Shudder Saturday: The Midnight Swim (2014)

The feature debut from writer-director Sarah Adina Smith, The Midnight Swim is the tale of a woman (Beth Grant) who disappears during a deep-water dive at a place called Spirit Lake, which leads to her three daughters turning up to ostensibly put her affairs in order. The three women end up discussing their upbringing, as well as the mysterious power of the lake.

First thing's first, The Midnight Swim is not a horror movie. It's important to get that out of the way now, and especially important when it is a title that horror fans may stumble upon. Judge the film for what it is, not for what it doesn't try to be.

Second, The Midnight Swim has enough in place to make it worth your time. It's all very competently put together, the main characters - June (Lindsay Burdge), Annie (Jennifer Lafleur), and Isa (Aleksa Palladino) - are all fine to spend time with, and the pull of the lake at the heart of things is nicely woven throughout the whole thing.

Third, and finally, this is a film which, in line with the subject matter, has some hidden depths to explore. Whether it's the mystery of their mother's disappearance or the strength of the bonds between the sisters, you get the feeling that almost every scene in this movie is saying something important, either about the characters or about the grand mysteries of life and death.

Having said all of that, this didn't work for me. It wasn't a painful experience, not at all, but it certainly wasn't a film I really enjoyed watching. The relatively slim runtime - it clocks in at about 84 minutes - felt longer, many scenes felt as if the main point being made got lost somewhere in translation, and the ending wasn't as interesting or satisfying for me as Smith obviously wanted it to be. I am sure there are others who will love the ending, it's certainly something a bit different, but I just couldn't get on board with it.

Burdge, Lafleur, and Palladino all do well in their roles (all three actresses have built up interesting résumés over the past decade or so), Grant does as good as she usually does, in her small amount of screentime, and there are solid supporting turns from Ross Partridge and Michelle Hutson, although the latter features in one of those scenes that I feel ended up a step removed from what was intended.

What you get here is, overall, a decent family drama with one lively "music video moment" to pep things up. It's just a shame that none of the main plot elements or ideas are explored in a way that makes them as interesting as they could be, resulting in a film that is just rather dull and disappointing, albeit very well put together.

4/10

It's on Shudder here in the UK, of course.
Americans can check it out here.