Amélie Hoeferle, Gavin Warren, Nancy Lenehan, Wyatt Russell, and Kerry Condon in ‘Night Swim’ (Photo © 2023 Universal Studios)
January is here. That’s the time when studios will traditionally and unceremoniously dump movies in which they don’t have a lot of confidence. That usually includes a lot of horror movies. But last year, January gave us such well-received offerings as M3GAN, Knock at the Cabin, and Skinamarink. So, what does this January have in store for us? We shall see. First up – the new Blumhouse Studios movie Night Swim.
Night Swim is about a former baseball player named Ray Waller (Overlord’s Wyatt Russell) who is suffering from Multiple Sclerosis. Along with his wife Eve (Kerry Condon from The Banshees of Inisherin) and kids Izzy (Amélie Hoeferle from The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes) and Elliot (Fear the Walking Dead’s Gavin Warren), he seems to find...
January is here. That’s the time when studios will traditionally and unceremoniously dump movies in which they don’t have a lot of confidence. That usually includes a lot of horror movies. But last year, January gave us such well-received offerings as M3GAN, Knock at the Cabin, and Skinamarink. So, what does this January have in store for us? We shall see. First up – the new Blumhouse Studios movie Night Swim.
Night Swim is about a former baseball player named Ray Waller (Overlord’s Wyatt Russell) who is suffering from Multiple Sclerosis. Along with his wife Eve (Kerry Condon from The Banshees of Inisherin) and kids Izzy (Amélie Hoeferle from The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes) and Elliot (Fear the Walking Dead’s Gavin Warren), he seems to find...
- 1/4/2024
- by James Jay Edwards
- Showbiz Junkies
Expanding a horror short to feature length is tricky work, particularly when the short in question gets straight to the scares. Writer/Director Bryce McGuire’s 2014 short Night Swim, a collaboration with Rod Blackhurst, cut straight to the horror to exploit everyone’s worst fears about swimming pools. Almost a full decade later, McGuire’s feature expansion showcases more ways to mine terror from the aquatic concept, buoyed by a great cast, but a familiar formula and simplified mythology threaten to sink it all.
After a cold open demonstrates the dangers of the film’s haunted location, a seemingly benign anywhere America backyard pool, Night Swim introduces the ill-fated family destined to discover the supernatural treachery awaiting them. The Waller family are at the beginning of a new chapter in their lives; a recent degenerative illness diagnosis cut a professional baseball career short for dad Ray Waller (Wyatt Russell). As...
After a cold open demonstrates the dangers of the film’s haunted location, a seemingly benign anywhere America backyard pool, Night Swim introduces the ill-fated family destined to discover the supernatural treachery awaiting them. The Waller family are at the beginning of a new chapter in their lives; a recent degenerative illness diagnosis cut a professional baseball career short for dad Ray Waller (Wyatt Russell). As...
- 1/4/2024
- by Meagan Navarro
- bloody-disgusting.com
This week brings the arrival of Night Swim, a high concept horror feature from writer/director Bryce McGuire that centers around a haunted swimming pool with murky, supernatural depths. Night Swim arrives in theaters on January 5, 2024, and the film employed as many practical effects as possible to submerge viewers into its aquatic nightmare realm.
Based on the acclaimed 2014 short film by Rod Blackhurst and Bryce McGuire, the film stars Wyatt Russell (Overlord, “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters”) and Oscar® nominee Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin) as a couple looking for a fresh start in a new home in the wake of a newly diagnosed illness. For their family, the home and its large backyard swimming pool offer the chance for recovery and togetherness. If only the pool didn’t harbor a sinister secret.
McGuire recently shared with Bloody Disgusting how he wanted to approach Night Swim as practically as possible.
Based on the acclaimed 2014 short film by Rod Blackhurst and Bryce McGuire, the film stars Wyatt Russell (Overlord, “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters”) and Oscar® nominee Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin) as a couple looking for a fresh start in a new home in the wake of a newly diagnosed illness. For their family, the home and its large backyard swimming pool offer the chance for recovery and togetherness. If only the pool didn’t harbor a sinister secret.
McGuire recently shared with Bloody Disgusting how he wanted to approach Night Swim as practically as possible.
- 1/4/2024
- by Meagan Navarro
- bloody-disgusting.com
Killer Collectibles highlights five of the most exciting new horror products announced each and every week, from toys and apparel to artwork, records, and much more.
Here are the coolest horror collectibles unveiled this week!
Halloween Print from Jason Edmiston
For those who can’t make it Pasadena for this weekend’s Halloween: 45 Years of Terror convention, Jason Edmiston is bringing some of the celebration to you. The artist’s Halloween 36×24 timed edition screen print is available online for $75 until Monday, October 2, at 12pm Est.
No One Will Save You Vinyl Soundtrack from Waxwork Records
Everyone from Stephen King to Guillermo del Toro has been praising Brian Duffield’s No One Will Save You since it debuted on Hulu last week. Now the film’s original soundtrack is invading vinyl from Waxwork Records.
Composed by Joseph Trapanese, the score is pressed on 180-gram “Invasion” (midnight blue and white swirl) colored vinyl.
Here are the coolest horror collectibles unveiled this week!
Halloween Print from Jason Edmiston
For those who can’t make it Pasadena for this weekend’s Halloween: 45 Years of Terror convention, Jason Edmiston is bringing some of the celebration to you. The artist’s Halloween 36×24 timed edition screen print is available online for $75 until Monday, October 2, at 12pm Est.
No One Will Save You Vinyl Soundtrack from Waxwork Records
Everyone from Stephen King to Guillermo del Toro has been praising Brian Duffield’s No One Will Save You since it debuted on Hulu last week. Now the film’s original soundtrack is invading vinyl from Waxwork Records.
Composed by Joseph Trapanese, the score is pressed on 180-gram “Invasion” (midnight blue and white swirl) colored vinyl.
- 9/29/2023
- by Alex DiVincenzo
- bloody-disgusting.com
Although the new horror film Smile may scare some away with its seemingly obvious debt owed to the “slasher” films of the past, it is rather a complex and well-crafted horror film that perhaps signals the arrival of a fresh new voice in the genre.
Immediately following an incident with her patient – Laura Weaver (Caitlin Stasey) — Dr. Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) begins suffering from the same bizarre symptoms that Laura had described to her. As the inevitability of her situation begins to crystalize, Dr. Cotter finds herself on a path forcing her to overcome the demons of her past to survive until tomorrow.
Working from his own script, first-time feature director Parker Finn delivers a taught, quick-paced, and well-written supernatural thriller that entertains and keeps the audience engaged until the bitter end. The filmmaker’s approach to the otherworldly aspects of his story allows them to be far more grounded...
Immediately following an incident with her patient – Laura Weaver (Caitlin Stasey) — Dr. Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) begins suffering from the same bizarre symptoms that Laura had described to her. As the inevitability of her situation begins to crystalize, Dr. Cotter finds herself on a path forcing her to overcome the demons of her past to survive until tomorrow.
Working from his own script, first-time feature director Parker Finn delivers a taught, quick-paced, and well-written supernatural thriller that entertains and keeps the audience engaged until the bitter end. The filmmaker’s approach to the otherworldly aspects of his story allows them to be far more grounded...
- 9/30/2022
- by Mike Tyrkus
- CinemaNerdz
From Gwynplaine’s disfigured visage in 1928’s The Man Who Laughs to Jack Torrance’s hideous grin in The Shining, and even more recently Pennywise’s leering grimace in It, the smile has played a longstanding and often terrifying role in horror cinema. So why not make a whole movie based around that stretching of the facial muscles, which can become a death’s-head rictus just as easily as an expression of happiness?
Writer/director Parker Finn seems to have hit upon that very notion with his feature film debut, Smile, which is an expansion of Finn’s 2020 short film, “Laura Hasn’t Slept.” The result is a movie that sustains a remarkably unnerving aura of dread and claustrophobia throughout its nearly two-hour running time and provides some genuinely terrifying sequences, even if it pads itself with a number of jump scares and borrows liberally from several other significant horror outings.
Writer/director Parker Finn seems to have hit upon that very notion with his feature film debut, Smile, which is an expansion of Finn’s 2020 short film, “Laura Hasn’t Slept.” The result is a movie that sustains a remarkably unnerving aura of dread and claustrophobia throughout its nearly two-hour running time and provides some genuinely terrifying sequences, even if it pads itself with a number of jump scares and borrows liberally from several other significant horror outings.
- 9/29/2022
- by Don Kaye
- Den of Geek
Click here to read the full article.
Parker Finn’s disquieting debut Smile transforms a congenial gesture into a threat. Smiles — warm and inviting by nature — mask deeper, more troubling intentions in this harrowing film about a demonic spirit that latches on to its victims’ traumas. The adage about grinning through hard times here takes on a sinister tone.
Dr. Rose Cutter (Sosie Bacon), an affable clinical psychiatrist, doesn’t know any of this when she meets Laura Weaver (Caitlin Stasey), a graduate student who recently witnessed a gruesome suicide. The two convene in an examination room of the oddly homey ER psychiatric wing. (The hallway walls are painted a bubble-gum pink; the exam room has blue and yellow accents.) When they sit down to speak, Laura hurriedly recounts how her professor bludgeoned himself to death in front of her, the haunting smiles she sees on the faces of strangers and loved ones,...
Parker Finn’s disquieting debut Smile transforms a congenial gesture into a threat. Smiles — warm and inviting by nature — mask deeper, more troubling intentions in this harrowing film about a demonic spirit that latches on to its victims’ traumas. The adage about grinning through hard times here takes on a sinister tone.
Dr. Rose Cutter (Sosie Bacon), an affable clinical psychiatrist, doesn’t know any of this when she meets Laura Weaver (Caitlin Stasey), a graduate student who recently witnessed a gruesome suicide. The two convene in an examination room of the oddly homey ER psychiatric wing. (The hallway walls are painted a bubble-gum pink; the exam room has blue and yellow accents.) When they sit down to speak, Laura hurriedly recounts how her professor bludgeoned himself to death in front of her, the haunting smiles she sees on the faces of strangers and loved ones,...
- 9/28/2022
- by Lovia Gyarkye
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Lots of horror movies are about trauma. Some attempt to inflict it, but few explore and exploit it as thrillingly as Parker Finn’s feature directorial debut “Smile.” It’s not just smart, it’s not just skillful: It makes you unconsciously plead out loud in the theater for the characters to not do that, not to go in there, and just generally not, for the love of god. Even a hardened horror fan can easily get swept up in the the film’s tension.
“Smile” stars Sosie Bacon (“Mare of Easttown”) as Rose Cotter, a therapist working at a hospital that treats people in severe emotional distress. She’s been running herself ragged for weeks, barely sleeping, when her newest patient arrives. It’s a young woman who watched a man brutally bludgeon himself to death one week prior, and she says she’s seeing a mysterious entity smiling at her wherever she goes.
“Smile” stars Sosie Bacon (“Mare of Easttown”) as Rose Cotter, a therapist working at a hospital that treats people in severe emotional distress. She’s been running herself ragged for weeks, barely sleeping, when her newest patient arrives. It’s a young woman who watched a man brutally bludgeon himself to death one week prior, and she says she’s seeing a mysterious entity smiling at her wherever she goes.
- 9/28/2022
- by William Bibbiani
- The Wrap
Many corners of popular culture, from talk show “Desus & Mero” to sitcom revival “One Day at a Time” to sweatshirts on Instagram, have been putting forward a very positive message about mental health, championing therapy while also destigmatizing anxiety. That spirit of supportiveness suffuses “Pink Skies Ahead,” a coming-of-age tale of a young writer who learns to let go of her anxiety over having anxiety. (The film has been acquired by MTV Studios for worldwide release following its premiere at AFI 2020.)
It’s not necessarily breaking new ground, nor does it stretch the boundaries of the genre in the way films like “Diary of a Teenage Girl” or “Ghost World” have. But the heartfelt, autobiographical elements in writer-director Kelly Oxford’s storytelling, coupled with an appealing and empathetic performance by Jessica Barden (“The End of the F***ing World”), provide a real understanding of mental health that so often escapes...
It’s not necessarily breaking new ground, nor does it stretch the boundaries of the genre in the way films like “Diary of a Teenage Girl” or “Ghost World” have. But the heartfelt, autobiographical elements in writer-director Kelly Oxford’s storytelling, coupled with an appealing and empathetic performance by Jessica Barden (“The End of the F***ing World”), provide a real understanding of mental health that so often escapes...
- 10/19/2020
- by Alonso Duralde
- The Wrap
Often the scariest things and the darkest spirits live within our own house, closer than we think. Japanese Australian female director Natalie Erika James co-wrote the script of her debut feature “Relic” with Christian White, embracing the horror genre to talk about mortality and slipping away love. “Relic” is a new addition to what has been defined a Female Horror Renaissance and was premiered at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in January 2020.
“Relic” is screening at the BFI London Film Festival
Elderly Edna (Robyn Nevin) lives on her own in an isolated and decaying family house in the countryside outside Melbourne. The matriarch of a family now reduced to only her daughter Kay (Emily Mortimer) and granddaughter Sam (Bella Heathcote), One day Edna is reported missing by a worried neighbour who has not seen her for a while. Kay and Sam immediately drive up to the house, only to find it eerily empty.
“Relic” is screening at the BFI London Film Festival
Elderly Edna (Robyn Nevin) lives on her own in an isolated and decaying family house in the countryside outside Melbourne. The matriarch of a family now reduced to only her daughter Kay (Emily Mortimer) and granddaughter Sam (Bella Heathcote), One day Edna is reported missing by a worried neighbour who has not seen her for a while. Kay and Sam immediately drive up to the house, only to find it eerily empty.
- 10/14/2020
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
Stars: Emily Mortimer, Robyn Nevin, Bella Heathcote, Chris Bunton, Jeremy Stanford, Steve Rodgers | Written by Natalie Erika James, Christian White | Directed by Natalie Erika James
Co-written and directed by debut filmmaker Natalie Erika James, Relic is a creepy and disturbing horror that taps into some all-too familiar fears. It’s also superbly acted and features production design work that will have you scrubbing your house clean for days afterwards.
Set in a remote woodland, Relic centres on Kay (Emily Mortimer), who drives up from Melbourne with her college-age daughter Sam (Bella Heathcote) in tow when the police call to tell her that her elderly mother Edna (Robyn Nevin) hasn’t been seen for a few days. Other than some nasty-looking mould, nothing seems particularly unusual in the house, but Edna is nowhere to be found.
Kay duly alerts the authorities, only for Edna to turn up a few days later out ot the blue,...
Co-written and directed by debut filmmaker Natalie Erika James, Relic is a creepy and disturbing horror that taps into some all-too familiar fears. It’s also superbly acted and features production design work that will have you scrubbing your house clean for days afterwards.
Set in a remote woodland, Relic centres on Kay (Emily Mortimer), who drives up from Melbourne with her college-age daughter Sam (Bella Heathcote) in tow when the police call to tell her that her elderly mother Edna (Robyn Nevin) hasn’t been seen for a few days. Other than some nasty-looking mould, nothing seems particularly unusual in the house, but Edna is nowhere to be found.
Kay duly alerts the authorities, only for Edna to turn up a few days later out ot the blue,...
- 9/4/2020
- by Matthew Turner
- Nerdly
Losing a loved one is tough enough, but losing them to Alzheimer’s disease is a brutal, harrowing, and truly heartbreaking experience. Family and friends watch as the person they knew slowly fades away, their memories, physical abilities, and even sense of self vanishing like smoke drifting upward from a waning fire. By the time death comes to claim the shell of the person you once knew, its arrival is almost a blessing.
The horror film at its best allows us to experience our deepest real-life fears in metaphorical terms, which is what the excellent Relic does with specificity, empathy, and atmosphere to spare. Emily Mortimer plays Kay, a workaholic single mom who gets a call from the police that her elderly mother Edna is missing from her home in the Australian countryside. When Kay and her daughter Sam (Bella Heathcote) drive out from Melbourne to the house, Edna (Robyn Nevin...
The horror film at its best allows us to experience our deepest real-life fears in metaphorical terms, which is what the excellent Relic does with specificity, empathy, and atmosphere to spare. Emily Mortimer plays Kay, a workaholic single mom who gets a call from the police that her elderly mother Edna is missing from her home in the Australian countryside. When Kay and her daughter Sam (Bella Heathcote) drive out from Melbourne to the house, Edna (Robyn Nevin...
- 7/9/2020
- by Don Kaye
- Den of Geek
It’s the kind of disease that afflicts one family member and digs its tentacles into those who try to manage it. Relic marks an auspicious debut for Japanese-Australian director Natalie Erika James, who wants her slow-building thriller to seep into your bones rather than pound you with cheap scares. Still, things truly do go bump in the night in the woodsy house outside Melbourne occupied by eightysomething Edna, played by Aussie theater legend Robyn Nevin. No sooner does Charlie Sarroff’s prowling camera find the naked Edna in an...
- 7/8/2020
- by Peter Travers
- Rollingstone.com
Elevated horror is all the rage these days. The genre goes through phases, to put it mildly. There’s always a new flavor for what audiences want to be scared by, whether it was slasher films, torture porn, J horror, or whatnot. Currently, the renaissance is in classy independent fright flicks. Some are absolutely tremendous and downright award worth. Others, while solid indie offerings, don’t quite live up to the hype. The latest effort on the scene, riding high on phenomenal reviews back in January at the Sundance Film Festival, is Relic. Does this one live up to the hype? Well, not quite, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t still very effective. Heading to On Demand services this week, it’s horror that undoubtedly also has something to say. The movie is a horror effort, of course, though less overtly concerned with scares than you might initially expect.
- 7/7/2020
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
The possessed mom movie is having a moment right now. Between The Babadook, Hereditary and Us, the premise has evolved from a log line – mom must protect her kids from a demon – into its own sub-genre. The latest entry, Relic, is a distinct, visceral experience and a grim reminder that mother and child must eventually grow apart.
Natalie Erika Jame’s ability to notch up that dread – with a creaky floorboard, the movement of a shadow – is all the more impressive given that it takes awhile to warm up to the two heroines. You first meet Kay (Emily Mortimer) and her daughter Sam (Bella Heathcote) en route to the Australian woods. There, they hope to spend quality time with Kay’s mother, Edna (Robyn Nevin), who is living alone in a two story cottage. The catch: Edna isn’t there. The house is empty.
Kay and Sam decide to stick around anyways,...
Natalie Erika Jame’s ability to notch up that dread – with a creaky floorboard, the movement of a shadow – is all the more impressive given that it takes awhile to warm up to the two heroines. You first meet Kay (Emily Mortimer) and her daughter Sam (Bella Heathcote) en route to the Australian woods. There, they hope to spend quality time with Kay’s mother, Edna (Robyn Nevin), who is living alone in a two story cottage. The catch: Edna isn’t there. The house is empty.
Kay and Sam decide to stick around anyways,...
- 7/2/2020
- by Asher Luberto
- We Got This Covered
The horror, in Japanese Australian first-timer Natalie Erika James’ “Relic” manifests in many ways. There are frightening dreams that are both portents of things to come and deeply buried memories of traumas past. There is plaster infested with creeping black mold and a scrabbling noise in the brickwork. There are bruises that blossom like rot across breastbones and strips of skin that shear away from flesh the texture of beef jerky beneath. But in many ways the movie’s simplest conceit is its most chilling and gives rise to its most impressively scarifying filmmaking: A house can be a direct metaphor for the mind of its inhabitant. So when that inhabitant is slowly losing herself to dementia, the house begins to collapse in on itself, a labyrinth of dead ends, foreshortened impossible geometries and doorways that turn into solid walls behind your back. If growing up is often portrayed as...
- 2/6/2020
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
The devastation of dementia is translated into a haunted house horror film in Natalie Erika James’ Relic. It follows Edna (Robyn Nevin) after she mysteriously disappears from her home, causing her daughter and granddaughter great worry. She eventually returns without an idea of where she was, and it appears that something sinister follower her back. Dp Charlie Sarroff talks about the inspirations for the visual style of Relic and the equipment that made it happen. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being […]...
- 1/25/2020
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
The devastation of dementia is translated into a haunted house horror film in Natalie Erika James’ Relic. It follows Edna (Robyn Nevin) after she mysteriously disappears from her home, causing her daughter and granddaughter great worry. She eventually returns without an idea of where she was, and it appears that something sinister follower her back. Dp Charlie Sarroff talks about the inspirations for the visual style of Relic and the equipment that made it happen. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being […]...
- 1/25/2020
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
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