Stay out of the deep end, they say. But if your swimming pool seems haunted, maybe avoid it altogether. The principal characters in Night Swim foolishly ignore these words of wisdom — as horror movie characters are wont to do — while their backyard source of entertainment ultimately wreaks havoc on their well-being. It’s an exciting new Blumhouse-Atomic Monster collaboration from Universal Pictures, hitting theaters this week that will surely tickle the fancies of horror fanatics everywhere.

Directed by Bryce McGuire, who had also co-helmed the original short film, with the lead roles played by Kerry Condon and Wyatt Russell, the new horror feature has all the makings of a first-rate Blumhouse scary movie. We recently caught up with Blumhouse executive Ryan Turek, who served as one of the film’s EPs, to learn more about once again collaborating with James Wan’s company on this brand-new feature, which certainly will haunt pool owners and goers everywhere.

How to Shoot a Scary Movie Underwater

Much like some of the great cult classics out there, Night Swim is a feature that first existed as a smaller endeavor. “It was a project that was brought to us. We have a pretty great relationship with James Wan’s Atomic Monster,” Turek told MovieWeb. “It began as a short; they had acquired it, they did development on it. And so they brought it to us as a feature script. And reading it is just like, the philosophy’s just all alive… It just felt much like M3GAN. It just felt like one of those great collaborations.”

As also evidenced by past blockbusters like Avatar: The Way of Water, the world beneath the surface certainly serves as a unique setting for a feature film. “I was excited about the challenge of telling the scary movie underwater,” said Turek. “Growing up, seeing tons of movies, Jaws, Leviathan, Deep Star, Six, The Abyss, even Elements, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, I was excited by the opportunity to kind of problem solve, how to execute what was on the page. Bryce had talked about these kind of transitional elements of when they dive into the water and go deeper into the dark water, how do we see that, and how do we execute that?”

Turek continued to discuss how they brought the submerged tale to life on a technical level:

“We had our camera crew and stunt team all in scuba gear. And it was a little mix of shooting in a practical pool in someone’s backyard here in town, and shooting in a tank that we discovered. And then figuring out those kind of creative transition points, and then talking to our VFX team about how to darken the water as they’re going deeper down. That was very key. And then obviously, what we were super excited about was the kind of terrifying aspect of swimming too deep, and looking up and seeing how far away the surface of the pool was. There’s nothing more terrifying… This movie taps into all of that — in addition to, we get to play with some really fun haunted-house tropes, and kind of twist them for a more aquatic scare… Bryce really maximized every element of that pool.”

Since such a terrifying little universe is set up here, one has to wonder if a sequel, spinoff, or even a prequel to Night Swim may come to fruition. “You never know,” said Turek. “It really depends on the audience and how they respond to it. It’s always great to have just one-offs. It really truly depends on what that story is and what that character dilemma is, and what the main character is… So never say ‘never.’ We set it up in a certain way, so it just has to make sense to the story.”

Related: Blumhouse’s Wolf Man Loses Ryan Gosling, Gains Christopher Abbott

Kerry Condon: “Such a Professional”

Without giving too much away, anyone who experiences Night Swim will quickly gather that it is Wyatt Russell’s baseball player persona Ray who experiences more of a physical transformation during the story, thanks to the mysterious spirits tied to their backyard pool. But it is Oscar nominee Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin) who steals the show, especially in the second half of the film, when she feels the weight of the world as she tries to save her seemingly doomed family. “Kerry is such a professional, and she was so game to swim,” said Turek. “She had swimming experience. Every day that she got to go in the pool was a great day.”

Turek continued about Condon:

“Kerry’s the emotional center. She’s the anchor of this movie. She holds it together. She’s the one with the trepidation about what’s happening and working off the theories of her children. And it’s a strong family dynamic. I would say it’s like JoBeth Williams in Poltergeist, you know? A really strong mother role who has her own goals, and they got sidelined by her husband’s baseball career.”

Turek also couldn’t help but fanboy around Russell, given his family’s history in Hollywood. “It’s very hard not to geek out about the Marvel movies,” he told us. “And when you’re wearing a The Thing t-shirt, you’re like, ‘Oh, whoops, sorry, I didn’t mean to wear a shirt with your dad on it.’ But he’s super great. Both really tackled their roles exactly the way we wanted them… Wyatt does a really great job of veering to Jack Torrance [from The Shining] territory. It’s very tricky to do, and he does it so well.”

Looking ahead, we had to ask what else Blumhouse has in store for us cinephiles. “M3GAN 2 is right now geared for January 2025. That’s the high priority,” Turek replied. “The Black Phone 2, we’ve announced. So yeah, there’s no shortage.”

Related: The Black Phone 2 Bringing Back Director Scott Derrickson to Helm 2025 Blumhouse Sequel

On a professional level, Turek’s rise to Blumhouse executive is an inspiring story for film journalists and writers. He detailed his journey:

“I went to film school and, as soon as I moved out here, I was quickly just sidetracked by wanting to write reviews. And I kind of fell into that rhythm for a very long time. But there was a point where I was shepherding a lot of movies and helping a lot of movies get seen. And I was like, ‘Now it’s time to find someone that will be willing to take a risk on me, to find great movies to make.'”

Outside of Night Swim and looking at past hits like M3GAN, it seems Blumhouse is effectively blending different realms of cinema as a way to broaden its reach with moviegoers at large. “For horror to evolve and just keep growing, you have to merge genres,” Turek said. “And obviously, we made movies that were comedy-horror, like Happy Death Day and Freaky… I would love to do a kind of an action-horror movie… And we’re obviously making a movie called Dead by Daylight, which is based on a video game that’s got elements of action to it… not going full John Wick but find something that merges some Blade-esque antics or something. I would love to kind of do something that’s got those equal parts of intensity, of action and horror.”

From Universal Pictures, Night Swim hits theaters on Jan. 5, 2024.

Night Swim Release Date January 5, 2024 Director Bryce McGuire Runtime 1hr 56min