- Night Swim is a 2024 American supernatural horror film
- It is written and directed by Bryce McGuire
- This marks his feature directorial debut
- The film is based on the 2014 short film of the same name by McGuire and Rod Blackhurst
- The film stars Wyatt Russell and Kerry Condon
- Its plot follows a suburban family who discover that their backyard swimming pool is haunted
- Jason Blum and James Wan produced under their Blumhouse Productions and Atomic Monster banners, respectively
- This marks the first film from the two companies to be released following their merger on January 2, 2024
- Night Swim was released in the United States by Universal Pictures on January 5, 2024
- The film received negative reviews from critics
- On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds 27% rating
- Based on 103 critics’ reviews
- With an average rating of 4.4/10
- Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 42 out of 100
- Based on 29 critics
- Indicating “mixed or average” reviews
- Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of “C” on an A+ to F scale
- While PostTrak reported 45% of filmgoers gave it a positive score
- With 26% saying they would definitely recommend the film
- In the United States and Canada, Night Swim was projected to gross $9 – 11 million from 3,250 theaters in its opening weekend
- The film made $5.2 million on its first day
- Including $1.45 million from Thursday night previews
- It went on to debut to $12 million
- Finishing second behind holdover Wonka
- The film’s origins go back to 2014, when Bryce McGuire wrote and directed his low-budget five-minute 2014 short film of the same name in collaboration with his friend Rod Blackhurst
- He filmed in the backyard of musician Michelle Branch
- It starred Megalyn Echikunwoke in the lead role, which would inspire the character of Izzy Waller in the feature version
- McGuire cited Blumhouse’s own films, as well as other films such as Poltergeist (1982), Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), Jaws (1975), Christine (1983), The Night of the Hunter (1955) and The Abyss (1989) as the film’s sources of inspiration
- He also described the film’s story as semi-autobiographical in connection to his childhood and adolescence
- The short film was released on YouTube on October 12, 2014, and went viral, allowing McGuire to break into the film industry as a screenwriter
- Judson Scott, executive vice president at Atomic Monster, recommended the short to James Wan, who agreed to purchase the rights for a feature film adaptation
- The feature version of Night Swim was reported to be in pre-production in January 2023, following the success of the film M3GAN
- McGuire returned to direct from his own screenplay
- In which he expanded the plot to add a layer of drama that would drive the story and an emotional layer to the terror that occurs to the characters
- This involved adding “an epic, supernatural mythology with a gothic fairytale undercurrent for the story’s sinister swimming pool”
- Wyatt Russell and Kerry Condon were announced to star
- With James Wan and Jason Blum producing under their banners, Atomic Monster and Blumhouse Productions, respectively
- In April, Amélie Hoeferle, Gavin Warren, Nancy Lenehan and Jodi Long were added to the cast
- Principal photography began on April 11, 2023, in Altadena, California and the Los Angeles region
- It lasted 34 days
