The 2024 year in horror kicks off with the mediocre and noticeably muted supernatural chiller “Night Swim”. It marks the feature film directorial debut for Bryce McGuire who also penned the script. The movie is based on a five-minute short film of the same name made back in 2014 by McGuire and his close friend Rod Blackhurst. McGuire stretched their idea into a feature film with James Wan and Jason Blum signing on to produce.

Set in Milwaukee, Ray Waller (Wyatt Russell) and his family are looking for a new home around the city. Ray is a Major League Baseball third baseman attempting to recover from a debilitating ailment. His wife Eve (the always great Kerry Condon) is tired of constantly moving every time her husband gets traded. She’s ready to put down some roots and provide some stability for their teen daughter Izzy (Amélie Hoeferle) and younger son Elliot (Gavin Warren).

After Ray gets some bad news about his condition he decides it may be time to settle down. He and his family move into a cozy suburban home with plenty of space and in a nice community. Even better it has a spacious swimming pool in the backyard. It hasn’t been used in 15 years, but they put in the work to get it cleaned up and ready to use. Soon they’re having friends over to swim and hosting neighborhood pool parties.

But as is the case with so many movies like this one, we learn the pool has a dark and deadly history. In the summer of 1992 a young girl named Rebecca disappeared after trying to retrieve her sickly brother’s toy boat from the pool. Of course that’s something their bubbly real estate agent (Nancy Lenehan) failed to mention. Before you know it weird things start happening, from flickering pool lights to creepy underwater visions. And it only gets worse from there.

The question becomes is the pool helping or haunting this family. Ray begins seeing dramatic improvements in his condition since swimming twice a day. But Izzy and Elliot are terrified by something they experienced in the deep end. As her kids grow more frightened and her husband creeps towards Jack Torrance mode, it’s left to Eve to hold her family together and get to the bottom of this killer pool.

Eve’s digging reveals a deeper and noticeably goofier history surrounding the pool – one that dates back centuries. McGuire attempts to build a compelling mythology, but it’s paper-thin and far more preposterous than interesting. The same could be said for the disjointed way the story ultimately plays out. Condon (who should have won the Oscar last year for “The Banshees of Inisherin”) is the biggest draw despite being handed a thankless task. She helps us stay fairly engaged, but keeping the movie afloat is simply too much to ask. “Night Swim” is in theaters now.

VERDICT – 2 STARS