THE GIRL IN THE POOL Movie Clip (2024)

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A well-to-do family man is forced to struggle through a surprise birthday party moments after hiding the murdered corpse of his mistress.

Take it off - THE GIRL IN THE POOL Movie Clip (2024)
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"Just stop and admit to my daughter what you're really upset about." Quiver Distr. has revealed an official trailer for an indie thriller titled The Girl in the Pool, directed by Dakota Gorman. This is another one of these low-rent, junk thrillers being passed off as something true crime obsessed audiences of today might want to see. How long has it been since we've seen Freddie Prinze Jr. in anything? So he's back? Prinze Jr. stars as Tom, who "reflects on one final rendezvous with a woman he is having an affair with — shortly before that same woman is found dead in his pool. To complicate matters, Tom's wife and his family throw him a surprise birthday party in the same backyard. At the party, Tom's shock is noticed by those around him, including his father-in-law and a man who arrives at his home saying he is looking for his wife." What will happen next? Will his perfect life fall apart? (Probably...) Also starring Monica Potter, Kevin Pollak, Tyler Lawrence Gray, Brielle Barbusca, & Gabrielle Haugh. The Girl in the Pool reunites the actors Prinze Jr. & Potter 23 years after they were in 2001's Head Over Heels together. Though it looks forgettable.

Here's the official trailer (+ poster) for Dakota Gorman's The Girl in the Pool, direct from YouTube:

The Girl in the Pool Poster

"The truth always surface." On his birthday, Tom's (Freddie Prinze Jr.) life collapses when his mistress is found dead in his pool. Terrified of the consequences, and desperate to protect his family, he conceals the truth, triggering a chaotic night that threatens to unravel his perfect life. The Girl in the Pool is directed by American actress / filmmaker Dakota Gorman, making her second feature after writing & directing the film Natural Disasters previously. The screenplay is written by Jackson Reid Williams. It's produced by Eric Brenner, German Michael Torres, RJ Collins, and Larry Greenberg. This hasn't premiered at any festivals or elsewhere, as far as we know. Quiver Distribution will debut Dakota Gorman's The Girl in the Pool thriller in select US theaters + on VOD starting or July 26th, 2024 coming up this summer. Look any good? Or not?
Freddie Prinze Jr. plays a man desperately trying to hide an affair from his family in a new thriller.

On June 24, Quiver Distribution shared the first trailer for The Girl in the Pool exclusively with PEOPLE. In it, the actor, 48, stars opposite Monica Potter, 23 years after they were in 2001's Head Over Heels together.

Prinze stars as Tom, who reflects on one final rendezvous with a woman he is having an affair with — shortly before that same woman is found dead in his pool. To complicate matters, Tom's wife (Potter) and his family throw him a surprise birthday party in the same backyard.

At the party, Tom's shock is noticed by those around him, including his father-in-law (Kevin Pollak) and a man who arrives at his home saying he is looking for his wife.

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Freddie Prinze Jr. in The Girl in the Pool
Freddie Prinze Jr. in 2024's The Girl in the Pool. Courtesy of Quiver Distribution
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"Paranoia grips him as he navigates through whispers and cryptic hints from those around him," teases a synopsis for the film.

Freddie Prinze Jr. in The Girl in the Pool
Freddie Prinze Jr. in "The Girl in the Pool". Courtesy of Quiver Distribution
"As he delves deeper into the mystery, he discovers he's not the only one hiding something, leading to a tense unraveling of truths and betrayals amidst a desperate search for answers, revealing a twist that nobody could have seen coming."

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The Girl in the Pool Poster
Poster for 2024's The Girl in the Pool. Courtesy of Quiver Distribution
The new movie is directed by Dakota Gorman, who previously made her directorial debut with 2020's Natural Disasters and All About Sex. Aside from Prinze, Potter and Pollak, the film also stars Tyler Lawrence Grey and Gabrielle Haugh.

The Girl in the Pool is in theaters and on demand July 26.
“The Girl in the Pool” is a laugh riot, delivering sitcom-style shenanigans rather than a sincere sense of tension. Whether it’s intended to be funny or not is debatable. Director Dakota Gorman’s Hitchcock-inspired, psychological thriller about marital infidelity and a fracturing family takes a few of its cues from “Rope,” hiding a key figure in a trunk as a party transpires and a mystery murderer remains in their midst. But the similarities end there. Regardless of whether we’re supposed to chuckle at our hero’s crumbling sanity or empathize with his strife, it’s empty-calorie viewing designed for viewers to either mock or embrace its hijinks. Those who do celebrate its tawdry twists and turns, however, are assured to have a good time.

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Meek middle manager Thomas (Freddie Prinze Jr.) seemingly has the perfect life. He has a good job, a huge home in the serene suburbs, two kids — clean-cut teenagers Alex (Tyler Lawrence Gray) and Rose (Brielle Barbusca) — and a loving wife, Kristen (Monica Potter). He’s also hiding a big secret: an affair with a younger woman, Hannah (Gabrielle Haugh). Yet their latest torrid tryst in his backyard ends in disaster when she turns up dead under suspicious circumstances, floating face-down in the pool, bleeding profusely from a head wound. Since his family is due home any minute, the panic-stricken adulterer hides the lifeless, bloodied body amongst the faded neon foam noodles and ring floats in the pool supplies trunk on the side of the house.

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Thomas’ catastrophe quickly turns into calamity once Kristen reveals she’s planned a surprise party for his birthday at the scene of the crime, inviting all his closest friends and colleagues. That includes Thomas’ cantankerous father-in-law William (Kevin Pollak), who despises Thomas and walks into every scene with an insult lobbed at the birthday boy. Why he chose to attend a party for someone he hates is the bigger mystery afoot. But as Thomas frantically attempts to clear his name, giving himself multiple pep talks in front of bathroom mirrors and sorting through a few clues, the festivities worsen with guests hanging out near the storage chest, using it as spot to make out or do drugs. It’s clear he has a long night ahead of him — one filled with debauched frivolity and frazzled nerves.

Gorman and screenwriter Jackson Reid Williams pile on gimmick upon gimmick, beginning the proceedings with Thomas in media res, furiously scrubbing his blood-soaked sins away in the shower. His plight unfolds in a non-linear structure, switching back and forward on the timeline. While it’s never confusing, these flashbacks mostly provide cringe-worthy details (like hearing Thomas’ incel-ish best friend call him a “Beta” after not breaking the annoying neighbor’s camera drone) rather than add clarity to the present, which can also be fairly outlandish considering they quote Gandhi and say Prinze is “like Vin Diesel with hair.” Audiences will feel their bodies recoiling, hearing Thomas and Hannah’s smooching sessions punctuated by the actors’ hilariously loud lip-smacking. And superfluous events, like Hannah’s home tour where she slinks around the master bedroom and closet in her skivvies while destroying Kristen’s clothes and messing with her jewelry, call the film’s perspective into question as Thomas has no clue she ever did such devious things.

There are moments where Gorman and Williams lean into the inherent comedy of Thomas’ precarious situation. The scene where he grabs a large decorative vase after hearing strange noises outside before being surprised by party guests loosely functions as a setup for when he, in all seriousness, pulls a gun during the film’s mind-numbingly ridiculous resolution. Prinze plays the comedic undertones perfectly, specifically in the scene where he convinces his crew to return to the party after catching them smoking weed while sitting on Hannah’s makeshift coffin. It also doubles as the filmmakers’ spin on the unbraced sink scene in Darren Aronofsky’s “mother!” where anxiety and nervous laughter are birthed. Plus, the sharp cut from inside Thomas’ coke-fueled confusion, where his children observe him acting like a cat mesmerized by the DJ’s light machine, is a high point in the film’s lunacy.

Still, the filmmakers fail to properly construct suspense. The antagonistic relationship between Thomas’ obnoxious pals Randall (Jaylen Moore) and Mike (Michael Sirow) stalls immediately. Hushed secrets between Alex and Kristen aren’t developed enough for us to believe their whispers are stoking Thomas’ suspicions. Potter and Prinze, who previously starred together in the rom-com mystery “Head Over Heels,” are dealt a disservice by the lax material; their dynamic doesn’t generate much of a spark. It’s also difficult to buy a completely unmotivated turn by William later in the film.

Aesthetically, “The Girl in the Pool” is loaded with artifice to jazz things up, from internalized sound design that places us within the protagonist’s paranoia (switching from stereo sound to a muffled mono when memories pull him out of casual conversations) to various Dutch angles when his world spirals out of control. Gorman, along with her editor Rob Bonz and sound designer Lawrence He, marries the sound and vision during these segments, showing Thomas’ stress culminating in rapid flurries of imagery and audible echoes, reverberations and tinnitus.

Tone is key in films this silly. So when these filmmakers don’t hit a precise tone, despite their ensemble’s straight-faced delivery of hokey dialogue and clichéd scenarios, the picture flounders. Shifts from silly to serious occur frequently, though the thriller is better served when it keeps the proceedings buoyant, having us root against the hero instead of for him. Gorman takes a decidedly regressive approach to the conclusion, pulling strands of inspiration from Adrian Lyne’s “Fatal Attraction” in hackneyed ways. Nevertheless, even the poor form of “The Girl in the Pool” is sufficient enough to garner more than a few cackles to keep viewers invested in its wildly stupefying journey.

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Dakota Gorman, Freddie Prinze Jr., Monica Potter, The Girl in the Pool
The suburbs are hell. That’s what the movies keep telling us. Perfect nuclear families living in their McMansions are often anything but perfect. It’s not exactly new cinematic territory, but it’s a well that gets tapped often because it’s just a lot of fun to watch rich families implode, often of their own doing. In that vein, the new suburban-set thriller “The Girl in the Pool,” from director Dakota Gorman and screenwriter Jackson Reid Williams, breaks no new ground. But with its many twists and turns, it is indeed a lot of fun.

One-time teen idol Freddie Prinze Jr. plays the family patriarch Tom, a businessman, who, while still handsome, feels past his prime (at one point, Prinze Jr. splashes his face with water and the back of his balding head reflects in the mirror, and it struck me how rare it is to see any stars actually allow signs of their aging to show on screen). Tom is celebrating his birthday and is soon meant to meet his wife Kristen (Monica Potter) for dinner at a fancy restaurant. He’s left work early to get ready and is surprised by a visit from his much younger mistress Hannah (Gabrielle Haugh).

Their tryst in the family pool quickly becomes a murder scene and the audience is at first led to believe Tom is the culprit as he attempts to both clean up the mess and hide her corpse from the guests attending a surprise party organized by his wife and their adult kids Alex (Tyler Lawrence Gray) and Rose (Brielle Barbusca). Although we’re firmly planted in Tom’s psyche as he re-hashes their afternoon delight and its grisly aftermath, the choppy flashbacks are careful not to reveal exactly who did the deed and why the woman was murdered.

Pressure from the party mounts. Partygoers keep getting too close to where Tom has stashed away the body. He’s harassed by his father-in-law William (Kevin Pollak, charmingly acerbic), who makes it clear that Tom and Kristen’s marriage has been on the rocks for awhile. Another unexpected visitor pushes Tom to his limits. As Tom spirals into a frantic drug-induced paranoia state, the film adds twist after twist, until the entire family has blood on their hands.

Gorman playfully switches perspective in one scene, pulling back from a claustrophobic ultra-close-up of Tom to a wide shot of Alex, Rose, and her boyfriend watching Tom as he pitifully stumbles around the backyard. It’s a refreshing reminder that not only are we watching a movie, but also Tom the character is so deep in his own world, that it’s like he’s in his own movie as well. It’s a pity, then, that Gorman’s direction isn’t always this razor sharp as there is a current of mordant humor throughout Williams’ script that could easily have made this whole affair a pitch-black comedy.

The same goes for the uneven characterization of the women. Haugh’s Hannah seems to exist solely to look hot in a bikini and spout red herring-laden dialogue. The always solid Potter adds a steely gravitas to what mostly amounts to a stock character in Kristen. I kept waiting for her to get a great monologue moment like she does in the similarly lurid thriller “Along Came a Spider.” Alas, it never comes. Rosie is similarly underwritten, reduced to a pastiche of Gen-Z stereotypes, although Barbusca does her best to overcome the trite material with some hilarious line readings.

By design the son Alex remains an aloof presence, looming largely in the periphery until a third act twist places him squarely in the center of the action. For his part Gray goes all in, delivering one feeble excuse after another for his rancid behavior with a perfect mixture of derangement and vulnerability. A cookie-cutter copy of his equally ordinary, yet completely self-obsessed father.

Not surprisingly, Prinze Jr., who served as an executive producer on the project, has the meatiest role, and he is truly fantastic as the desperate Tom. Unlike Burt Lancaster’s crestfallen suburban patriarch in “The Swimmer,” Tom is always presented as pathetic. In the opening sequence he asks his friend, “Am I a good man?” but it’s clear from the jump that he is absolutely not. The film never once props him up as aspirational, just sweaty and sad. Flustered, he’s always asking for five minutes so he can come up with a plan, but Tom’s the kind of zero who could be given a whole year and still wouldn’t come up with a good plan.

Tom’s eventual journey towards something resembling redemption is played a little too straight. One final bad decision to cap off a film full of bad decisions should be laced with dramatic irony, especially since it is a damning indictment of how white men’s rage, at any age, is often coddled and protected by those with the most power. It’s a stinger that would have been better served on a more preposterously pulpy platter. Instead, the film ends with a limp whimper. What could have been a deliciously dark satire, instead remains in the liminal space known as aggressively average.

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Dakota Gorman’s The Girl in the Pool is truly a mixed bag. The film has the bones of a decent thriller. However, the narrative is derivative, and tonal imbalances and amateur showings from some supporting players keep the flick from being entirely immersive. With that said, this mystery thriller is effective enough to be an amusing distraction for a night in. And if that’s all you’re after, you’re not likely to be disappointed by The Girl in the Pool.

The film follows Thomas (Freddie Prinze Jr.), a middle-aged zaddy who seems to have everything. He’s got a good job, a palatial estate, a beautiful wife (Monica Potter), and two kids who adore him. But because enough is never enough for some, Thomas is also entangled with a much younger mistress. His wandering eye proves to be his undoing when she turns up dead in his pool. Not sure how she perished or who is responsible, Thomas stows her corpse in a storage bin outside his home, only to learn his family has staged a backyard surprise party for him. Talk about bad timing. Yikes!

Like many films from burgeoning filmmakers, The Girl in the Pool starts better than it ends. The flick begins with a level of promise. But by the end, we’re left with remnants of what might have been. The Girl in the Pool is not a total loss. The dizzying opening sequence impressed me. Gorman successfully maintains some of that momentum beyond the first act. Still, multiple shortcomings keep the picture from ever reaching the point of greatness.

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One sticky wicket that keeps the film from fully succeeding is tonal inconsistencies. There are moments of dark comedy that break up the tension. A couple of them are good for a chuckle. But the film would have been better off maintaining the intensity and staging the comedic asides at more opportune times. As it stands, the tonal inconsistencies keep The Girl in the Pool from being entirely immersive. But to be fair, they aren’t so jarring as to render the flick unwatchable.

Another point of contention is that some of the dialogue needed a second pass. There are a couple of times where exchanges between characters are so unnatural that it took me out of the film. That aspect is further accentuated by tertiary players who aren’t convincing in their supporting roles. None of the showings are abysmal, but some of the smaller parts are played by actors lacking the experience of the core cast.

Despite what The Girl in the Pool doesn’t get right, I appreciate some of the cinematic references and thematic influences. Speaking of references and influences, it’s clear Hitchcock’s Rope was an influence on screenwriter Jackson Reid Williams. There are several sequences that serve a similar energy as party guests sit on and around the receptacle that holds the remains of Thomas’ dead mistress. No one is giving Hitchcock a run for his money here but I still enjoy a good homage.

Gorman also plays with nonlinear narrative techniques, giving us pieces of the puzzle leading up to the inciting incident and then bouncing back to the timeline where the bulk of the film unfolds. Nonlinear storytelling is a great technique for rattling the viewer and preserving a twist. I wish it had been used a little more effectively here. However, the approach still successfully pays homage to filmmakers like David Lynch, Christopher Nolan, and Quentin Tarantino, who have used a fractured timeline to wow their audience with a shocking reveal.

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The twist here doesn’t reach the level of the filmmakers who have more effectively used the nonlinear narrative approach. However, the technique still manages to plant seeds of doubt and give the viewer reason to suspect several different characters. I just wish Williams’ script had produced a less predictable reveal at the end. But the flick still delivers an entertaining viewing experience on par with a Lifetime original. Though The Girl in the Pool is slightly better than the output of the Lifetime Movie Network, it serves the same energy and employs similar tropes.
Hotels, campgrounds, and hospitals can instill fright upon sight. But what about swimming pools? These refreshing summer escapes can sometimes be just as terrifying as stepping through a creaky haunted house or foggy graveyard. An underground pool in Night Swim (2024) conjures up supernatural danger to an unsuspecting family. Hydrotherapy goes wrong and a toy boat is just out of reach for someone to fall in while grabbing for it. But this is only the most recent entry in pool-based scares that are seen in movies and TV horror anthologies. Drowning is the least of anyone's concerns once characters step into these contained bodies of water, along with slashers, ghosts, and aquatic creatures.

In Are You Afraid of the Dark?, a school’s abandoned pool holds one of the scariest-looking monsters when a very dark secret gets unearthed. The Strangers: Prey at Night (2018) doesn't just have a killer '80s soundtrack, it also submerges a life-and-death struggle in a neon-lit pool. Also in 2018, was Annihilation, which turns a dried-out pool into a fungal, body horror spectacle for shocked witnesses. Pools are everywhere, from neighborhood community pools to backyard retreats, but so too are the dangers. Next time you dip your toe in a pool for a summer refresher, make sure to avoid all and any obstacles that might be experienced in the following watery death traps.

'Shivers' (1975)
Directed by David Cronenberg
Two girls in a pool in David Cronenberg's Shivers (1975).Image via Cinéplex Film Properties
A parasite, part aphrodisiac and part STD, makes its way through an apartment building called the Starliner. No one is safe — not even elderly neighbors, young couples, and children. It’s a science experiment gone wrong, or right depending on the goals of the mad scientist who triggered it. The movie is bloody, full of sexual and twisted imagery, which isn’t too shocking, considering it's an early film from director David Cronenberg. Before he made a man-fly hybrid melt to pieces and telekinetic abilities exploded heads, he unleashed parasitic chaos.

The climax in the complex's pool becomes one messed-up orgy. Nearly all of the Starliner residents get turned into sex maniacs, by kissing, consensual or not, the parasite infects the next host. One victim gets tossed into the pool, and all the lustfully infected jump in and surround the unlucky victim. They can do nothing but submit.

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Shivers
R
The residents of a suburban high-rise apartment building are being infected by a strain of parasites that turn them into mindless, sex-crazed fiends out to infect others by the slightest sexual contact.

Release Date
September 26, 1975
Director
David Cronenberg
Cast
Paul Hampton , Joe Silver , Lynn Lowry , Allan Kolman , Susan Petrie , Barbara Steele , Ronald Mlodzik , Barry Baldaro , Camil Ducharme , Hanna Poznanska , Wally Martin , Vlasta Vrana , Silvie Debois , Charles Perley , Al Rochman , Julie Wildman , Arthur Grosser , Edith Johnson , Dorothy Davis , Joy Coghill
Runtime
87 minutes
Main Genre
Horror
Writers
David Cronenberg
Expand
Watch on Tubi

'Are You Afraid of the Dark?' “The Tale of the Dead Man’s Float” (Season 5, Episode 1)
Directed by D.J. MacHale
The pool monster in Are You Afraid of the Dark?Image via Nickelodeon
In 1954, a young boy jumped into a school’s pool, thinking it was a great idea. Wrong! Something pulls him down and doesn’t let go. The pool is drained and left to rot behind a hidden door. Fast-forward to 1994, when Zeke (Kaj Eriksen) finds it and decides to try to impress his crush, Clorice (Margot Finley). She loves it, while it needs the grime scrubbed off, it’s the best new spot for her swim team to practice. The pool is cleaned and refilled, but that only awakens the horror that has lingered.

When Clorice finds out that Zeke is afraid of water, she lets him float in a raft to ease his jitters. Then something attacks. Like how the haunting in Poltergeist (1982) happened because of homes getting developed on top of a cemetery, in “Dead Man’s Float,” the school was built on land that was originally made to lay souls to rest. Thanks to Zeke being a brainiac, he uses Methyl Orange to make the spirit be seen by the living. The result is a red oozing zombie that no doubt gave '90s kids nightmares for a long time.

Are You Afraid of the Dark TV Poster
Are You Afraid of the Dark?
An anthology series that follows different chapters of the Midnight Society, a group of teenagers who gather at midnight to tell scary stories, such as the Carnival of Doom, Curse of the Shadows, and Ghost Island.

Release Date
October 11, 2019
Cast
Bryce Gheisar , Ryan Beil , Parker Queenan , Kyle Strauts , Malia Barker , Dominic Mariche , Beatrice Kitsos , Kalyn Miles , Arjun Athalye
Seasons
3
Watch on Paramount+

'The Final Destination' (2009)
Directed by David R. Ellis
The pool "accident" in The Final Destination.Image via New Line Cinema
The Final Destination franchise is all about the intricate game to collect and recollect the next name on Death’s list. Laser eye surgery. Elevator doors. A dentist’s chair. These and so many other mundane scenarios turn into final resting places. So it was only time before Death took a dive. Nick (Bobby Campo) sees the premonition that saves lives; now he has to try to keep them alive. Water threatens to end Hunt (Nick Zano) and Nick is too late to help.

Hunt accidentally triggers the drainage system to the country club pool and when he lunges in, it seals his fate. The strength of the suction pulls him down, pinning him there. Unable to get free, drowning is enough of a worry. But this being a Final Destination movie, Hunt gets positioned in just the right way that suddenly his insides end up on the outside.

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The Final Destination
R
A horrifying premonition saves a young man and his friends from death during a racetrack accident but terrible fates await them nonetheless.

Release Date
August 26, 2009
Director
David R. Ellis
Cast
Bobby Campo , Shantel VanSanten , Mykelti Williamson , Nick Zano , Haley Webb
Runtime
82 Minutes
Main Genre
Horror
Writers
Eric Bress
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Rent on Amazon

'R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour' “Pool Shark” (Season 1, Ep. 18)
Directed by Jason Furukawa
The "Pool Shark" episode from R. L. Stine's The Haunting Hour: The SeriesImage via Hub Network
Kai (Booboo Stewart), the son of a community pool owner, doesn’t walk by the water without having flashbacks that keep his aquaphobia alive and well. Dreams plague him of Nanaue, a creature from Hawaiian mythology that is a man on land and a shark in water. His father, Lonny (Patrick Gallagher), doesn’t like that his son fixates on these scary stories. But the more the dreams haunt him, Kai can’t let it go.

And then, one night, he sees something in the public pool, a fin slips above the surface and then below before anyone else sees. He becomes the boy who cried "Shark!" Although it seems impossible for a shark to be in a pool, Kai knows a predator is using the deep end as its own hunting grounds. Kai takes it upon himself to end the pool-loving shark, hopefully without getting snacked on like Quint (Robert Shaw) from Jaws.

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'Sinister' (2012)
Directed by Scott Derrickson
Ethan Hawke in Sinister.Image via Summit Entertainment
In Sinister, true crime writer Ellison Oswalt (Ethan Hawke) finds film reels in his new home, a place where a family recently died. Ellison watches the old movies and in doing so, forces the audience to watch the disturbing footage too. “Pool Party ‘66,” like the other films, shows a family enjoying everyday moments before it cuts to a murder. The reel’s title has no subtext. In this particular pool "party," the family members are chained to lawn chairs and pulled into their pool, where they suffer terrible fates.

And in the corner of the scene, Ellison spots a white face. Maybe a mask. It’s under the water, making the face distorted in the first look at boogeyman Bughuul. Music makes every reel even more unsettling. “Pool Party ‘66” is no exception. The song “Body of Water” by JudgeHydrogen is full of eerie moaning within atmospheric music, it’s downright chilling. This means it’s perfect to build the dread for this reel and the next.

sinister-movie-poster
Sinister
R
A controversial true crime writer finds a box of super 8 home movies in his new home, revealing that the murder case he is currently researching could be the work of an unknown serial killer whose legacy dates back to the 1960s.

Release Date
March 29, 2012
Director
Scott Derrickson
Cast
Ethan Hawke , Juliet Rylance , Fred Dalton Thompson , James Ransone , Michael Hall D'Addario , Clare Foley ll
Runtime
110
Main Genre
Horror
Writers
C. Robert Cargill , Scott Derrickson
Tagline
Once you see him, nothing can save you.
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Rent on Amazon

'12 Feet Deep' (2017)
Directed by Matt Eskandari
The trapped sisters in 12 Feet Deep.Image via MarVista Entertainment
Community pools can be full of danger. Bree (Nora-Jane Noone) swims at one while waiting for her sister Jonna (Alexandra Park). When Bree’s engagement ring suddenly gets lost at the bottom, the two try to get it free from a grate. Pool manager McGradey (Tobin Bell) doesn’t see them and begins the pool cover process. The material traps the sisters in, and it won’t break, no matter how hard they pound on it. An extended holiday break ensures McGradey isn’t hurrying back. The sisters, who have never seen eye to eye, now have to work together to figure out how to get out of the pool alive.

A janitor (Diane Farr) arrives and because letting the sisters free would be too easy, she has certain conditions. Seeing how many what-can-go-wrong, will-go-wrong scenarios in the same movie with Tobin Bell almost makes this into a Saw spinoff. But he only has a cameo. This is a three-woman show, each with a past that has made their lives tough. The heater to the pool is turned off. The cleaning system, with all its harsh chemicals, gets put on. It’s all a test of endurance to see if they can survive.

Watch on Amazon Prime

'Annihilation' (2018)
Directed by Alex Garland
The body horror pool in Annihilation.Image via Paramount Pictures
In Alex Garland's Annihilation, something isn’t right in the world Lena (Natalie Portman) enters to locate her missing husband Kane (Oscar Isaac). She experiences the strangeness within the Shimmer, along with the other women in an expedition group. Once they step in, there’s a sense of the uncanny. Time jumps happen without warning. Plant and animal life mutates in ways not biologically possible. As night falls, they take shelter at an empty military base, finding a camcorder.

The handheld footage reveals Lena’s husband, and the Green Berets he joined, slicing into a chunk of a soldier’s stomach, far enough in to see the intestines, which slither like snakes. Obviously, this isn't normal. Lena and her group find the dried-out pool where the footage was filmed. The soldier's corpse remains, horribly transformed. The fungus-covered skeleton looks like it has exploded and frozen in place, like a morbid work of art. Something much worse than algae has grown in this drained pool.

annihilation-movie-poster-1.jpg
Annihilation
R
Sci-Fi
Mystery
Horror
Lena, a biologist and former soldier, joins a mission to uncover what happened to her husband inside Area X -- a sinister and mysterious phenomenon that is expanding across the American coastline. Once inside, the expedition discovers a world of mutated landscapes and creatures, as dangerous as it is beautiful, that threatens both their lives and their sanity.

Release Date
February 23, 2018
Director
Alex Garland
Cast
Sonoya Mizuno , Kola Bokinni , Jennifer Jason Leigh , Gina Rodriguez , Cosmo Jarvis , Oscar Isaac , Tessa Thompson , Tuva Novotny , Natalie Portman , David Gyasi
Runtime
115 Minutes
Main Genre
Sci-Fi
Writers
Alex Garland , Jeff VanderMeer
Expand
Watch on Netflix

'The Strangers: Prey at Night' (2018)
Directed by Johannes Roberts
Lewis Pullman tries to stay alive in The Strangers: Prey at Night.Image via Aviron Pictures
Two siblings get stuck in a trailer park with three killers stalking them. Luke (Lewis Pullman) tries to hide as two of the killers hone in on him. He stumbles out to what ends up being the public pool. Palm tree signs and a speaker light up the area, these killers do love their stylized aesthetics, after all. Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” plays when Luke takes down one killer. The next isn’t so easy.

The Masked Man (Damian Maffei) swings an ax, narrowly missing Luke each time. The only problem is, the boy gets too close to the pool edge. When the two end up in the water, they thrash around. The ax sinks, and then the Masked Man pulls out a knife. Bonnie Tyler’s vocals are clear and then muffled as the camera emerges and submerges with Luke, once again, if the knife doesn’t hit its mark, drowning is the next possibility. The tropical neon lights and the '80s pop rock needle drop create a fever dream with a slasher spin.

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The Strangers: Prey at Night
R
A family of four staying at a secluded mobile home park for the night are stalked and then hunted by three masked psychopaths.

Release Date
March 9, 2018
Director
Johannes Roberts
Cast
Damian Maffei , Martin Henderson , Christina Hendricks , Lea Enslin , Bailee Madison , Emma Bellomy , Lewis Pullman
Runtime
85minutes
Writers
Ben Ketai
Rent on Amazon

'Night Swim' (2024)
Directed by Ryan McGuire
"Marco Polo" is a dangerous game in Night Swim.Image via Universal Pictures
Ray (Wyatt Russell) and Eve Waller (Kerry Condon) move their kids into a new home with hopes for the family to adjust to Ray's degenerative illness. The empty, unused pool in the backyard is exactly what everyone needs. There are warnings of the danger that is to come. Eve remembers her childhood fears of the water and their youngest son is warned to remain in the shallow end when no one is with him, but these are all natural concerns. What isn't so natural, is when night falls and the pool seems to come alive.

What lies beneath? During the day, coins are tossed in to lure in a swimmer to retrieve them, pushing them further into the deep end. At night, flickering underwater lights can plunge everything into darkness. It's this darkness that is the creepiest visual in the movie, a vast abyss opening up at the bottom of the pool. The further someone dives in, the more disoriented they get, forgetting whether they are close to the surface or if they are getting lost in the endless void.

Night Swim Temp Poster
Night Swim
PG-13
Feature length version of the 2014 short film about a woman swimming in her pool at night terrorized by an evil spirit.

Release Date
January 5, 2024
Director
Bryce McGuire
Cast
Kerry Condon , Wyatt Russell , Nancy Lenehan , Amélie Hoeferle , Jodi Long , Gavin Warren
Runtime
116 Minutes
Writers
Rod Blackhurst , Bryce McGuire
Buy Tickets Now

Horror
Movie Features
Annihilation
Annihilation
The Girl in the Pool

Poster
Directed by Dakota Gorman
Written by Jackson Reid Williams
Produced by Larry Greenberg
German Michael Torres
RJ Collins
Eric Brenner
Starring Freddie Prinze Jr.
Monica Potter
Kevin Pollak
Cinematography Alonso Homs
Edited by Rob Bonz
Music by Adam Bosarge
Distributed by Quiver Distribution
Release date
July 26, 2024
Running time 89 minutes
Country United States
Language English
The Girl in the Pool is a 2024 American mystery thriller drama film written by Jackson Reid Williams, directed by Dakota Gorman and starring Freddie Prinze Jr., Monica Potter and Kevin Pollak.[1]

Plot

This article needs a plot summary. Please add one in your own words. (December 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
Cast
Freddie Prinze Jr. as Thomas
Monica Potter as Kristen
Gabrielle Haugh as Hannah
Brielle Barbusca as Rose
Tyler Lawrence Gray as Alex
Kevin Pollak as William
Jaylen Moore as Randall
Michael Sirow as Mike
Release
The film was released on July 26, 2024.[2][3][4][5]

Reception
The film has a 43% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on seven reviews.[6] Marya E. Gates of RogerEbert.com awarded the film two and a half stars out of four.[7] Tyler Doupe of Dread Central awarded the film 2.75 stars out of five.[8]

Courtney Howard of Variety gave the film a positive review and wrote, "Regardless of whether we’re supposed to chuckle at our hero’s crumbling sanity or empathize with his strife, it’s empty-calorie viewing designed for viewers to either mock or embrace its hijinks."[9]

References
Navarro, Meagan (February 8, 2024). "'The Girl in the Pool' – Freddie Prinze Jr Thriller Gets First Look Image". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved December 3, 2024.
Hamman, Cody (July 3, 2024). "The Girl in the Pool trailer: Freddie Prinze Jr. thriller gets a July release". JoBlo.com. Retrieved December 3, 2024.
Mack, Anthony (July 25, 2024). "THE GIRL IN THE POOL Exclusive Clip: Freddie Prinze Jr. Goes Off The Deep End in Thriller". ScreenAnarchy. Retrieved December 3, 2024.
Dela Paz, Maggie (June 24, 2024). "Freddie Prinze Jr. & Monica Potter Reunite in The Girl in the Pool Trailer". Comingsoon.net. Archived from the original on July 25, 2024. Retrieved December 3, 2024.
Treese, Tyler (July 25, 2024). "The Girl in the Pool Interview: Stars Freddie Prinze Jr. & Monica Potter". Comingsoon.net. Retrieved December 3, 2024.
"The Girl in the Pool". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on September 22, 2024. Retrieved December 3, 2024.
Gates, Marya E. (July 26, 2024). "The Girl in the Pool". RogerEbert.com. Archived from the original on October 4, 2024. Retrieved December 3, 2024.
Doupe, Tyler (July 30, 2024). "'The Girl in the Pool' Review: If Hitchcock's 'Rope' Was a Lifetime Original". Dread Central. Archived from the original on August 11, 2024. Retrieved December 3, 2024.
Howard, Courtney (July 26, 2024). "'The Girl in the Pool' Review: Freddie Prinze Jr. Tries to Hide His Mistress' Corpse in a Schlocky Thriller With More Laughs Than Suspense". Variety. Archived from the original on August 29, 2024. Retrieved December 3, 2024.
External links
The Girl in the Pool at IMDb
The Girl in the Pool at Rotten Tomatoes
Categories: 2024 filmsQuiver Distribution films
Night Swim

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Bryce McGuire
Screenplay by Bryce McGuire
Story by
Bryce McGuire
Rod Blackhurst
Based on
Night Swim
by Bryce McGuire
Rod Blackhurst
Produced by
Jason Blum
James Wan
Starring
Wyatt Russell
Kerry Condon
Cinematography Charlie Sarroff
Edited by Jeff McEvoy
Music by Mark Korven
Production
companies
Blumhouse Productions
Atomic Monster
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date
January 5, 2024
Running time 98 minutes[1]
Country United States
Language English
Budget $15 million[2]
Box office $54.8 million[3][4]
Night Swim is a 2024 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Bryce McGuire (in his feature directorial debut), and based on the 2014 short film of the same name by McGuire and Rod Blackhurst. Starring Wyatt Russell and Kerry Condon, it follows a suburban family who discover that their backyard swimming pool is haunted by a malevolent entity.

Jason Blum and James Wan produced the film under their Blumhouse Productions and Atomic Monster banners respectively, and this marks the first film from the two companies to be released following their merger on January 2, 2024.[5]

Night Swim was released in the United States by Universal Pictures on January 5, 2024. The film received negative reviews from critics and grossed over $54 million worldwide.[6][7]

Plot
In 1992, a young girl, Rebecca Summers, goes out to her family pool one night to retrieve a toy boat belonging to her terminally ill brother, Tommy. While she tries to get the boat, something in the pool pulls her underwater.

In the present day, the Waller family—Ray, Eve, and children Izzy and Elliot—are seeking a new, permanent residence after Ray has been forced to retire from his baseball career due to multiple sclerosis. They decide to purchase a house with a swimming pool in the backyard, especially after hearing that the pool would be good for Ray’s condition. Ray scratches his hand while working to clear out the pool in the back yard. When the pool maintenance come to inspect it, they reveal that the pool is essentially self-sustaining, taking its water from an underground spring in the area.

As he spends more time in the pool as part of his therapy, Ray's illness seems to go into remission. However, Eve becomes concerned at the changes she sees in her husband. Izzy and Elliot each get attacked by something in the pool, and the family cat goes missing. During a pool party, their realtor, Kay, tells Eve about the previous owners' daughter Rebecca Summers drowning in the pool shortly before Ray seemingly forces a child underwater and almost drowns himself, although this is attributed to a side-effect of his illness.

Tracking down the Summers family after learning that there is a long history of disappearances in the house, Eve meets with Lucy, Rebecca's mother. Lucy explains that the water that now sustains the pool was once part of an ancient pagan healing spring guarded by a malevolent faerie-like entity but in order to benefit from the water's healing properties, someone else must be sacrificed to the spring's guardian; Lucy was compelled to sacrifice Rebecca to the entity to heal Tommy's illness. Eve is horrified to realize that Ray is now being healed by the pool but its guardian will take one of the children as a sacrifice.

Eve returns to the house to find that Ray is being directly controlled by the entity, which traps Elliot in the pool and attempts to kill Izzy. Eve tries to save her son while Izzy confronts the entity controlling her father via the water from the spring, eventually assaulting him with a baseball bat. Eve manages to retrieve an unconscious Elliot, and is guided to the surface of the pool by Rebecca's spirit. Once back in the yard, Izzy's assault and Elliot's condition help Ray regain control of himself. To stop the entity from attacking his children, Ray sacrifices himself to it and the entity vanishes.

Deciding to remain in the house so that no one else falls victim to the entity, Eve, Izzy and Elliot make arrangements for the pool to be filled in to stop such a thing happening again.

Cast

The film stars Wyatt Russell, Kerry Condon, and Gavin Warren.
Wyatt Russell as Ray Waller
Kerry Condon as Eve Waller
Amélie Hoeferle as Izzy Waller
Gavin Warren as Elliot Waller
Jodi Long as Lucy Summers
Ayazhan Dalabayeva as Rebecca Summers
Nancy Lenehan as Kay
Eddie Martinez as Coach E
Elijah J. Roberts as Ronin
Rahnuma Panthaky as Dr. Sridhar
Ben Sinclair as pool tech
Ellie Araiza as Angel
Production
Proof-of-concept origins
External videos
video icon The original 2014 short film which served as the proof-of-concept for the feature version via YouTube
The film's origins go back to 2014, when Bryce McGuire wrote and directed his low-budget five-minute 2014 short film of the same name in collaboration with his friend Rod Blackhurst, which he filmed in the backyard of musician Michelle Branch. It starred Megalyn Echikunwoke in the lead role, which would inspire the character of Izzy Waller in the feature version. McGuire cited Blumhouse's own films, as well as other films such as Poltergeist (1982), Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), Jaws (1975), Christine (1983), The Night of the Hunter (1955) and The Abyss (1989) as the film's sources of inspiration. He also described the film's story as semi-autobiographical in connection to his childhood and adolescence, saying "Growing up in Florida, surrounded by ocean on three sides, in a climate that can only really be survived by partaking in water ritual, knowing friends who drowned, hurricanes that flooded homes, boating accidents, shark attacks, you come to have a kind of fear and reverence for the water ... I saw that movie [Jaws] when I was 10 years old. We had a swimming pool at the time, and I remember treading water by myself at night when my younger brother turned the lights out. And even though I knew the pool was only 9 feet deep and 18 feet wide, I was certain beyond any doubt that the water was an abyss and something horrible was rising toward me from the depths". The short film was released on YouTube on October 12, 2014, and went viral, allowing McGuire to break into the film industry as a screenwriter. Judson Scott, executive vice president at Atomic Monster, recommended the short to James Wan, who agreed to purchase the rights for a feature film adaptation.[8]

Development of feature version

Producers Jason Blum (left) and James Wan (right)
The feature version of Night Swim was reported to be in pre-production in January 2023, following the success of the film M3GAN. McGuire returned to direct from his own screenplay, in which he expanded the plot to add a layer of drama that would drive the story and an emotional layer to the terror that occurs to the characters. This involved adding "an epic, supernatural mythology with a gothic fairytale undercurrent for the story's sinister swimming pool". Wyatt Russell and Kerry Condon were announced to star, with James Wan and Jason Blum producing under their banners, Atomic Monster and Blumhouse Productions, respectively.[9] In April, Amélie Hoeferle, Gavin Warren, Nancy Lenehan and Jodi Long were added to the cast.[10]

Filming
Principal photography began on April 11, 2023,[11] in Altadena, California and the Los Angeles region, and lasted 34 days.[8] It was shot in an Altadena suburban home with a 9 foot deep backyard pool. Since other shots required a deeper pool, McGuire shot for four days in a 13 foot deep Olympic sized pool in Chatsworth. While a blue screen was employed for some shots, the film did not rely on computer animation to generate a simulation of water, instead filming wet for wet as opposed to dry for wet. In order to intensify the supernatural feel, McGuire and cinematographer Charlie Sarroff used older and wider lenses to make the pool seem as vast as the ocean.[8]

For underwater sequences, McGuire collaborated with cinematographer Ian Takahashi and stunt coordinator Mark Alexander Rayner. McGuire said: "Shooting in water is twice as slow, twice as expensive and twice as dangerous as shooting on land. It was a huge logistical challenge. Everything from keeping the water clear enough to have visibility and having the right flashlights to the amount of time talent could safely hold their breath required specific problem-solving and strategies that you'd never even think about until you're making a movie called Night Swim".[8]

Music
Mark Korven, who also scored Blumhouse's The Black Phone (2022), composed the score for the film. McGuire praised the selection of Korven, saying "...his music is on all my writing playlists and pitched him my vision for the music feeling like it could only come from the water, like some drowned choir rising from the depths, and he was in. He is such a sweet and gifted dude. Only Mark could create sounds this strange and chilling". To reflect the film's influences, McGuire incorporated pop songs from the 1980s to the soundtrack, such as having the character of Ray Waller have a thing for 80s metal to have him feel like he's drawn to the past.[8]

Track listing
No. Title Length
1. "Opening" 2:50
2. "Ray's Fall" 1:19
3. "Nostalgia" 1:58
4. "Pool Scare Healing" 3:08
5. "Elliot Swims" 2:13
6. "Marco Polo" 1:21
7. "He Won't Let Go" 3:19
8. "The Deep Water" 1:45
9. "Eve and Ray Fight" 1:10
10. "The Night You Were Born" 1:05
11. "Kids Have Seen Things" 5:22
12. "Saving Elliott" 6:31
13. "Shown the Way" 2:16
14. "Don't Look Back" 2:49
15. "Ending" 2:05
Total length: 39:11
[12]

Release
Night Swim was released by Universal Pictures in the United States on January 5, 2024.[13][14] The film was originally scheduled for January 19, 2024.[15] It was released on digital platforms on January 23, 2024.[16]

Reception
Box office
Night Swim grossed $32.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $22.3 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $54.8 million.[3][4]

In the United States and Canada, Night Swim was projected to gross $9–11 million from 3,250 theaters in its opening weekend.[2] The film made $5.2 million on its first day, including $1.45 million from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $12 million, finishing second behind holdover Wonka.[17] In its second weekend, the film dropped 60% to $4.7 million, finishing in seventh.[18]

Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 20% of 173 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.3/10. The website's consensus reads: "Despite a promising start and a handful of solid scares, Night Swim is undone by a premise that just isn't strong enough to support a feature-length film."[19] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 43 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[20] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported 45% of filmgoers gave it a positive score, with 26% saying they would definitely recommend the film.[17]

Owen Gleiberman of Variety said audiences are never "immersed in the movie's terror", and wrote: "But now, opening in the same junkyard weekend slot, we have another Blumhouse production, Night Swim, which restores a certain order to the cinematic universe by being as tepid and unscary as a proper early-in-January movie should be".[21] Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter called the film "the shallow end of the horror-film pool" and said "despite the filmmaker's best efforts to drum up suspense via the usual jump scares, Night Swim turns out to be just as silly as it sounds".[22] Toronto Star's Peter Howell gave a score of two out of four, saying the short story was superior: "For the most part, though, this feature version of Night Swim further demonstrates the truism that longer is rarely better when it comes to movies. The original was short, sharp and shocking".[23]

Matthew Monagle, writing for The Austin Chronicle, gave the film a score of three out of five: "It may be damning with faint praise to describe Night Swim as a solid movie, but horror fans know just how dark and deep the bottoms of their genre can be. We'll take what McGuire has to offer every day of the week".[24] Alissa Wilkinson of The New York Times gave a positive review. She wrote that the third act's goofiness undermined the "emotional resonance it's going for", but ended the review with, "For a winter horror release — typically a great time to go to the movie theater, munch popcorn and get your pants scared off — it does the job".[25] A further positive review came from Chris Vogner in Rolling Stone, who described it as "...a bizarrely intriguing swimming pool horror film".[26]

References
"Night Swim (15)". BBFC. December 19, 2023. Archived from the original on December 27, 2023. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
Rubin, Rebecca (January 4, 2024). "Night Swim, Jason Blum and James Wan's First Film Since Merger, Targets $10 Million Box Office Debut". Variety. Archived from the original on January 5, 2024. Retrieved January 5, 2024.
"Night Swim (2024)". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on January 6, 2024. Retrieved March 12, 2024.
"Night Swim — Financial Information". The Numbers. Archived from the original on January 14, 2024. Retrieved March 12, 2024.
Grobar, Matt (January 2, 2024). "Blumhouse-Atomic Monster Merger Now Complete". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on January 3, 2024. Retrieved January 3, 2024.
Murphy, J. Kim (January 6, 2024). "Box Office: Night Swim Treading to Second Behind Wonka". Variety. Archived from the original on January 6, 2024. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
Rigotti, Alex (January 6, 2024). "Swimming pool horror Night Swim is getting brutal reviews". NME. Archived from the original on January 6, 2024. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
"Night Swim Production Notes" (.DOCX). Universal Pictures/Getty Images. Archived from the original on November 3, 2023. Retrieved November 3, 2023.
D'Alessandro, Anthony (January 10, 2023). "Atomic Monster & Blumhouse Going For Night Swim With Wyatt Russell & Kerry Condon; Bryce McGuire Directing & Writing". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on January 10, 2023. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
D'Alessandro, Anthony (April 19, 2023). "Amélie Hoeferle, Gavin Warren, Nancy Lenehan & Jodi Long Join Blumhouse & Atomic Monster For A Night Swim". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on April 19, 2023. Retrieved April 19, 2023.
James Wan [@creepypuppet] (April 11, 2023). "Going for a midnight dip on the set of Night Swim with the great team of director @brycejmcguire and DP @charlie_sarroff". Archived from the original on May 6, 2023 – via Instagram.
"Night Swim (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)". Soundtrack.net. Archived from the original on January 13, 2024. Retrieved January 15, 2024.
Galuppo, Mia (April 7, 2023). "Blumhouse Horror Night Swim Moves Up January Release". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on April 8, 2023. Retrieved April 8, 2023.
Lee, Benjamin (January 4, 2024). "Night Swim review – soggy haunted pool horror sinks to the bottom". The Guardian. Archived from the original on January 15, 2024. Retrieved January 15, 2024.
D'Alessandro, Anthony (April 7, 2023). "Night Swim From Universal, Atomic Monster & Blumhouse To Take Earlier Dip In 2024". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on September 23, 2023. Retrieved January 15, 2024.
Squires, John (January 22, 2024). "Blumhouse Horror Movie Night Swim Available to Watch at Home This Week". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
D'Alessandro, Anthony (January 7, 2024). "First Weekend Of 2024 Down 16%, As 'Wonka' Leads, 'Night Swim' Paddles To $12M+, 'Aquaman 2' Nears $100M – Saturday AM Box Office". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on January 7, 2024. Retrieved January 7, 2024.
D'Alessandro, Anthony (January 14, 2024). "Winter Storm Gerri Doesn't Cramp 'Mean Girls' Style As Musical Heads For $31M+ Opening – Saturday Update". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on January 12, 2024. Retrieved January 14, 2024.
"Night Swim". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved December 16, 2024. Edit this at Wikidata
"Night Swim". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved January 13, 2024.
Gleiberman, Owen (January 4, 2024). "Night Swim Review: It's The Amityville Horror in a Swimming Pool, With a Fear Factor That's All Wet". Variety. Archived from the original on January 5, 2024. Retrieved January 5, 2024.
Scheck, Frank (January 4, 2024). "Night Swim Review: Wyatt Russell and Kerry Condon Struggle to Keep Low-Rent Horror Flick Afloat". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on January 5, 2024. Retrieved January 5, 2024.
Howell, Peter (January 4, 2024). "There were high expectations for Night Swim, but the horror film is more of a s(t)inker". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on January 5, 2024. Retrieved January 5, 2024.
Monagle, Matthew (January 4, 2024). "Movie Review: Night Swim". The Austin Chronicle. Archived from the original on January 5, 2024. Retrieved January 5, 2024.
Wilkinson, Alissa (January 4, 2024). "Night Swim Review: Hold Your Breath, Forever". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 5, 2024. Retrieved January 5, 2024.
"'Night Swim' is a Bizarrely Intriguing Swimming Pool Horror Movie". Rolling Stone. January 5, 2024.
External links
Official website Edit this at Wikidata
Night Swim at IMDb Edit this at Wikidata
Night Swim (short film) at IMDb
Categories: 2024 films2020s American films2020s English-language films2020s supernatural horror films2020s supernatural thriller films2024 directorial debut films2024 horror thriller films2024 horror filmsAmerican horror thriller filmsAmerican supernatural horror filmsAmerican supernatural thriller filmsEnglish-language horror thriller filmsFilms about dysfunctional familiesBlumhouse Productions filmsAtomic Monster filmsFeatures based on short filmsFilms produced by James WanFilms produced by Jason BlumFilms scored by Mark KorvenFilms shot in Los AngelesRemakes of American filmsUniversal Pictures films4DX films
Young Woman and the Sea

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Joachim Rønning
Written by Jeff Nathanson
Based on Young Woman and the Sea
by Glenn Stout
Produced by
Jerry Bruckheimer
Chad Oman
Jeff Nathanson
Starring
Daisy Ridley
Tilda Cobham-Hervey
Stephen Graham
Kim Bodnia
Jeanette Hain
Christopher Eccleston
Glenn Fleshler
Cinematography Oscar Faura
Edited by Úna Ní Dhonghaíle
Music by Amelia Warner
Production
companies
Walt Disney Pictures
Jerry Bruckheimer Films
Distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Release dates
May 16, 2024 (Los Angeles)
May 31, 2024 (United States)
Running time 129 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Box office $1.9 million[1][2]
Young Woman and the Sea is a 2024 American biographical sports film directed by Joachim Rønning and written by Jeff Nathanson, based on the 2009 book by Glenn Stout. Produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films, the film stars Daisy Ridley as Gertrude Ederle, an American competitive swimmer who became the first woman to swim across the English Channel. It also stars Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Stephen Graham, Kim Bodnia, Christopher Eccleston, and Glenn Fleshler in supporting roles.

Development on the film began in 2015 after producer Jerry Bruckheimer acquired the film rights to the book, and established a distribution deal with Paramount Pictures, with Nathanson attached to write it and Lily James cast as Ederle. Paramount eventually put the project in turnaround. In 2020, Walt Disney Pictures acquired the project with Ridley set to portray Ederle and Rønning to direct it. Principal photography took place between May and June 2022.

Young Woman and the Sea premiered at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles on May 16, 2024. Originally set for release by Disney on its streaming service Disney+, the film had a limited theatrical release after positive test screenings in the United States on May 31, 2024.[2] It received positive reviews from critics.

Plot
In New York City, 1914, a young Trudy Ederle, who is afflicted with measles, witnesses a burning ferry capsize, with that disaster leaving hundreds of the passengers dead. Her mother, Gertrude, is horrified by the incident, and after learning that most of the dead were women due to their inability to swim, she resolves to have Trudy's siblings, Meg and Henry Jr., learn swimming for their survival, with Trudy barred from water due to her illness. Surprisingly, Trudy recovers from measles. She becomes fascinated with swimming, and having persuaded her stern father, Henry, to allow her, she begins to pursue the sport when she's 12. Subsequently, Gertrude has them join the Women's Swimming Association, under the tutelage of the headstrong Charlotte Epstein. Trudy is initially passed over for Meg, whom Epstein favors, nevertheless, she agrees also to train Trudy, who makes quick progress. Over time, Trudy's performance keeps improving and she wins a string of world records; however, Meg's advance is far more modest.

In 1924, the Ederles are approached by the American Olympic Union (AOU) about participating in the 1924 Paris Olympics; however, only Trudy is offered a spot. Subsequently, the U.S. women team is introduced to Jabez Wolffe, a swimmer who unsuccessfully attempted to cross the English Channel, as their coach. However, the sexist Wolffe prevents them from properly training, and as a consequence, Trudy only wins bronze medals in the 100 metre freestyle and 400 metre freestyle. She returns to New York in disappointment, which worsens on discovering that in her absence Meg has been become engaged to be married in a deal orchestrated by their father.

After an encounter with Bill Burgess, the second swimmer to have successfully crossed the Channel, a re-motivated Trudy decides to attempt the feat herself. Enlisting Epstein's help, she approaches James Sullivan of the AOU to sponsor the attempt. Sullivan, an opponent of female athletics, is dismissive of the idea, but offers to sponsor it conditionally, provided that Trudy swims from New York to New Jersey within a three-hour deadline. Trudy easily beats it and earns the sponsorship, but is forced to pair with Wolffe as her coach.

In France, Trudy trains at the Cap Gris-Nez, where she befriends Benji, another swimmer attempting to cross the 21-mile (34 km) Channel; there, she clashes repeatedly with Wolffe, who attempts to control her training. After a near-disastrous attempt by Benji, Trudy embarks on her maiden attempt on 10 July, 1926. With Wolffe directing her, Trudy initially does well, however, the former, having grown jealous of the latter's progress, ostensibly spikes her tea, which disorients her and brings the attempt to an end.[a] Whilst recovering, Trudy is visited by Henry and Meg, who have come to take her home; however, they are stopped by Burgess, who offers to train her, having deduced Wolffe's duplicity.

Determined, Trudy secretly escapes from her return trip home, and begins preparations for another attempt, making Burgess promise not to save her, should she fail again. Meanwhile, Sullivan discovers Trudy's deception; realizing she will attempt again, he notifies the press. On 6 August, 1926, Trudy begins the second attempt, this time with Burgess, Henry and Meg as her guiding team. With the press in tow, the attempt's developments are monitored worldwide. Despite enduring jellyfish stings, Trudy persists in her attempt, before facing the final challenge: to cross the Goodwin Sands in order to reach England. With her guide boat unable to follow her into the shallow waters, she decides to swim alone rather than accept defeat. By nighttime, her team arrives at Dover; but swimming in open water, Trudy has lost her direction. However, the townspeople set up bonfires on the beaches as a guiding beacon for her. News of her success spreads, and upon her return to New York, Trudy is given a ticker-tape parade through the city, which she shares with her family and Epstein, crediting them for her success.

The intertitles before the film's closing credits inform that Trudy set the world record for crossing the Channel at 14 hours and 31 minutes, beating the world record held by a man by two hours; she eventually lost her hearing and dedicated her life to teaching deaf children to swim; she died in 2003 at the age of 98.

Cast
Daisy Ridley as Gertrude "Trudy" Ederle: An American competition swimmer and Olympic champion.[3]
Olive Abercrombie as Young Trudy Ederle
Christopher Eccleston as Jabez Wolffe: Trudy's trainer in France who failed to swim the English Channel on multiple attempts.[4]
Stephen Graham as Bill Burgess: Her hero who successfully swam the English Channel and inspires her.[5]
Tilda Cobham-Hervey as Margaret "Meg" Ederle: Trudy's sister.[5]
Lilly Aspell as Young Meg.
Kim Bodnia as Henry Ederle: Trudy's father.
Jeanette Hain as Gertrude Anna Ederle: Trudy's mother.[6]
Glenn Fleshler as James Sullivan: the man that sponsors the women swimmers t