What is the work?[]
Night Swim, a 2024 supernatural horror film written and directed by Bryce McGuire in his first directorial debut based on a 2014 short film of the same name. The film follows the Waller family who move into a house to support the patriarch of the family when he develops an illness that forces him to retire from his baseball career. But, hey, they got themselves a pool! Pretty good... right?
What is it? What has it done?[]
The nameless creature is a presumably ancient being who originally resided in a healing spring where people would use the waters to heal themselves. However, this came at the consequence of sacrificing a loved one. The film shows an extensive list of the several people the creature had taken and drowned until the entity somehow ended up in the self-sustaining pool that the Waller Family would eventually inherit. In the summer of 1992, the Fuller family moves into the house. Because her son Tommy was sick, Katy was compelled (and possessed) by the entity into sacrificing her daughter Rebecca. Rebecca is lured to the pool when she notices her younger brother's toy boat. However, she is then grabbed by the monster and pulled under to drown. Her soul would then be taken to dwell in some weird Sunken Place-esque dimension alongside the entity's other victims. Tommy is cured, but he leaves home after finding out what his mother had done. The entity would not fully leave Katy residing with her when Eve arrives to her house to demand she give her information about the pool.
Years later, the Waller family, in an attempt to find a permanent residence after moving frequently, move into the house after Ray, the protagonist of the film, was forced to end his baseball career after getting diagnosed with MS. Somehow the entity seems to be aware of Ray's condition and, after cutting his hand, he seems to be getting better. Sure... despite the entity nearly drowning Izzy and killing the family cat. However, things take a turn for the worst when the entity takes possession of Ray when they were throwing a public pool party leading to Ray nearly drowning a boy. Eve, learning the truth, realizes that the Entity would now attempt to sacrifice one of the kids in return for healing Ray.
The entity lures Elliot and nearly kills him but Eve is able to intervene. Eve and an unconscious Elliot are flung into the dimension where they get attacked by the spirits of the entity's victims. However, Rebecca comes to the rescue and guides the two to the surface. Izzy fights her possessed father coming dangerously close to getting killed by the demonic being.
Ray is able to get the malicious demonic force expelled from his body but, understanding that it would not stop until it claimed a sacrifice, he offers himself and swims down the pool to confront it. The film ends with the family deciding to stay, but opting to fill the pool in to avoid the nightmare from happening again.
Mitigating factors? Freudian Excuse?[]
It does have a personality, a rather simplistic one, but it exists regardless. It is sadistic and can mimic the voices of people which it uses to lure its victims to their watery graves and is shown being able to speak through those it possessed like Kay and later Ray. Sure, it heals the people that use it, but it does so entirely out of pragmatism. It is the classic deal with the devil trope where it always takes instead of offering its services free of charge. It does not have any indications of being void of agency.
Heinous standard[]
Sole antagonist of the film responsible for kidnapping and drowning several people and claiming their souls in an inescapable prison.