Night Swim may not have made a splash but Surfshark definitely does when you use code JEDI to get up to 6 additional months free at surfshark.deals/jedi Maybe I'm being harsh but I really feel they squandered this goofy premise
I wouldn't have minded if they'd gone for something more weird, low-key and high-concept. When I saw the trailer in theatres I was expecting it to do a lot more with, like... The inherently unknowable and hostile nature of the sea, and the way we recreate a bit of that danger for ourselves as, like, a form of entertainment and exercise. You see people do the same thing with fire all the time. It could have been neat to explore that bizarre relationship, and to an extent it seems like they did try, with the juxtaposition of water as a lifegiving, soothing force (dad's MS) and death (the cat, though I agree that was bullshit; could have easily just had them pull a bunch of dead frogs or insects out of the skimmer since that's a thing pools do anyway). There were some shots in the trailer that felt like they emphasized that; the world fading out, the water expanding in all directions, things draining to a central point, etc. But you can't try to do low-key and then also bring in a bloated jumpscare zombie monster halfway through, right? Like that's just. I dunno. Seems backwards! I dunno, though, at least there were some neat-looking shots in there. I guess. Like the one of the family through the windshield in the rain that made it look like they were underwater; that ruled.
This movie was so disappointing because I LOVE Wyatt Russel as an actor and while he definitely did his best in this one they just gave such a ballsack script
I feel like if the movie committed to being a horror comedy, it would have at least been a nice fun-bad movie. The idea of pool ghosts is just inherently goofy, and this movie wasn't good enough to play the idea as straight.
That's how i feel or less is more approach would be better like the original short where it doesn't tell you what is in the pool there's little music and that's it. Short shows that sometimes we just need things to be not explained leave it to imagination of the viewer to interpret what may killed the swimmer. Was it a ghost, was it the pool or was it just some bad dream we are seeing of someone who died drowning? Ether these routes would work better then oh the pool is magical because of a magical spring nearby which doesn't affect the town's water supply only works on that pool alone except one scene where a glass of water move on its own shows that water does affects the town. Yea they wrote a plot hole and never explained if the town is affected by the water or not.
Cider is the best actor in the movie. The only pawsitive thing. Good job kitty. I hope they got lots of pets, catnip, and treats. Edit: IMDB says Cider was played by two kitties, Alex and Belle. So, good job kitties. I hope you have a great day.
i don't have fear of water or bodies of water or things in the water, but i think the most unsettling thing about being in large bodies of water isn't that there's /something/ there, but that there's nothing there. i think more effective would be... underwater shots where you suddenly can't see anything *but* the water. just blue all around you. no land below, no walls of the pool, no house, no trees, no grass. like you're floating in the middle of the ocean, but entirely still. until you surface, and it's all normal. you must have imagined it. that feeling of vertigo wasn't real. or getting a mouthful of water accidentially, and it's salty, when it's a chlorinated pool, not saltwater. trying to dive for something at the bottom only to realize there isn't a bottom. trying to swim back up only to realize that you're much, much deeper than you thought you were. it's not the things in the water that'll kill you, after all. it's just the water.
Oh my god that is EXACTLY why I have a fear of deep water. It's the fact theres NOTHING there and its just so bottomless. I want something to be there, I want to see fish or turtles or whales or even sharks, really any sign of life. Pools aren't terrifying because you know where the bottom is, where the edges are, where the deep end transforms into the shallow, and the water is so clear you can easily see stuff outside the pool. It would've been so cool and terrifying to see shots like that
I think what could have made it interesting was if the town all knew about the pool and each new family is a sacrifice so the town can heal their sick. Good ol' classic fun horror. Put an evil immortal grandma in there who cobtrols the town.
This reminds me of that Supernatural episode where the town has a pagan god that lives in their apple orchard, demanding sacrifice to maintain their idyllic lives.
A Cure For Wellness does this i think, the water in that institute supposedly heals and sedates it's patients but the means by which it's made is interesting and all the staff is in on it.
I saw that episode but I must have been too young to get why it was scary. I got scared from Ghastly Grinner for years and the one episode where everybody got that freaky skin condition at a school... I barely remember that episode but that was it.. all I remember... I fucking loved that show! That and Invader Zim really made me like horror movies for the longest time before they got to be too depressing for me
I'm glad there are people out there who share my fear of leopard seals. They're goddamn terrifying, and penguin movies for kids made sure I would be forever traumatized by them.
god those guys are terrifying. their human-like eyes, the amount of photos of them ripping penguins apart, watching happy feet as a child, even just looking at photos of them freaks me out😭
Despite sounding kinda silly, a ''haunted pool'' ain't an essentially bad plot idea. It could be pretty interesting, if, for example, it got into cosmic horror territory. The pool being a portal to another dimension or something.
Omg I totally forgot Abt that book but ur so right! I remember reading it for the first time and feeling rlly conflicted Abt the ending 😭 Bittersweet kinda ykwim?
10:17 I saw this in theaters and right before that happened I turned to my friend and went “he’s gonna harness the power of the pool” and I still can’t believe I was right 😭
The Supernatural episode Dead in the Water (S 1 e 3) had this same basic premise (admittedly in a lake, not a pool), and it managed to be both scarier and more emotionally impactful, while keeping a TV-14 rating.
@@AeonKnigh432honestly, watch the episode for yourself. The family is pretty easy to empathize with, and even when the last person dies you’re kinda left to feel bittersweet about it.
@samlewis6487 seasons 1-5 tended to be a bit better at telling genuine stories than the later seasons, and had some episodes with serious and heartfelt themes woven in. That's not to say that they were masterpieces, or that they were the norm for episodes, but there were some emotionally impactful episodes earlier on -- or, at least impactful by Supernatural standards.
I knew it would be bad as soon as I saw the trailer, because in real life if you hear the person playing Marco Polo with you exit the pool, you immediately open your eyes and chase after them for cheating. Usually laughing all the way that they're such an idiot and now we have to do a do-over, but no one just wanders blindly in an empty pool like "lol I know you're thereeeee", the game is OVER by that point. It was so silly and yet was clearly meant to be taken super seriously (unlike say Megan) so I didn't bother buying a ticket. Why watch night swim when you can watch Godzilla Minus One?
@@baydiac also there is ZERO WAY to get out a pool quietly. You will drip and slap skin even if you get out of the water quiet enough. That girl had an overwhelming commitment to the game, very inaccurate.
I feel like another better option for this movie would have been to go the route of like “The Bewitchin’ Pool” episode of The Twilight Zone, but actually horror. Where the pool is like… taking people to “another world” but it’s actually just luring people into drowning. Like, there’s some commentary on what the American Dream and a nuclear family in suburbia is actually about these days, and the lure of that is just driving people into fantasies (social media, video games, compulsive consumerism, etc) that ultimately consume them.
As someone with some pretty intense thalassophobia, this movie should have been a complete nightmare for me. So when even I, with my phobia this movie is directly playing off of, don't find it scary, you fucked up!
You know, Kids Next Door once did an episode where a pool was a portal to an alternate reality and evil versions of the main cast would drag them underwater and replace them without anyone knowing. That might've been a slightly better premise for an evil pool movie... maybe...
I read Guts as a teen who already had a small fear of drains due to hearign a similar, but significantly less severe, story on the news as a kid, where kids were having blood pulled though the skin from stepping on a pool drain. Im now 30 and still won't even let my kids stand on the tub drain when it's active.
I have a similar fear. Luckily, if I recall correctly, in 2008, Congress passed some bills that require pools to be fitted with a pool drain cover to prevent deaths and injuries of pool drains. I'm still fucking horrified of drains as a whole, but 👍 less anxious i suppose lo
I haven't read Guts but I assume that it's like that scene in one of the Final Destination sequels where he gets his guts pulled out his ass by the pool thing?
"They're in Minnesota and no it's not the same thing" as someone from Minnesota who's had to describe what it's like to people in South Korea who have never heard of it....I've definitely said it's like Canada 😂😂😅
I was suspicious that someone wanted to capitalize off the recent success of horror films that focus on really dark topics and serious trauma by shoehorning it into a premise that doesn't support it. Then I watched the short film, and I think I have a better understanding of what they were going for and why it didn't work. The short film does have a serious tone, but it doesn't attempt to explain how the pool 'works', or even if it's the pool that's haunted. Many people have an innate fear of the unknown and unexplainable, and an instinctive fear of what might lurk in the water. Putting those two things together can work to great effect. With the feature film, they set up a storyline that required extensive explanations for why the protagonist would keep going in the pool, and decided to explain exactly how the pool was haunted. This removed all ambiguity, as well as adding several layers of stupidity as each explanation was more ridiculous than the last. I lost it at evil wishing well lol. They could have crafted a story with similar themes around a protagonist that made more sense, such as a competitive swimmer, and left it open to interpretation whether it was the character or the pool that was haunted.
I have MS. If his symptoms are that bad, there is no way they're buying a two-story house. Some days walking to the kitchen or bathroom is too far for my body, there is no way I'm climbing stairs.
Better ending: Leave out the part with Elliott almost dying. After being beaten nearly to death with the bat, the dad crawls into the pool expecting it to heal him, and instead he becomes its victim. Better plot: Get rid of the healing stuff and just go all out on "the pool is haunted". Better overall premise: The pool being a living creature instead of being haunted.
The episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark with the spirit that travels through water in like a school pool or something sounds scarier than this movie.
Yeah, it kind of does two episodes but worse and also combined. One of them was a thing where there was the spirit of a child haunting a lake who was killed and had his body dumped there, and he's killing the people responsible and their families, who had awoken to take his revenge bc there was a dam being built that would drain the lake, and he wouldn't be able to do anything after that. The second was a small town that was originally settled by European immigrants who brought the sacred tree of their pagan God over to the states, and sacrificed a couple to the god every year for their town to continue to prosper. Dean ends up saving the couple who was marked for that year's sacrifice, so the townsfolk end up offering him up, as well as the niece of one of the townsfolk. The aunt even says something really similar to what Mrs. Summers said about sacrifice. Even has the thing at the end where the sacrifice taken is the "father" rather than the "child", as in order to keep Dean and the girl from escaping, a ton of townspeople had stayed in the orchard, but the God ended up taking the aunt and uncle instead of Dean and the girl.
For me it’s always whales (not orcas, like the big blue ones). I know they’re much less dangerous but I just find them so creepy. And I really like sharks
About that Chuck Palahniuk's short strory: during my days as a university student my friend and I were kind of fans of his literature, so once we brought the print-out of this short story to the uni and were handing it out to other students during lectures and watched their reaction while they were reading it. That was fun
No way an insurance add with a pool cleaner that comes to life and attacks a family came on at such a perfect time that i didnt realise it was a j add and not a movie clip
I know that smiley face coin or whatever was a gag, but that's actually how you can find up if you're drowning: blow bubbles in front of your mouth and either watch where they go or hold your hand over them to feel where they're going!
I know that 'haunted pool' seems lame on its face, but there are ways this could have worked. The family’s kid drowns in the pool, and the grief causes the father to fixate on the pool, thinking that it is haunted, when in reality it is his own fractured mind conjuring strange phenomena until he becomes a danger to himself and his surviving family. The pool is built above the temple to a long lost god that has existed since before even the indigenous peoples laid claim to the land, and a family is plagued with collective nightmares and delusions until they begin to destroy the pool only to find a network of tunnels which stretch far down into the earth. It’s like these writers can’t even be asked to try anymore…
0:20 Did I ever wonder what thalassophobia would look like in a horror movie? No, mostly because I can just jump into a pool to experience total dread and despair after a few minutes (thanks Great Whites I saw in South Africa as a kid)
I had never read Guts before this video. I was picturing something like that one kill in Final Destination 4, based on Amanda's description. Somehow, despite the kid surviving, it was Worse.
Maybe it could've been a cool concept if the pool was like possessed and the house belonged to some devil worshipping serial killer that fed the pool his victims as tributes for eternal youth or something. The movie could've been about a victim's family looking into the owner and ending up having to go inside the pool to hell to find the victim. A Dante's Inferno situation with the serial killer chasing after them as they go looking for little Timmy.
Right?! There's so many interesting ideas they could have done with the concept. But they instead went the generic possession concept we have seen in every generic horror movie ever released. Another idea would be to have them be in a very tight knit community and have the neighbors sacrificing people to the pool for success, have it be a neighborhood secret that the family starts to unravel. Or have the pool be haunted by a drowned victim and the family go on a journey to find out who the killer is, to put the ghost to rest.
We don't need any more satanic panic or pagan-demonizing movies. Make it a Sci-Fi horror about a portal to another dimension. Much scarier, more original, and way less eye-rolling.
7:30 “…you can’t just make a completely ridiculous movie there’s LORE to account for” gave me flashbacks to that movie about a killer lamp that kills because it’s possessed by the evil from The Amityville Horror.
I originally had zero intentions of watching Night Swim, because I thought the trailers made it look stupid. I had an opportunity to watch it, and I started thinking it might be stupid fun, at least. But this movie was the longest hour and a half of my life. It felt about 4 hours long, and I was checking my watch the whole time. I would also LOVE an explanation for why the cat died. Based on the lore for why the pool kills people, it makes no sense.
2:44 Wow, I can't believe Amanda referenced "Guts"! That story scarred me for life after I read it in an issue of my mom's Playboy magazine as a young teenager (she had a subscription basically my whole life). That's how I discovered "sounding" was a thing; I don't think it's called out by name in the story but the act itself is described. And then there's the pool reference - that brought back memories of some very explicit details.
There was definitely a way to do a deathless, spooky movie about a haunted pool, but this definitely ain't it. If you're gonna wuss out on the horror aspect of it, dive fully into the lore and mystery of it all. Doesn't seem like they took either path.
The intro when she talking about thinking there is a shark in a pool describes me perfectly to the point that I have to have someone else be in the pool with me JUST BECAUSE OF ONE VIDEO CALLED POOL SHARK WITH A RUBBER SHARK BITING KIDS 💀 So ye that stuck with me forever ,. ❤
Its super boring. It is disgusting because you are reading about 13 year old boys playing with themselves and getting injured. Its not scary and its also not worth reading.
So.. I just read it out of curiosity and DONT READ IT Here’s a synopsis He described multiple instances of people attempting to “whack it” in multiple ways using carrots and candles, and then describes how he frequently “whacked it” underwater in his family’s pool. He likes sitting on the drain because it sucks on his uhhhh hole, and eventually he comes in the pool, collecting the aftermath and wiping it on a towel. One day, he does the same thing, except now he’s stuck to the drain. Then, he tries to swim up, then realizing his intestines got sucked into the drain, and are coming out of his body. It goes into some graphic description, but I won’t mention that. He gets loose, but it’s not described, but he survives and is now living with only six inches of intestine left. So there ya go Oh yeah he also gets his sister pregnant, really disgusting.
@@TalashazuwuAs soon as I read that he liked to sit on the drain I knew what was coming. That actually happened to a little girl in real life. (She survived but lost most of her bowels - wonder if that was partial inspo for the story?) I've always been afraid of drains because I had long hair growing up and was told from a very young age that if my hair got caught it would get sucked in and it would both rip my hair and scalp off and also I'd drown. (I was a very anxious child... no idea why lol) I eventually realized I had aquaphobia and generally avoid bodies of water (including bathtubs) - pools in particular both scare me plus gross me out so I guess these days I'm relatively safe... (Oh also that "Are You Afraid of the Dark" episode definitely fucked me up as a kid and certainly didn't help the pool fears... so how they could make a dumb non-scary evil pool movie when there's so much rich fear to mine is disappointing and honestly baffling...)
okay I was originally working on a Hill House video but couldn't finish the script while at the film festival so I was going to make a stupid joke about time not being linear and have the branded stocking but then we did this instead and I just rolled with it to make the background more interesting
This feels like the idea of a cursed wishing well aspect or water beast seems like a cool concept, but this is just way too modern that the tone inherently will feel goofy. The unknown of a short film like you might see on Crypt TV makes for better horror in this instance
On date night a couple weeks ago we alnost saw this but then decided to sse the other mid movie about water, Aquaman 2, and I feel vindicated in that decision now.
Saw this with dad and my sister in theaters (because apparently my sister thought it would be good for some reason) and “the water chose him” has become a running joke in my family ever since
2:13 ...Or make it sing - oh wait, I'm just thinking of that American Dad episode, "Hot Water", where CeeLo Green plays a talking, singing hot tub who eventually turns murderous.
I started this a few nights ago and fell asleep on it. Was going to restart it tonight and figured it was just me. Thank you for saving me some time on this stinker
A movie set in Minnesota, named Night Swim, and it's a pool not a lake?! You ever swim in a lake at night? It's friggin terrifying, also the mosquitoes devour anything above the surface...
Oh so it was a short!! My first thought when I saw the trailer was “why is this not just a short film?” Of all short films that get chosen to be adapted into a full film, when so many would benefit from that treatment, you choose the one that’s perfect as a short film? Bizarre.
I may not need to look up that short story, because I have read it almost two decades ago and it still haunts me down till this day as one of those things I wish I had never read in my life :) The epoch of edgy literature for me, good thing it's long gone
Amanda, thank you for another video. Also, thank you for giving me the title of another short story that I can read and then faint to. I hate myself. Thank you very much, with love.
I was hoping you would cover this! I was morbidly curious about the plot but I dont like horror movies for the most part. I love how you tell me everything I need to know in much less time and make me laugh. Thank you I needed this today😊
When I was little my older brother knew I wouldn’t fall for something like an invisible shark in the pool, so instead he went with a giant kraken like monster in the vents at the bottom of the pool. I refused to swim over them.
Her just disappearing into the water is very similar to real live drownings. There is actually very little splashing and the calm is what you need to look for!
Thank you so much for continuing to post videos. You are by far my favorite TH-camr and every time there's a new video from you I get so freaking excited! You have gotten me through some really tough times and I appreciate you so much! Thanks for being you 🩵
The most I felt during this film was right at the beginning when I saw 'SUMMER 1992' and realised, _oh fuck, this is the new 1970 or 1960_ . It also stung because I was _born_ in 1992. Anyway, the fact that the scariest thing about this film was the reminder that I'm what the kids call Fucking Old speaks volumes about it.
Night Swim may not have made a splash but Surfshark definitely does when you use code JEDI to get up to 6 additional months free at surfshark.deals/jedi
Maybe I'm being harsh but I really feel they squandered this goofy premise
Speaking of film festivals - do you ever think you'll go to SXSW in Austin Texas?
I wouldn't have minded if they'd gone for something more weird, low-key and high-concept. When I saw the trailer in theatres I was expecting it to do a lot more with, like... The inherently unknowable and hostile nature of the sea, and the way we recreate a bit of that danger for ourselves as, like, a form of entertainment and exercise. You see people do the same thing with fire all the time. It could have been neat to explore that bizarre relationship, and to an extent it seems like they did try, with the juxtaposition of water as a lifegiving, soothing force (dad's MS) and death (the cat, though I agree that was bullshit; could have easily just had them pull a bunch of dead frogs or insects out of the skimmer since that's a thing pools do anyway). There were some shots in the trailer that felt like they emphasized that; the world fading out, the water expanding in all directions, things draining to a central point, etc.
But you can't try to do low-key and then also bring in a bloated jumpscare zombie monster halfway through, right? Like that's just. I dunno. Seems backwards!
I dunno, though, at least there were some neat-looking shots in there. I guess. Like the one of the family through the windshield in the rain that made it look like they were underwater; that ruled.
Also *wow* is this film weirdly racist in like three different directions! Baffling.
@AmandaTheJedi Thank God somebody actually agrees with me 😆 I felt like I was taking crazy pills
This movie was so disappointing because I LOVE Wyatt Russel as an actor and while he definitely did his best in this one they just gave such a ballsack script
Buying a house? Well my suspension of disbelief is shattered.
I heard tell from my parents that, once upon a time, houses could be . . . they could be . . . _purchased_ .
@@waywardmindyay we're all gonna rent till we die 😅😭 I hate it here.
I'm 39. Not having I guess kids, will prob never own a home. To expensive for either.
I bought a house. My wife bought one at 23.
@@chelsie2767leave
I feel like if the movie committed to being a horror comedy, it would have at least been a nice fun-bad movie. The idea of pool ghosts is just inherently goofy, and this movie wasn't good enough to play the idea as straight.
Completely agree! They approached it in the worst way possible for a premise that was already something to make people go 'are you fucking serious?'
“A bad horror movie makes a great comedy” I wish more horror directors realized how goofy the genre is and had fun with it like Cabin in the Woods
Scary movie 5 did it better
That's saying something cause scary movie 5 shouldn't be a topic in 2024
That's how i feel or less is more approach would be better like the original short where it doesn't tell you what is in the pool there's little music and that's it. Short shows that sometimes we just need things to be not explained leave it to imagination of the viewer to interpret what may killed the swimmer. Was it a ghost, was it the pool or was it just some bad dream we are seeing of someone who died drowning?
Ether these routes would work better then oh the pool is magical because of a magical spring nearby which doesn't affect the town's water supply only works on that pool alone except one scene where a glass of water move on its own shows that water does affects the town.
Yea they wrote a plot hole and never explained if the town is affected by the water or not.
Power rangers did it better. Had me scared of baths. Rita made a monster that appears in water.
Cider is the best actor in the movie. The only pawsitive thing. Good job kitty. I hope they got lots of pets, catnip, and treats.
Edit: IMDB says Cider was played by two kitties, Alex and Belle. So, good job kitties. I hope you have a great day.
this wholesome comment made my day
Hope you and the kitties have a wonderful day today, with the best food 🤍
I agree! I was more entertained with the cat character. AND the way I would’ve been flipping everything upside down to find my cat!!!
i don't have fear of water or bodies of water or things in the water, but i think the most unsettling thing about being in large bodies of water isn't that there's /something/ there, but that there's nothing there. i think more effective would be... underwater shots where you suddenly can't see anything *but* the water. just blue all around you. no land below, no walls of the pool, no house, no trees, no grass. like you're floating in the middle of the ocean, but entirely still. until you surface, and it's all normal. you must have imagined it. that feeling of vertigo wasn't real. or getting a mouthful of water accidentially, and it's salty, when it's a chlorinated pool, not saltwater. trying to dive for something at the bottom only to realize there isn't a bottom. trying to swim back up only to realize that you're much, much deeper than you thought you were.
it's not the things in the water that'll kill you, after all. it's just the water.
Oh my god that is EXACTLY why I have a fear of deep water. It's the fact theres NOTHING there and its just so bottomless. I want something to be there, I want to see fish or turtles or whales or even sharks, really any sign of life. Pools aren't terrifying because you know where the bottom is, where the edges are, where the deep end transforms into the shallow, and the water is so clear you can easily see stuff outside the pool. It would've been so cool and terrifying to see shots like that
This comment made my thalassophobia go wild, it actually made me anxious. Good description!
Agreed, I fear the nothingness much more than the somethingness too. Wasted potential. 😢
And if you’re like me, it’s a bit of both! Fuck the ocean!
they kind of do that in mako mermaids lol not exactly horror but was a very scary concept/image
I think what could have made it interesting was if the town all knew about the pool and each new family is a sacrifice so the town can heal their sick. Good ol' classic fun horror. Put an evil immortal grandma in there who cobtrols the town.
Yesssss i love that!!!!
This reminds me of that Supernatural episode where the town has a pagan god that lives in their apple orchard, demanding sacrifice to maintain their idyllic lives.
Oooohhh that would have been good
A Cure For Wellness does this i think, the water in that institute supposedly heals and sedates it's patients but the means by which it's made is interesting and all the staff is in on it.
The Are You Afraid of the Dark episode Dead Man's Float did this concept SO MUCH better.
I never forget that show, but I definitely forgot that episode until this very moment
That’s where my mind went! That episode was so scary! Lol
That episode is still one of my greatest irrational fears!
I saw that episode but I must have been too young to get why it was scary. I got scared from Ghastly Grinner for years and the one episode where everybody got that freaky skin condition at a school... I barely remember that episode but that was it.. all I remember... I fucking loved that show! That and Invader Zim really made me like horror movies for the longest time before they got to be too depressing for me
Exactly!
Putting it out there. Demon leopard seals would have saved the movie
I'd watch _that_ movie 😂
this is genius :D
They needed you on the writers room
I'm glad there are people out there who share my fear of leopard seals. They're goddamn terrifying, and penguin movies for kids made sure I would be forever traumatized by them.
god those guys are terrifying. their human-like eyes, the amount of photos of them ripping penguins apart, watching happy feet as a child, even just looking at photos of them freaks me out😭
Despite sounding kinda silly, a ''haunted pool'' ain't an essentially bad plot idea. It could be pretty interesting, if, for example, it got into cosmic horror territory. The pool being a portal to another dimension or something.
There's a music video with this exact premise, so good but I forgot the name
The song it's called Dye-Fantasy
The Drowning Kind by Jennifer McMahon is very close to this. Not a movie, but an excellent book
Omg I totally forgot Abt that book but ur so right!
I remember reading it for the first time and feeling rlly conflicted Abt the ending 😭
Bittersweet kinda ykwim?
That happens in the movie House, from 1985.
10:17 I saw this in theaters and right before that happened I turned to my friend and went “he’s gonna harness the power of the pool” and I still can’t believe I was right 😭
Night swim is what I thought being a life guard would be like
That would’ve been so much better! Lifeguard getting haunted by the pool at work
It did get me thinking about life guards because of how accurately quiet and difficult to spot they portrayed drowning
The Supernatural episode Dead in the Water (S 1 e 3) had this same basic premise (admittedly in a lake, not a pool), and it managed to be both scarier and more emotionally impactful, while keeping a TV-14 rating.
It's Supernatural, I highly doubt it's emotionally impactful
@@AeonKnigh432honestly, watch the episode for yourself. The family is pretty easy to empathize with, and even when the last person dies you’re kinda left to feel bittersweet about it.
@samlewis6487 seasons 1-5 tended to be a bit better at telling genuine stories than the later seasons, and had some episodes with serious and heartfelt themes woven in. That's not to say that they were masterpieces, or that they were the norm for episodes, but there were some emotionally impactful episodes earlier on -- or, at least impactful by Supernatural standards.
@@AeonKnigh432 the first five seasons were actually good I promise. Eric Kripke cooked I swear
2:53
People (maybe) fainted because the story's first line tells you to hold your breath for the duration of it.
I'm sure there are people who would actually try that.
I'm even more tempted to read it now
What if you just read it really fast
I remember seeing the trailer and just being so confused how they were going to make a whole movie out of creepy Marco-Polo
I saw the ads and thought it would be funny. It was boring.
@@aimemaggieit just made me mad lol
I knew it would be bad as soon as I saw the trailer, because in real life if you hear the person playing Marco Polo with you exit the pool, you immediately open your eyes and chase after them for cheating.
Usually laughing all the way that they're such an idiot and now we have to do a do-over, but no one just wanders blindly in an empty pool like "lol I know you're thereeeee", the game is OVER by that point.
It was so silly and yet was clearly meant to be taken super seriously (unlike say Megan) so I didn't bother buying a ticket. Why watch night swim when you can watch Godzilla Minus One?
@@baydiac also there is ZERO WAY to get out a pool quietly. You will drip and slap skin even if you get out of the water quiet enough. That girl had an overwhelming commitment to the game, very inaccurate.
"There was only.... Wisconsin"
As someone from Wisconsin, I laughed when Amanda said that! She also pronounced Wisconsin correctly which I appreciate.
Now that is a horror movie premise right there.
I feel like another better option for this movie would have been to go the route of like “The Bewitchin’ Pool” episode of The Twilight Zone, but actually horror.
Where the pool is like… taking people to “another world” but it’s actually just luring people into drowning. Like, there’s some commentary on what the American Dream and a nuclear family in suburbia is actually about these days, and the lure of that is just driving people into fantasies (social media, video games, compulsive consumerism, etc) that ultimately consume them.
See this is also along the same-ish idea I was thinking of, that would’ve been cool
You know Night Swim is bad is when my friend decided to brave her soul and watch it despite being afraid of horror movies fell asleep. Its bad. 😂
As someone with some pretty intense thalassophobia, this movie should have been a complete nightmare for me. So when even I, with my phobia this movie is directly playing off of, don't find it scary, you fucked up!
I think everyone is different. It worked on me. I don't and haven't seen a lot of horror movies. I was freshly exposed to it.
You know, Kids Next Door once did an episode where a pool was a portal to an alternate reality and evil versions of the main cast would drag them underwater and replace them without anyone knowing. That might've been a slightly better premise for an evil pool movie... maybe...
I remember that episode 😭
I read Guts as a teen who already had a small fear of drains due to hearign a similar, but significantly less severe, story on the news as a kid, where kids were having blood pulled though the skin from stepping on a pool drain. Im now 30 and still won't even let my kids stand on the tub drain when it's active.
@@moon-moth1 I absolutely know that. That knowledge changes nothing on an emotional/anxiety driven level.
I have a similar fear. Luckily, if I recall correctly, in 2008, Congress passed some bills that require pools to be fitted with a pool drain cover to prevent deaths and injuries of pool drains. I'm still fucking horrified of drains as a whole, but 👍 less anxious i suppose lo
I haven't read Guts but I assume that it's like that scene in one of the Final Destination sequels where he gets his guts pulled out his ass by the pool thing?
I read that Chuck Palahniuk short story almost 18 years ago and it still haunts me. It was aptly named.
can you please tell me a little about it, scared to google it
Same
Yeaaah them details felt like a lot lol
Right there with you, holy shit
I paused the video to go find the story and I kind of regret it.
"The pool can control electricity now" Well, yeah, of course, clearly, the town was powered by a hydroelectric dam. Wah-wah.
"They're in Minnesota and no it's not the same thing" as someone from Minnesota who's had to describe what it's like to people in South Korea who have never heard of it....I've definitely said it's like Canada 😂😂😅
South Canada 😂
I call it Canada-light
We do have a town called Little Canada, although I don't think they have as many moose or French speakers as Full Size Canada
@@micacole5115as a resident of Little Canada, the only French speakers are in the cemetery from the 1800s. We specialize in really sketchy bars. 🤘
@@not_you_i_dont_even_know_youhi from big Canada, do you guys have little poutine? Also do you call winter hats touques or beanies? Thanks 🇨🇦
I was suspicious that someone wanted to capitalize off the recent success of horror films that focus on really dark topics and serious trauma by shoehorning it into a premise that doesn't support it. Then I watched the short film, and I think I have a better understanding of what they were going for and why it didn't work. The short film does have a serious tone, but it doesn't attempt to explain how the pool 'works', or even if it's the pool that's haunted. Many people have an innate fear of the unknown and unexplainable, and an instinctive fear of what might lurk in the water. Putting those two things together can work to great effect. With the feature film, they set up a storyline that required extensive explanations for why the protagonist would keep going in the pool, and decided to explain exactly how the pool was haunted. This removed all ambiguity, as well as adding several layers of stupidity as each explanation was more ridiculous than the last. I lost it at evil wishing well lol. They could have crafted a story with similar themes around a protagonist that made more sense, such as a competitive swimmer, and left it open to interpretation whether it was the character or the pool that was haunted.
I have MS. If his symptoms are that bad, there is no way they're buying a two-story house. Some days walking to the kitchen or bathroom is too far for my body, there is no way I'm climbing stairs.
Better ending: Leave out the part with Elliott almost dying. After being beaten nearly to death with the bat, the dad crawls into the pool expecting it to heal him, and instead he becomes its victim.
Better plot: Get rid of the healing stuff and just go all out on "the pool is haunted".
Better overall premise: The pool being a living creature instead of being haunted.
“Well too bad! Here’s Night Swim!”
That's the tag line
Once again, Amanda suffered, so we don't have to. What a champ.
amanda: don't go searching for haunted guts
me, searches for haunted guts:
my god i am shocked beyond belief...
Yay, looking forward to Amanda talking about a movie I haven't heard of, and enjoying the review more than most movies.
Amanda, have you seen Siren? A bisexual show from 2018 - 2020? Mermaids? It's a whole thing!
The episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark with the spirit that travels through water in like a school pool or something sounds scarier than this movie.
this feels like a worse, less thought out version of a 45 minute Supernatural episode made in 2005.
Yeah, it kind of does two episodes but worse and also combined. One of them was a thing where there was the spirit of a child haunting a lake who was killed and had his body dumped there, and he's killing the people responsible and their families, who had awoken to take his revenge bc there was a dam being built that would drain the lake, and he wouldn't be able to do anything after that. The second was a small town that was originally settled by European immigrants who brought the sacred tree of their pagan God over to the states, and sacrificed a couple to the god every year for their town to continue to prosper. Dean ends up saving the couple who was marked for that year's sacrifice, so the townsfolk end up offering him up, as well as the niece of one of the townsfolk. The aunt even says something really similar to what Mrs. Summers said about sacrifice. Even has the thing at the end where the sacrifice taken is the "father" rather than the "child", as in order to keep Dean and the girl from escaping, a ton of townspeople had stayed in the orchard, but the God ended up taking the aunt and uncle instead of Dean and the girl.
Weirdly enough, the animal I would imagine was in the pool with me was an alligator not a shark
Same. We had one of those inflatable alligators so we’d pretend it was floating around trying to get us.
As a Floridian, I pictured both 😂😂
For me it’s always whales (not orcas, like the big blue ones). I know they’re much less dangerous but I just find them so creepy. And I really like sharks
This is a Florida vs California fear 🤣🤣
@@Scarclaw I’m from Germany, so neither sharks nor alligators are a real danger for me haha
About that Chuck Palahniuk's short strory: during my days as a university student my friend and I were kind of fans of his literature, so once we brought the print-out of this short story to the uni and were handing it out to other students during lectures and watched their reaction while they were reading it. That was fun
No way an insurance add with a pool cleaner that comes to life and attacks a family came on at such a perfect time that i didnt realise it was a j add and not a movie clip
I know that smiley face coin or whatever was a gag, but that's actually how you can find up if you're drowning: blow bubbles in front of your mouth and either watch where they go or hold your hand over them to feel where they're going!
But the bubbles are still going in the wrong direction though, I think??? So yeah they uh. Yeah. Rip
I know that 'haunted pool' seems lame on its face, but there are ways this could have worked. The family’s kid drowns in the pool, and the grief causes the father to fixate on the pool, thinking that it is haunted, when in reality it is his own fractured mind conjuring strange phenomena until he becomes a danger to himself and his surviving family. The pool is built above the temple to a long lost god that has existed since before even the indigenous peoples laid claim to the land, and a family is plagued with collective nightmares and delusions until they begin to destroy the pool only to find a network of tunnels which stretch far down into the earth. It’s like these writers can’t even be asked to try anymore…
I’m so happy you brought up the Chuck Palahniuk story because I was thinking of it the whole time just wondering 😂
0:20 Did I ever wonder what thalassophobia would look like in a horror movie? No, mostly because I can just jump into a pool to experience total dread and despair after a few minutes (thanks Great Whites I saw in South Africa as a kid)
I had never read Guts before this video. I was picturing something like that one kill in Final Destination 4, based on Amanda's description.
Somehow, despite the kid surviving, it was Worse.
kind of love the way amanda always says "30 day back money guarantee" instead of "money back guarantee" in her ad reads 😄
"I can make Twilight fit in with anything!" 😂😂😂😂
Same... oh, & with Con Air, too 🤭
Maybe it could've been a cool concept if the pool was like possessed and the house belonged to some devil worshipping serial killer that fed the pool his victims as tributes for eternal youth or something. The movie could've been about a victim's family looking into the owner and ending up having to go inside the pool to hell to find the victim. A Dante's Inferno situation with the serial killer chasing after them as they go looking for little Timmy.
Right?! There's so many interesting ideas they could have done with the concept. But they instead went the generic possession concept we have seen in every generic horror movie ever released.
Another idea would be to have them be in a very tight knit community and have the neighbors sacrificing people to the pool for success, have it be a neighborhood secret that the family starts to unravel.
Or have the pool be haunted by a drowned victim and the family go on a journey to find out who the killer is, to put the ghost to rest.
We don't need any more satanic panic or pagan-demonizing movies.
Make it a Sci-Fi horror about a portal to another dimension. Much scarier, more original, and way less eye-rolling.
7:30 “…you can’t just make a completely ridiculous movie there’s LORE to account for” gave me flashbacks to that movie about a killer lamp that kills because it’s possessed by the evil from The Amityville Horror.
Oh god! I'd completely forgotten about that Chuck Palaniuck story, it will be hard to forget it again. Thanks Amanda for reminding me!
When Sarah McLachlan started playing and RIp cider went up on the screen I fucking lost it laughing
This makes the Hot Tub episode from American Dad sound scarier.
Especially considering CeeLo Green guest starred, it probably is
I originally had zero intentions of watching Night Swim, because I thought the trailers made it look stupid. I had an opportunity to watch it, and I started thinking it might be stupid fun, at least. But this movie was the longest hour and a half of my life. It felt about 4 hours long, and I was checking my watch the whole time. I would also LOVE an explanation for why the cat died. Based on the lore for why the pool kills people, it makes no sense.
As someone in Wisconsin, I can say the worst water haunting we had was cryptosporidium
I work at a movie theater. I can confirm most the audience who came out of this movie had no good things to say.
what gets me is that nobody even questions where the famous baseball player mysteriously disappeared to.
I took a moment to go check out Chuck Palahniuk thinking, "I have a strong stomach!"
I was sosososososososososososososososo wrong, no I don't
This story has already been done. It was an episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark? back on the 90s.
What killed me was that this movie had great potential and then just fell so. fucking. flat.
00:13 “HE’S BEHIND ME! HE’S MADE OF GLASS!”
"It's not a sacrifice if you get something in-return" is a FIRE LINE and would be the basis of a better plot in a better movie...
2:44 Wow, I can't believe Amanda referenced "Guts"! That story scarred me for life after I read it in an issue of my mom's Playboy magazine as a young teenager (she had a subscription basically my whole life). That's how I discovered "sounding" was a thing; I don't think it's called out by name in the story but the act itself is described. And then there's the pool reference - that brought back memories of some very explicit details.
There was definitely a way to do a deathless, spooky movie about a haunted pool, but this definitely ain't it. If you're gonna wuss out on the horror aspect of it, dive fully into the lore and mystery of it all. Doesn't seem like they took either path.
The intro when she talking about thinking there is a shark in a pool describes me perfectly to the point that I have to have someone else be in the pool with me JUST BECAUSE OF ONE VIDEO CALLED POOL SHARK WITH A RUBBER SHARK BITING KIDS 💀 So ye that stuck with me forever ,. ❤
can someone possibly explain the chuck palahniuk short story to me so I don’t look it up and scar my curious ass for life
Its super boring. It is disgusting because you are reading about 13 year old boys playing with themselves and getting injured. Its not scary and its also not worth reading.
So..
I just read it out of curiosity and DONT READ IT
Here’s a synopsis
He described multiple instances of people attempting to “whack it” in multiple ways using carrots and candles, and then describes how he frequently “whacked it” underwater in his family’s pool. He likes sitting on the drain because it sucks on his uhhhh hole, and eventually he comes in the pool, collecting the aftermath and wiping it on a towel. One day, he does the same thing, except now he’s stuck to the drain. Then, he tries to swim up, then realizing his intestines got sucked into the drain, and are coming out of his body. It goes into some graphic description, but I won’t mention that.
He gets loose, but it’s not described, but he survives and is now living with only six inches of intestine left.
So there ya go
Oh yeah he also gets his sister pregnant, really disgusting.
@@TalashazuwuAs soon as I read that he liked to sit on the drain I knew what was coming. That actually happened to a little girl in real life. (She survived but lost most of her bowels - wonder if that was partial inspo for the story?)
I've always been afraid of drains because I had long hair growing up and was told from a very young age that if my hair got caught it would get sucked in and it would both rip my hair and scalp off and also I'd drown. (I was a very anxious child... no idea why lol) I eventually realized I had aquaphobia and generally avoid bodies of water (including bathtubs) - pools in particular both scare me plus gross me out so I guess these days I'm relatively safe...
(Oh also that "Are You Afraid of the Dark" episode definitely fucked me up as a kid and certainly didn't help the pool fears... so how they could make a dumb non-scary evil pool movie when there's so much rich fear to mine is disappointing and honestly baffling...)
The short synopsis can be, ironically, that a guy gets his ass scarred for life
@@SterlingMorgensternThey also put it in a final destination sequel. Not the whacking off part but still. Death by pool drain + asshole.
Christmas stocking in the background of a video released near the end of January. Nice.
okay I was originally working on a Hill House video but couldn't finish the script while at the film festival so I was going to make a stupid joke about time not being linear and have the branded stocking but then we did this instead and I just rolled with it to make the background more interesting
@AmandaTheJedi an explanation more interesting and worthy of a feature length film than "Night Swim"
@AmandaTheJedi I respect the dedication. Btw, what did you think of aquaman 2? If you talked about it and I just missed it, lemme know.
@@DAYV3EN I haven't seen it yet actually! Only something I'd watch for a video and I was busy with Hunger Games and Saltburn when it came out
This feels like the idea of a cursed wishing well aspect or water beast seems like a cool concept, but this is just way too modern that the tone inherently will feel goofy. The unknown of a short film like you might see on Crypt TV makes for better horror in this instance
I’m so happy that you’re still Mostly Okay.
So I saw it opening night and I completely lost it the 3rd act. Wyatt Russell knew what he was in
Sequel idea!
The Sink: The dishes just got scarier!
As an indigenous woman from America, Amanda is my favorite Canadian.
On date night a couple weeks ago we alnost saw this but then decided to sse the other mid movie about water, Aquaman 2, and I feel vindicated in that decision now.
Saw this with dad and my sister in theaters (because apparently my sister thought it would be good for some reason) and “the water chose him” has become a running joke in my family ever since
Should have went with American Dad - Hot Water adaptation.
I haven't watched all of AD so I didn't even know that was a thing aha!
2:13 ...Or make it sing - oh wait, I'm just thinking of that American Dad episode, "Hot Water", where CeeLo Green plays a talking, singing hot tub who eventually turns murderous.
14:15 a creepy contract would have been a better idea
I started this a few nights ago and fell asleep on it. Was going to restart it tonight and figured it was just me. Thank you for saving me some time on this stinker
A movie set in Minnesota, named Night Swim, and it's a pool not a lake?! You ever swim in a lake at night? It's friggin terrifying, also the mosquitoes devour anything above the surface...
“Absolutely the fuck not Rebecca!!!”
I spit out my salad
Ive read the guts story after you said not to and I think the internet had made me immune to this level of stuff
Oh so it was a short!! My first thought when I saw the trailer was “why is this not just a short film?” Of all short films that get chosen to be adapted into a full film, when so many would benefit from that treatment, you choose the one that’s perfect as a short film? Bizarre.
Hey remember hen poltergeist made a pool absolutely horrifying? Yeah we kind of shot that in the face.
18:34 The funny thing is…if you fill in a pool and brick it over or whatever…you actually can’t undo it and remake the pool or something lol
I never hear anyone talk about that Chuck Palahniuk story! I love his stuff
I may not need to look up that short story, because I have read it almost two decades ago and it still haunts me down till this day as one of those things I wish I had never read in my life :) The epoch of edgy literature for me, good thing it's long gone
Amanda, thank you for another video.
Also, thank you for giving me the title of another short story that I can read and then faint to. I hate myself. Thank you very much, with love.
0:46 HOW THE HELL did this shitpile cost more than M3GAN??!?
I was hoping you would cover this! I was morbidly curious about the plot but I dont like horror movies for the most part. I love how you tell me everything I need to know in much less time and make me laugh. Thank you I needed this today😊
2:44 DON'T REMIND ME OF GUTS. chuck is my favorite author of all time but MY GOD guts is NASUEATING
This movie had to be written by a Floridian.
When I was little my older brother knew I wouldn’t fall for something like an invisible shark in the pool, so instead he went with a giant kraken like monster in the vents at the bottom of the pool. I refused to swim over them.
I know I'll inevitably watch this when it hits streaming but I'm so much happier to have watched your video first!
Got my floaties and flippers ready!
As someone who loves diving/snorkeling…what’s below me doesn’t scare me nearly as much as what’s behind me
I refreshed and your video appeared thank goodness
15:41 “anything for the Kitty”
Words to live by 😂
19:08 ma'am that sounds like a...uh canadian version of two girls one cup. what on earth...
“‘Night Swim’ is Garbage”,
HEY! That’s an insult to garbage! They don’t want to be associated with this!
I love your “mostly okay” stocking 🤗
any movie that kills a cat like that for shock value i hate automatically
Her just disappearing into the water is very similar to real live drownings. There is actually very little splashing and the calm is what you need to look for!
God fucking dammit I had managed to block out that Chuck Palahniuk story from my memory until now. *shudders*
Pool ghosts. This could've been an interesting scary-funny flick like M3GAN but they chose to be boring .
Thank you so much for continuing to post videos. You are by far my favorite TH-camr and every time there's a new video from you I get so freaking excited! You have gotten me through some really tough times and I appreciate you so much! Thanks for being you 🩵
The most I felt during this film was right at the beginning when I saw 'SUMMER 1992' and realised, _oh fuck, this is the new 1970 or 1960_ . It also stung because I was _born_ in 1992.
Anyway, the fact that the scariest thing about this film was the reminder that I'm what the kids call Fucking Old speaks volumes about it.