{"id":132155,"date":"2024-01-05T08:02:38","date_gmt":"2024-01-05T08:02:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/?p=132155"},"modified":"2024-01-08T10:25:11","modified_gmt":"2024-01-08T10:25:11","slug":"theres-blood-in-the-water-dive-in-with-night-swims-director-and-cast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/cinema\/theres-blood-in-the-water-dive-in-with-night-swims-director-and-cast\/","title":{"rendered":"There’s blood in the water: Dive in with Night Swim’s director and cast"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI think it\u2019s in our biological imprint to know that the water is not for us,\u201d says writer and director Bryce McGuire (pictured above). \u201cWe are still able to tap into that ancestral connection with the element, in the sense that some part of us knows it just isn\u2019t our home.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019re talking about one of the central subjects in McGuire feature film debut, Night Swim<\/strong><\/em>, which is out in cinemas now.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are drawn to water and even like to vacation around it, but it is also a place where people can die,\u201d he continues. \u201cNot to be morbid, but we do have a dualistic and paradoxical relationship with water. There is a whole chapter in Melville\u2019s Moby-Dick<\/strong><\/em> about how civilization has always been drawn to water and yet there is that whale that is trying to kill them. Both are true, so the pool in this story needed to represent both the allure and the danger.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Night Swim<\/strong><\/em> is an expanded telling of McGuire\u2019s and Rod Blackhurst\u2019s 2014 short of the same name, which sees a young woman alone at night swimming in a pool until something disturbs her serenity (you can watch it <\/span>here<\/span><\/a>).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cInitially, it was just an exercise in environment and atmosphere about trying to make the pool feel scary\u2014that was it!\u201d McGuire explains of the short movie. \u201cThen people kept asking me if there was a larger story and a feature film there, which led me to ask myself that question. For three years the answer was no, until some events in my life led me to explore who this family was.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The story in the feature film focuses on the Waller family, comprising dad Ray Waller (a former major league baseball player forced into early retirement by multiple sclerosis), who moves into a new home with his concerned wife Eve (Kerry Condon), teenage daughter Izzy (Am\u00e9lie Hoeferle) and young son Elliot (Gavin Warren).<\/span><\/p>\n

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Ray (Wyatt Russell) and Eve (Kerry Condon) have moved into a new home.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When they move into their new home, Ray utilises their new pool as a form of regenerative therapy for this illness.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Wallers are trying to turn a corner while Ray is recovering,\u201d McGuire explains. \u201cHe can\u2019t be a professional athlete anymore and so much has been wrapped up in that endeavor that now they have to ask themselves questions like, \u201cWho are we? What do we want? How do we find happiness?\u201d In a way, the pool fulfills some part of that dream for each of the family members in the form of community, health, stability, and permanence. So, a big turning point in why I thought this could be a movie after all was not just figuring out how the pool could harm them, but also what they could gain from it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ray soon becomes slightly obsessed with the pool and slowly begins to violently change. However, it was important for McGuire to initially show him as a genuinely good person: \u201cI think at the moment we meet him, Ray is a man who is trying to accept a life without baseball, move on and invest in being there as a father and a husband for his family,\u201d he explains. \u201cWhen he tells his wife, Eve, in the hospital that he wants that life, I felt it was important that he meant it. He is not Jack Torrance in The Shining<\/strong><\/em>, who is kind of a psycho from the very beginning, making you sense that he is unhealthy and deranged. I wanted Ray to be redeemable at the start of the story and actually mean what he said he wanted. But, without getting too much into it, that\u2019s going to be tested\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Ray gets tested…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ray is played by Wyatt Russell, who we can currently see playing a younger version of his real life dad, Kurt Russell, in Apple TV+\u2019s kaiju series, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWyatt Russell brought so much to the role!\u201d says McGuire. \u201cHe is a former professional athlete that played hockey in Canada and abroad who also had to walk away from it after getting hurt. He had sacrificed and given so much to the sport that he understood the psychology of someone who is struggling to let the adrenaline go and walk away. So, he brought real life experience and a perfect understanding of the character.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For Russell, the fact that Night Swim<\/strong><\/em> is a Blumhouse movie produced by two stalwarts of horror – Jason Blum and James Wan – is what initially drew him to the role: \u201cIf they are going to put their name on something, you know they are going to do everything they can to make it great,\u201d he explains. \u201cOn top of that, I thought it was a really good idea that I had never seen on screen before, which is hard to believe.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Playing beside Russell is \u200b\u200bKerry Condon, who plays Ray\u2019s wife Eve, who cites the pool itself as an appealing aspect which drew her to the movie: \u201cFor me, it was first about the water aspect of it because I am a good swimmer and I wanted to show my physicality,\u201d she nods. \u201cI love water in movies and I think filming in water is beautiful, so I wanted to be a part of that and learn more about it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI also liked the idea of an American role where I was playing an everywoman who is a mother that doesn\u2019t have a career but ultimately is the strongest of the two parents, the least selfish and the backbone of the family. It was an even-keeled character.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Eve has taken an administrative job in the local school while completing her degree in special education and who certainly shows her personal durability in the movie from humble beginnings: \u201cEve shows her strength in a real and simple way,\u201d Condon explains. \u201cShe is not a commander in the army, but a mother who lets her husband have a career while taking care of everything. I liked that because I felt it would resonate with regular people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA large part of her journey was about holding this family together when it was all about Ray\u2019s career,\u201d McGuire adds. \u201cAnd now you see her rising into the forefront of the story and being the one that really drives the family. Eve\u2019s character arch is important because you need her to be strong and I think that\u2019s what Kerry was most interested in.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Eve shows a real strength in the movie.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Eve works at the school where her children, Izzy and Elliot, attend. \u201cThe children were great!\u201d Condon says of her young co-stars. \u201cOne of the things that Jason Blum had said to me from the beginning\u2014as I was a little bit unsure if I was the right person for the role because I had never done horror before\u2014was to not worry and just play it real. I liked how my character grew closer to her daughter over the course of the movie and Am\u00e9lie Hoeferle was amazing in that role.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The last main character in the movie has to be the pool itself, and for McGuire, it was important for the movie to be shot in a real one: \u201cYou can\u2019t really fake that,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd once we found [the pool], it was almost like casting an actor because I could observe what strengths it had. I would constantly walk around it, stand on the diving board and swim in the pool to embrace everything about it\u2014the way a director works with actors to utilize everything in their tool kits.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI made the pool attractive yet simultaneously scary,\u201d he continues. \u201cSo, during the day it\u2019s more like a blue sky, but then at night it takes on a different color and a separate identity.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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The pool is a character of its own.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Indeed, the idealistic dreams of the Waller family in their new home soon turns into a nightmare as Ray becomes more addicted to what the pool offers and McGuire turned to those two horror filmmaking powerhouses when it came to those macabre elements of the story. \u201cIt was absolutely incredible to have Jason Blum and James Wan on this project!\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJames Wan is very hands on and involved in the creative process. I would bring my storyboards to his house, and we would bounce ideas back and forth. This way I got to see how the brain of a master horror filmmaker works, to the point where I felt I was getting 5 years of film school in one movie. So, he was on set watching the monitor with me, always being so collaborative and respectful because James just wants to help you make the best movie possible, and there are specific things in Night Swim<\/strong><\/em> that have his fingerprint on them. This whole thing happened because he loved the short film, so why wouldn\u2019t I want to have him in my corner helping me make the best possible movie? <\/span><\/p>\n

“And the same thing can be said about Jason, because if you have a problem and feel there is a mountain that can\u2019t be moved, he is the person that can move it. Night Swim<\/strong><\/em> would not exist without Jason Blum\u2019s support.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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The movie has two horror filmmaking legends behind it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As for the cast, though neither are known for the genre, they can see the positivity of working in the horror space: \u201cA filmmaker working in horror has a lot of room for creativity and a large canvas to paint on, which is why great directors have been found in this genre,\u201d explains Russell. \u201cAnd everybody wants to go and share that experience together. Sharing a fright knowing that it can\u2019t hurt you makes you feel alive. It\u2019s just great to cry, laugh or be scared in a room with strangers because you are sharing an emotion, and fear is one of the strongest. At the end of the day, you go to a theater to feel that emotion with other people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it has to do with the adrenaline that makes you feel alive, like when you ride a rollercoaster,\u201d adds Condon. \u201cIt\u2019s ingrained in human nature. Maybe it\u2019s just in us.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Night Swim is in cinemas now. Read our review here<\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n