‘Horror is a little harder than it looks’
◆ As supernatural thriller Night Swim lands in cinemas, Jessica Rawnsley chats to stars Wyatt Russell and Kerry Condon to find out more
Have you got a fear of the deep dark depths of the ocean? How about a swimming pool?
Supernatural thriller, Night Swim, dives into the deep end of these fears, transforming idyllic suburban life, pool parties and games of Marco Polo into terrifying demonic carnage.
The film centres around the Waller family as they move into a new home with an abandoned swimming pool.
The father, Ray, a former major league baseball player forced into early retirement after being stricken with multiple sclerosis, harbours a secret hope that the physical therapy the pool can provide will set him on his way to returning to baseball.
But there is something lurking in its depths.
And while the pool initially appears to bestow surprising healing properties, the Waller family discover there is a malevolent force that inhabits it and will seek terrifying retributions. Fusing rational fears of water with jaw-clenching horror, it is a bone-shattering ride.
“I love in a horror when you take a very benign object and make it into something that can be the source of evil,” says Marvel star Wyatt Russell, the son of Hollywood royalty Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, who plays Ray.
“It’s the source of all of a family’s fun; it can be the source of all a family’s nightmare. So I loved playing into that. I loved trying to make the pool great, and I loved trying to make the pool scary and I loved all the in between.”
Ray’s wife, Eve, is played by The Banshee Of Inisherin’s Kerry Condon, while their daughter, Izzy, is played by The Hunger Games’ Amelie Hoeferle and their young son, Elliot, by Fear The Walking Dead’s Gavin Warren.
“I thought it was a very original idea,” says 40-yearold Condon. “And it was something that could work in many ways because it hadn’t been done.”
Co-written and directed by Bryce Mcguire and based on his acclaimed short film of the same name, supernatural elements are interlaced with realistic family dynamics as we witness the slow unravelling of the Waller family.
“It’s not interesting without the grounded reality of a family,” says Russell, 37. “If you don’t believe the family is a family, then you don’t care what happens in the pool. The pool can eat all of them and you’ll be like, ‘Great I don’t care, what’s on next?’ And that holds true for everything you watch, no matter whether it’s a drama about a family or a comedy about a family, you have to care about them. That’s paramount.”
Condon was drawn to the script due to its rooting in realism. “I think if it was a full on horror I wouldn’t have done it because I’d be like, ‘I don’t think I’m going to be good at this.’ I only know how to play real so this was kind of like a baby step thriller. But at the same time, it was quite hard to do – horror is a little harder than it looks, that was one of the things I learnt about it.
“I liked that their relationship wasn’t perfect,” she continues, “that they were in love but you could tell that he was self-engrossed and so she had a lonely life where he was always put first.”
In many ways, Eve is the story’s heroine. “She’s a physically strong woman,” says Condon, “but I really liked that it was just an everywoman, because I feel like heroes are always these amazing people and it’s like well, sometimes a hero is just a regular person who takes care of their kids and doesn’t have a career. And they are amazing. And they are super strong when it comes down to it. Maybe stronger than an athlete.”
The film’s premise resonated with Russell on a personal level. His former career as a professional ice hockey player – starting competitively in the sport at just four years old – was cut short by a series of injuries. Breaking his hip, and suffering multiple bouts of concussion and hospitalisation, in 2010 he decided to turn his back on the sport and pursue acting instead.
“I had been through getting a sport taken away from me for different reasons,” he explains. “Ray has this ailment, MS, that causes inability to play sports, to play baseball. And it’s a very unique process going through that. For any athlete it’s hard, no matter where you are in your career.
“And so it was fun to be able to talk to Bryce about that and be almost like a technical adviser in a way, because it is rare and I have done it. And it was a perfect story to portray, this character that I had kind of been in a past life.”
Condon is not alien to sports herself, having taken part in swimming competitions as a child – something that came in handy for the extensive filming done in the pool.
“As a child, I was really good at swimming and that’s kind of why I did the movie too,” she says. “I knew I would be good at underwater stuff and could show a physicality. We had to learn a bit about holding our breath underwater but all the takes were not a crazy amount of time – I didn’t have to hold it for five minutes or anything major, but I did have to be confident and game to do it for a week straight.”
Russell and Condon disagreed on the temperature of the pool, however.
“He wanted the water really warm,” says Condon. “It was disgustingly warm.”
“It is so much better when it’s roasting,” Russell retorts. “She has a weird coldblooded thing where she wanted it to be like 57 degrees and everybody getting pneumonia.”
Night Swim is out now in UK cinemas