From the beginning, in the first ten minutes, the sensitive spectator perceives that perhaps it is not the best thing to dive headlong into sinister waters: a little girl drowns, during the prologue, while trying to save a toy from her little brother, equipped with breathing assistance, and the protagonist of the film is immediately introduced as he is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis which has prematurely retired him from professional baseball.
And there are still other seriously ill people kicking around among the characters in this failed debut from director Bryce McGuire, who had the backing of contemporary horror bosses James Wan and Jason Blum to now expand on a short film the director made ten years ago.
Wyatt Russell, Kurt’s son, and Kerry Condon stay afloat by playing the parents of a teenage swimmer and a boy without the family’s sporting genes, who decide to settle in the suburbs by moving into a house with a haunted pool. The evil comes from an ancient natural spring of water that fills the pool, a surprising fact that gives the impression that a soft drink company may have financed the film.
McGuire exploits the playful possibilities of this ridiculous premise in the best scene of sinister waters, while the teenager and her new boyfriend go to the pool at night to play Marco Polo. The director prefers not to flood the film with this type of sequences on the primitive fear that water generates, even if he deals with the topic with the curious reflection of a swimming pool man on human evolution, and also the lack of outdated scenes, precisely those, draw attention… more attractive, in a film that bears the original title Night swim (something like Night Piletazo).
The film sinks into its second half. UIP photoThe director prefers to flood sinister waters in the density of its themes and, after immersing oneself in the references to The glow AND Poltergeist, explores the metaphor of accepting illnesses, always placing emphasis on the family sacrifices they entail. The social aspect of having a home with a pool is also in McGuire’s interests.
“Nocturnal Piletazo” would be the translation of the original title.When it sinks
Far from the graphic images of blood that reign in the current terror, albeit with occasional forced cuts on the hands that justify the presence of blood spatters, sinister waters It sinks in the second half under the weight of the moral questions played. The amusement provoked by the characters splashing at a pool party while a monster lurks is overwhelmed by the impulse, as if it were a drama and not a horror film, to make literal the need to cover a hole while trying to do it. with pain.
“Sinister waters”
Terror in the United States, 2024. Original title: “Night Swim”. 98′, SAM 13. From: Bryce McGuire. With: Wyatt Russell, Kerry Condon, Amélie Hoeferle, Gavin Warren. Rooms: Hoyts Dot, Cinemark Palermo, Cinépolis Houssay and Recoleta, Showcase Belgrano and Avellaneda.
Source: Clarin
