In Night Swim, the House Isn't Haunted — It's the Pool

(Updated 11/13/2023)

Many of the best movie ideas are the simplest ones. Especially in genres like science-fiction or horror. NIGHT SWIM is based on one of the simplest ideas we’ve heard for a movie in a while. The concept is that a family moves into a home and soon discovers that their swimming pool is haunted.

NIGHT SWIM comes from producers James Wan, who knows how to make a movie scary, and Jason Blum, who knows how to make a scary movie into a hit. The first trailer is out now — you can see that below and we'll tell you everything else we know about NIGHT SWIM.

When Does Night Swim Come Out?

Universal Pictures will release NIGHT SWIM in theatres on January 5, 2024.

Night Swim Showtimes

Watch the Eerie First Night Swim Trailer

This first trailer for NIGHT SWIM does a few things. First, it introduces a pretty normal-seeming family. They're happy to have a new house, even if it needs work. Maybe that makes this the most realistic horror movie in recent memory, at least for home buyers.

The trailer also indulges in a long setpiece that turns the old Marco Polo swimming game into horrifying experience. And it has a few suggestions that it's not merely that the pool is somehow haunted, but that it opens onto a boundless supernatural realm.

Night Swim Expands on a Popular Horror Short Film

Writer/director Bryce McGuire created the original "Night Swim" short in 2014, with co-writer Rod Blackhurst. That short did the rounds and made a good impression. The short is a lot like the trailer above, in fact. Now, nearly ten years later, the core concert has been expanded into a feature that will significantly expand the concept and the frightening potential inherent in the concept.

Who's in the Cast of Night Swim?

Kerry Condon (THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN) plays one of the lead roles in NIGHT SWIM, alongside Wyatt Russell (OVERLORD, "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier"). They're the parents in the small family of four that moves into a seemingly cursed new home.

Amélie Hoeferle (THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS & SNAKES) and Gavin Warren ("Fear the Walking Dead") play their kids, Izzy and Elliot. There are a few other cast members as well, including Ben Sinclair ("High Maintenance"), Nancy Lenehan ("Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan"), and Jodi Long (SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS).

NIGHT SWIM opens on January 5.

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All images courtesy of Universal Pictures.