Naman Shrestha
Based on the 2014 eponymous short film by Bryce McGuire and Rod Blackhurst, ‘Night Swim’ is a horror thriller movie that introduces us to the Waller family, including the former baseball player Ray Waller who retires from the sport earlier than expected due to a degenerative illness. To start afresh, he moves into a new house with his wife and two children and hopes that the backyard swimming pool provides some sort of physical therapy for himself.
Instead of providing relief to the family, the swimming pool conceals the presence of a malevolent supernatural force that haunts the Wallers and makes their life a living hell. Co-written and helmed by McGuire, the horror film consists of some big names in the industry, including Wyatt Russell, Kerry Condon, Amélie Hoeferle, and Gavin Warren. Moreover, the backyard swimming pool of the new Waller house plays the role of an additional character, raising some questions in the minds of the viewers regarding the actual filming locations.
Night Swim Filming Locations
‘Night Swim’ was filmed in its entirety in California, especially in Los Angeles County. The principal photography for the scary film reportedly got underway in April 2023 and continued through the following month or so, before getting wrapped up in May of the same year. So, let’s get a detailed account of all the specific sites that make an appearance in the Bryce McGuire directorial!
Los Angeles County, California
All the pivotal sequences for ‘Night Swim’ were lensed across Los Angeles County. The county seat, Los Angeles, served as the primary production location, with the filming unit setting up camp in the neighborhood of Chatsworth in the city. Furthermore, the cast and crew members were spotted by numerous onlookers and passersby taping several important scenes in the streets of the city of Santa Clarita. In addition, a few key portions were also recorded in the unincorporated area and census-designated place of Altadena, which is located in the Verdugo Mountains region of the county.
During a conversation with Above the Line, the filmmaker Bryce McGuire was asked a few questions about the swimming pool, which acts as an additional character in ‘Night Swim.’ McGuire explained, “We shot mainly, I’d say like 85% of it, in the practical backyard swimming pool, and I’d say like 15% of it was actually an Olympic-sized outdoor pool in Chatsworth that we flagged off and gridded off into basically a water tank. The stuff in the third act, we kind of go to this other realm, that was all done in that tank environment. You just have to plan. We have the best people in the world working with safety, but all the actors were really proficient in the water.”
McGuire revealed that the actors went through certain safety protocols, especially Kerry Condon as she was the one swimming for most parts of the film. He stated, “I also think it’s part of the reason why she did this movie; she just wanted the physicality of that role. She wanted the challenge. She likes the water, she’s very skilled in the water, and the water’s dangerous, and it’s urgent, and you feel it in her performance, and you feel it in the filmmaking. That’s why I like the water because it gives something to the film that’s not fake. Water is real, and everything was wet for wet.” Apart from ‘Night Swim,’ the locales of LA County have also been featured in ‘Meg 2: The Trench,’ ‘Nope,’ and ‘American Horror Story.’
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