“We’re the pool family!”

Story: The Walker fam look to move into a new house after dad Ray got injured during his pro baseball thang. (#GoSports) But they can’t decide on what house to choose; one that’s handicapped accessible but “feels like a hospital”, or the run-down one that has a pool? When Ray’s doc says swimming might help, their decision is made. Hey, why are the pool lights flickering…and what’s that dirty, ooky water? I’m sure it’s nothing. It’s not like a little girl drowned in that pool – UNDER MYSTERIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES – a few decades ago. Oh wait.

Genre I’d put it in: Spooky Water Stories
Release Date: 2024 (that’s right – HAPPY NEW YEAR Y’ALL)
Remake, Sequel, Based-On, or Original: Based on the short film of the same name. Hints of classic films you’ll immediately pick up on. And not just because I’ll be mentioning them later.

Gotta say: Swim is a fun mashup of The Amityville Horror, Get Out, and Insidious, and it’s a spooky ride that keeps the pacing tight within the hour and a half runtime. There’s even a whiff of Dark Water and The Grudge here and there, if you’re looking. Which I started doing once I decided this was basically The Amityville Pool.

Writer/director Bryce McGuire does an excellent job of building tension with a chilling combination of musical score, shot angles, and lighting, and the cast leans into the spooky moments with rock-solid performances. The use of jump-scares is minimal, and even when they’re used? It’s in service to the scene at hand. And that monster – because of course there’s a monster – kinda looks like Swamp Thing meets the Tar Man from Return of the Living Dead, and is wisely kept in the shadows, only shown in the briefest flashes. Which is a good idea, as the monsters our weird little brains can flesh out for us are much spookier than anything we’d come up with by staring at CGI.

The basics of the plot are the standard What’s Going On template, with a watery spin that places Our Family in peril not just because there’s something in the water, but because of the way the family (and Ray specifically) reacts to the pool. It definitely gives 1979’s Amityville‘s George Lutz vibes. It’s a bit overdone in moments; Ray literally gets possessed by the water, with the dank liquid zooming into his mouth in one scene. Yeah yeah, I get it. He’s got it bad. But it felt a bit silly, and out of place in this more thoughtful terror-fest. However, it’s the only real misstep in this film.

Other than that bit, Swim focuses on the family unit, how they’re coping with Ray’s accident (and how it’s truly a cover for his “secondary progressive MS”), and how mom Eve and kids Izzy and Elliot are desperate to settle somewhere after all the moving around Ray’s baseball life has had them do before this. Naturally, the pool is loathe to have anyone in it without dire consequences – more whiffs of other films, this time stuff like Slaxx and In Fabric – which lead my heart to break for this family. All they wanted was a laid-back upper-middle-class suburban dream. And bit by bit, they’re ostracized, thanks to the weirdness going on with their pool. Yeah, I totally get that that sounds silly. But trust me, it absolutely works here.

With this being McGuire’s first directorial joint, I look forward to seeing more from him. Swim shows a director with a fascinating style, one that I’d like to see in other stories. Not a bad start to this new year. Will this time of year stop being called The Dumpster? We’ll see. With films like this being released at this time, anything’s possible.

FYI – Cider, the family cat, “goes missing” early on. RIP, kitty.

#Protip: Natural spring pools? Yep, they’re a thing. And though they sound amazing and easy to care for? Hmm, I’m gonna pass right now. For reasons.