This film has the iconic "main character does a computer search for info on the monster, goes and visits an expert on the monster and has the expert do a massive exposition dump to explain the plot of the movie to us" trope
This kinda feels like a movie that 2 11 year olds would watch on a streaming service on a sleepover and they’re either too scared or too bored to watch anything else
And they either laugh it off and it becomes a core memory, or they are genuinely scared and quote this film 15 years later before watching it again and realise that... it was ass.
I’ve always been scared of night swims in my house’s old pool because there’s no major source of light other than the light of the moon and underwater you don’t see or hear anything but your movements and things 20 cm from you so it always made me think that if I stayed too long something would drag me and drown me This movie made me overcome that fear
I was one of the background actors in this movie, during the pool party scene (I was one of the dudes swimming in the pool with a squirt gun). We filmed a lot of chicken fighting with "Steroid Shrek" and there was supposed to be a whole montage of him and the kid on his shoulders beating everyone in the pool to lead up to the main dad and the baseball kid going in the pool. None of that made it into the final cut, which was probably for the best (there are already enough pointless scenes in the movie as is). In that same scene, when the dad pulled the kid under, the monsters were in the pool with us and they had everyone in the pool get out like we were afraid of what was happening (but we weren't actually "seeing" the monsters, just that the dad and kid was drowning). The shots of the monsters standing on the edge of the pool and being in the pool didn't even make it to the cut, but I guess they decided that having the scary magic pool water enter the dad was more important. The assistant director and the lead PA's made a huge announcement that if any of us background people were caught with a phone on set when the monsters were on for filming we'd immediately be kicked off and not brought back for the rest of filming because they wanted the monsters to be a big surprise in the movie, but then in the trailers they showed them off very blatantly. Made me chuckle a little bit. I heard from a few of the PA's that the assistant director was super aggro all the time and that they never wanted to work with him again. The director himself seemed like a pretty cool dude, but obviously as a background actor I never really interacted with any of the more "important" people on set. It was my first gig on a major film set and I had a pretty good time, the fact that the first movie I'm in was a real stinker makes me very happy. Very fun to be a part of.
A single haunted bulb could be more interesting than this. The ghost communicates with you using morse code. It has access to a lot of information that humans don't have which pushes the plot forward.
I’m gonna take a shot at this. Maybe the main character is afraid of the dark or something and has to overcome their fear in order to survive because the ghost can only be in places with light
I tried to think about the haunted light bulb premise and how would you turn it into a decent horror movie. The only ideas I could come up with were some psychological horrors where some smart kid would find the bulb and start observing the way it flicks on and off, eventually realizing it's actually binary code that needs deciphering. The first part of the movie would be about establishing the family dynamic and the tension between the parents, mainly from the kid's perspective. The light bulb's advices come to play when the kid tries to figure out ways to prevent the breakup from happening, and the very little things the bulb tasks the child to do and say actually seem to mend the situation in the house for better at first, giving a glint of hope that maybe they'll have a future as a family after all. Now as the stressfull atmosphere in the house is relieved, it's gradually replaced by the requests of the bulb getting more and more uncomfortable to carry out - but the previous actions the kid was guided to do build more pressure to carry out the ones that follow, until finally it all comes down with either the kid chickening out from carrying out something, or actually stepping across the line. This final decision having disastrous and far worse consequences to everyone involved than what the breakup would've brought. The kid is left with nothing but regrets, parents injured or worse, and the light-bulb either burnt out or stowed away. Meant as a reflective story of how adults can get so fixated on the small details of life that they forget what actually makes it meaningful, how sometimes kids can have a more mature and practical way of thinking than their parents, and how damaging it can be to grow up in a dissonant family where both parents love you, but don't love each other. The demonic light bulb also serves as an allegory to the machinations of a child's mind. Where adults tend to push negative things away, kinds tend to fully absorb them, and that way all those anxieties gets pushed from parents to kids when not handled properly (which is also why the tension shifts from family-matters to the relationship between the kid and the bulb). Adults don't have the time to always be bickering about every-day disagreements, but kids have all the time in the world to mull over what's said and done in the house and that can get dark pretty fast.
Similarly, I disagree with Charlie about this movie's concept. I think the very basic core idea of a haunted pool isn't such a bad idea. There's some good ideas even almost making it into a good form in this movie too. I like the POV shots when the POV is freestyling across the pool, periodically looking to the side for air. Those shots are actually really good, but they are wasted on the monsters in this film, which undercut the tension and fail to actually close the distance within the narrative. I think about Aquaslash, which is in a similarly goofy space, but manages to make its concept work, anyway. It may only have a single grand scary moment, but holy damn is that moment pretty catastrophic for the viewer! Something similar could very well have worked here, emphasizing the vulnerability of a person swimming in a pool at night. Emphasizing the voyeurism of watching someone swim at night through a camera (which we are as an audience) has tons of suspense potential. I'm kinda fond of arguably bad horror film. It's interesting to see people try and fail to do new things. This doesn't feel like that, though. This feels like someone cynically applying a "horror formula" to a very basic plot concept, running it through an AI for a script, and then passing it off to production, and I'm not saying it IS that or anything, just that it feels like that. It doesn't feel loved. It doesn't feel like it has something to say. It feels like it was made for a paycheck.
I had a dream where I was being haunted by a bobblehead. It could have been a good premise as a psychological horror, more than what I'm hearing about Night Swim
I had a dream where my sister and I came home from school and I was cooking ramen noodles when I saw my sister running to the closet and I asked, "What you're doing?" And she hush me and told me someone is outside our front door. And when I look at our front door, there was a girl with her back turn just eeriely standing there.
Now we need the sequel: Midnight snack. In London, a refrigerator is installed directly above a Druid sacrificial altar, and a family must deal with the demonic presence it brings.
Im really hoping Charles is aware that the lighbulb horror movie he made up is actually a legit movie called "Lights Out" where a possessed ghost lady haunts lights 😂😂😂😂 what a coincidence.
Can’t wait to pitch my idea for ‘Get Off My Lawn’, a movie about an angry old man who dies on his lawn and haunts any rambunctious kids who get too close to his grass
I remember a music video about four friends breaking into a public pool and mutating into visceral monsters and dying. That was infinitely more scary than what this movie’s premise sounds like.
There was a short in like "are you afraid of the dark" that was about an invisible monster in a pool. As a child it was a terrifying concept but that was also a short. It left me with a lifelong fear of swimming by myself in a pool because this invisible monster might be there and drown me for no reason. This movie would probably not even trigger that fear.
@@bec7080ESPECIALLY at night. I once had a nightmare where it was nighttime in my aunt’s house having a family party and I saw my cousins at the pool. I got to change and did a cannonball in the pool when suddenly after I floated up to surface I see my cousins were inside the house and I was alone in the pool in the dark. I tried getting out but I couldn’t until i got exhausted and started to drown with no one noticing.
A high school in my town opened up in the 1950. It had an indoor swimming pool and within the first year 3 kids drown in the pool. The school actually had the mascot of the ghosts. I’m not sure if the drowning it true but the school still has a ghost mascot with a mysterious origin story which is super cool. Would have made a better premise for a movie.
You know how horror movies of old have made us scared to go into dark woods? Well this movie does the absolute complete opposite. It made me *WANT* to go on a night swim 6k likes? Light work🥵
That's because movies like Friday the 13th, Halloween II, A Nightmare on Elm Street, etc. were shot in believable settings with relatively low budgets whereas modern horror films have over the top special effects that are supposed to produce jump scares at every turn but actually make what you're watching seem preternatural.
Saw a trailer for this in the cinema with my family and as soon as we saw “from the director of the nun” we just burst out laughing the shit was so ridiculous
There is a _really_ cool short story by Robert McCammon called...I think it's just called "The Pool" about a pool that's kinda/sorta "haunted." In reality, the pool is home to a transparent alien jellyfish that periodically feeds on people. However, in most cases, it doesn't kill the people--it just takes some blood and it's good to go. But then it kills a fella's little son and he goes on the hunt for it. It's awesome...if you can track it down.
I wish Cr1tikal wasn't so hesitant to say spoilers, a lot of people really wanna hear all his opinions on a movie And for a genuinely bad movie or game is the best case for him to get into spoilers
@@user-cw3wm9lx7w It's a spirit, usually a woman, who tries to lure men into deep water so they can pull them under and drown them. Kinda similar to a siren
The scariest/saddest story about a pool is where a lady got stuck in a public pool and drown - the only person that knew was a little kid who told a lifeguard (who blew him off and said they were on break) and because they never cleaned their pool and no one knew the woman had gone to the pool that day ... the woman's body stayed in the pool for several seasons and no one knew.
I dunno how the writers/producers couldn't make the idea of a pool scary but there have been countless examples of the concept working. There's an Are You Afraid of the Dark? episode that involved a haunted pool (with a terrifying as fuck ghost to boot) and I dunno how many entries on the SCP website have used pools as a story device.
Literally a pool is a really good place to make a lot of terrifying stories, with or without monsters, and they decided to make it on the easier way thinking "we just want money lmao"
One of the biggest things to escape SCP was about a messed up body of water. I mean, I'm pretty sure that you do not recognise the bodies in the water...
@@blackosprey2219242 is a pool that turns anything that goes into it into sterile water. That would be s good concept for a horror movie There's also SCP 354, a lake in canada made of blood that monsters periodically emerge from
Honestly I unironically like the idea that really weird and bad ideas can be turned into horror movies. It sounds like this movie was to serious for it’s own good though.
That's the problem with most modern horror movies. They put little to no effort into making the movie with the cheapest possible budget. And because they're made as cheaply as they are, it's almost impossible for them to lose money because they didn't spend any money. We need filmmakers who actually give a crap about horror movies to make them instead of...Whatever Blumhouse is.
If it was marketed as a horror parody and was just a fun little spoof on supernatural horror movies then I could accept that but no they wanted you to take this piece of shit seriously
Imagine if instead of being haunted by a random spirit, the ghost tells them of the spring's powers and the family members have to sacrifice people around town, giving up their morals and their sanity in exchange for their father's health?
It sounds like it could have been mildly more interesting if the son nearly died immediately after the father wished to cure his back pain but is saved, and then the rest of the movie would be about how he knows that the pool still longs for his sacrifice and him considering if he should do it
I work as a server at a movie theater, and someone had a panic attack bc they have a fear of being dragged underwater. Never thought I would hear anyone get scared over scary pool 🤷♂️
it’s funny charlie said the bit about a haunted lightbulb being more boring when that was an actual story point in parasite and it was fucking amazing😭
@@portalbuilder7021 The movie. It's not actually haunted but I can't elaborate without spoiling anything. Anyone who hasn't already seen it should go watch it. It's actually a great movie
I've seen dumber horror movies. I've seen horror movies with a killer couch, drone, donuts, and now a pool. This one I can at least say was alright. One scene I did like was where the mom goes to ask for help on how to beat the pool. Where we would usually get the person with experience with what our characters are dealing with tries to help, but instead, the lady just says, "Let the pool do its job and take your kid away." I liked that twist, but yeah, it would've been better if that twist was in a better horror movie.
@@ewet8Holy shit. I forgot about that one. Isn't there also one that's about one of those fish can live wiggle around on land that's about the size of an 8½ shoe?
a better concept for this would be that some nights when you're in the pool preferably alone you start to see visions of dead people in the pool with you but you don't know they're dead, they just look like normal people. you start out kind of scared first seeing them but then they act friendly, any time you tell someone else they can never see it. the dead person/people in the pool start to be more friendly with you and like coax you into a trance like thing where you always want to be in the pool - the more time you spend in the pool you lose more of yourself and become one of them. then when it finally gets you and you're fully one of them, you take your friends/family swimming and kill them but the whole time you were seeing them as demons or something but you actually killed them. then you off yourself and you appear to the next person. no solution, no positive ending, the cycle never ends
Honestly I started trembling and frothing incessantly when you described the stair light horror idea, I had to change my underwear twice within the time you suggested it
shocked he didnt mention when the dad was possessed he chases the daughter, pops up and (i think) supposed to be scary, says "YOURE SUPPOSED TO SAY POLO" 😭😂
The concept reminds me of a story about Bowie when he was living in LA and was really into coke and the occult. His wife at the time said she returned to find him trying a exorcism on the indoor pool because he had seen an image of the devil on the pool floor or something to that effect.
“Mooooom, can we watch Lady in the Water?” “What? Why? That movie was awful. Besides, we have a horror mystery about a pool at home.” The horror mystery about a pool at home:
I saw the trailer for nightswim when I went to a screening of five nights at Freddy's and the first thing that came to my mind and out of my mouth was " they stole this s*** from courage, the cowardly dog" the entire theater laughed. And when I saw nightswim a couple days ago I thought holy hell they really did take this from courage The cowardly dog and made it worse
@@jordsterroasometimes youtube won't let you type it without 58 pls edit this messages, and if you don't there's a good chance you'll get banned from commenting
It would be cool if the genre changed from horror to fantasy. The "ghost" could be a spirit or guardian of the pool that used to be a magical spring. And if the father was likeable, if the pool started to heal him but the family is seeing the spirit and feeling conflicted about staying or not because they dont know the true intentions of the spirit, yet the dad is getting better. That would at least be a little better of a story
Honestly, the idea of a haunted pool sounds like a neat idea for an SCP. A few interesting ideas could come outta that depending on one's level of creativity. For example. Subjects who go in the pool are judged by whatever entity possesses it and if you're guilty you could die in a multitude of ways, and if you're innocent you're just left alone to swim in the pool... and perhaps given some divine gift without knowing [ie. cured of illness (terminal or otherwise), gain back some youth, etc etc]. I dunno something like that, you could do anything with that simple idea. Like cmon man.
@@LunarJaguarJust read up on it. That's actually really cool, and just proves my point further. That's the kinda creepy horror stakes this movie coulda had given a simple premise.
I haven't personally read any that focused on an anomalous pool, but I've read several that use pools to unnerving effect. This Thing a Quiet Madness Made had a number of unnerving events in a high school, including voices coming from under the pool and hallucinations of a twitchy humanoid at its bottom.
Tbh 'a haunted pool' with a monster could've been an ok thing if they went more for the Swamp Creature or The Ring approach, where the monster crawls out of the pool and just haunts the family trying to kill them. Make it kinda like a parody a'la Scary Movie, or a Scooby Doo type of thing and make it self indulgent. Like the movie KNOWS whart kind of movie it is and it's a fun ride.
This is why Short films shouldn't be turned into movies. There's bot much you can do with there concepts so it'll be pretty hard to make a full feature length film
Honestly, a haunted pool could work if the pool was actually a portal to an underwater lovecraftian hell. The ocean is pretty terrifying, and if the pool could take advantage of that it could be interesting.
"Isn't it interesting how we evolved from water yet there is something deep inside of us that makes us afraid to go back. Maybe that's ehy we are so obsessed with taming water."
There’s actually a really awesome short film on RU-vid called “Deep End” that has the exact same premise but executes it way more effectively, since it’s only about 5 minutes long.
I remember seeing a trailer for this while waiting for the FNAF movie to start, and I couldn’t help but just laugh loudly at watching it in the theater while everyone else was silent.
From the studio that brought you night swim, now brings you ping pong poltergeist. (Deep voice) its all fun and games until someone gets hurt. This action packed horror thriller will have you bouncing back and forth in fear. It might be your turn to serve but it's far to late to find out whose your new master!
There's actually an scp that's based not in a lightbulb, but a star shaped night light. From my bad memory, I think it was something like this: when turned on, it messed up with peoples dreams, extorting them to turn the light off. When turned off, some awful spectral shit would happen. It was mandatory that the light was on all the time.
Honestly i can see the haunted pool thing work as like, a one or two day short film, have a family move in, everyones excited and host a party, and some guy goes schizophrenic and kills everyone. In reality the pool might of possessed him or he just had a psychotic break down. Could be a fun murder porn/comedy type b-film.
