Stephen King Calls Critically Despised Horror Movie on Streaming “Terrific, don’t believe the critics”
Chad Collins
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After I saw Imaginary, it finally clicked with me just how successfully Blumhouse works within the horror space. Their diverse slate won’t broadly appeal to every audience member every time, but with each release, they’ve narrowed it down to a targeted audience, guaranteeing a decent return and, in the best-case scenario, a new horror fan for life.
Or, maybe I’m just trying to convince myself that there must be some other reason I really liked Imaginary, one of the year’s most maligned horror releases. And maybe Stephen King is in the same space since, for the past two months, he’s continued to remind fans that he liked Blumhouse’s first horror release of the year, Night Swim.
Per Peacock: The producers of M3GAN high dive into the deep end of horror with the supernatural thriller, night swim. Wyatt Russell (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier) stars as a former major league baseball player, forced into early retirement by a degenerative illness, who moves into a new home with his wife (Oscar® nominee Kerry Condon) and their two children. The new home comes complete with a backyard swimming pool, but a deep secret surfaces and unleashes a malevolent force that will drag the family into the inescapable depths of terror.
Bryan McGuire’s release, adapted from his 2014 short film of the same name, made decent money against a low budget, but the critical reception was grim. It’s a bad augur for Atomic Monster and Blumhouse after their announced team-up, but at least Stephen King is on their side. Earlier this month, he tweeted that Night Swim was a “terrific suspense movie.”
This isn’t the first time Stephen King has shared his favorable thoughts about Night Swim. In our review, we said, “Night Swim is the cinematic equivalent of a belly flop: silly and fun to watch but the end is a bit painful.” Conversely, King compared it to early Spielberg.
More than anything, it illustrates that there’s really no such thing as a terrible horror movie. Somebody somewhere is going to love it. While Night Swim didn’t work for me—I’ve never seen a family so excited to have a pool in my life—I am glad to see McGuire’s feature debut land with someone.
What do you think? Do you agree with Stephen King? If you do, or you’re just curious, Night Swim is available to stream now on Peacock. If you check it out, share your thoughts with me on Twitter @Chadiscollins.
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