2024’s first big studio horror movie will be Night Swim. Hailing from the horror masters at Blumhouse Productions, the film serves as the feature directorial debut of Bryce McGuire and is based on his 2014 short film of the same name. It poses a compelling question: What if a swimming pool was the killer of the movie? Universal Pictures has released a brand new featurette pulling back the curtain on the film, with producers Jason Blum and James Wan discussing their latest collaboration. Check it out.
“Even though, in your mind, you understand that the pool is only a few feet deep, when the lights go out, anything could be beneath you,” Blumhouse head Jason Blum explains in the video. While there is some footage in the video, this is much more about explaining what went into making the film and what audiences can expect from it.
Given that the filmmaker behind movies such as The Conjuring and Saw is a producer, there is a certain expectation here. Not to mention that Blum and Wan have teamed up in the past to make hits like M3GAN and Insidious. But for Wan, this is about giving an emerging director the spotlight.
“It’s important for me to find the next generation of filmmakers who have what it takes, but may not have the platform to be seen,” Wan says of McGuire, who has now completed his journey from substitute teacher to feature filmmaker. He made the original short a decade ago with Rod Blackhurst. Now, the journey has come full circle. “With Bryce, we were completely won over by his passion and vision for the movie,” Blum adds.” The official synopsis for the film reads as follows:
“The film stars Wyatt Russell as Ray Waller, a former major league baseball player forced into early retirement by a degenerative illness, who moves into a new home with his concerned wife Eve (Kerry Condon), teenage daughter Izzy (Amélie Hoeferle) and young son Elliot (Gavin Warren). Secretly hoping, against the odds, to return to pro ball, Ray persuades Eve that the new home’s shimmering backyard swimming pool will be fun for the kids 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.”
Night Swim hits theaters on January 5.
