Night Swim Ending Explained: I Wish, You Well
This article contains major spoilers for "Night Swim."
It's January, which means it's time for another Blumhouse horror movie with a wild premise that looks to be a heck of a lot of fun. Bryce McGuire's "Night Swim" centers on the Waller family of Ray (Wyatt Russell), his wife Eve (Kerry Condon), and children Izzy (Amélie Hoeferle) and Elliot (Gavin Warren) who unknowingly move into a home with a haunted pool. Okay, so "haunted" might not be the operative word to describe these wanton waters, but there's something seriously sinister about their swimming pool, and their lives may be at stake if they're not careful.
The film was produced by horror master James Wan ("The Conjuring," "Insidious," "Saw") and shares a bit of spiritual energy with his bonkers masterpiece "Malignant," but doesn't quite similarly fly off the rails. Whether or not this is a positive or negative attribute will differ from person to person (I personally wish "Night Swim" would have really leaned into the absurdity, but that's just like, my opinion, man) but there's still plenty of spooky fun to be had. But how exactly did Blumhouse turn McGuire's four-minute short into a feature-length horror film? Does the ending indicate the possibility of a new horror franchise for the house that Blum built?
Let's get into the ending of "Night Swim" and figure out what it all means.
What you need to remember about the plot of Night Swim
The Waller Family moves into a new home in Minnesota as Ray struggles to adapt to life post-baseball and with his multiple sclerosis diagnosis. While they could have moved into a state-of-the-art home with plenty of gizmos and gadgets to make his life easier, they instead choose a fixer-upper with a pool, knowing hydrotherapy is great for MS. What the family doesn't know (and what their realtor intentionally hid from them) is that the house has been on the market for so long because there was a terrible accident in the pool years prior. A little girl went out to fetch her brother's missing toy boat when something in the water took her. Her body was never found and the family moved away.
A pool cleaner comes by to help the family get it up to snuff, and explains that the water in the pool comes in through a natural source. Everything seems perfect ... until it isn't. Everyone in the family starts noticing strange things in the pool — strange voices, weird visions, and the mysterious sensation that they're being watched. Objects disappear on their own, the pool covering retracts with no one around, and every so often a dark, drippy demon-esque entity appears to scare the daylights out of anyone in the pool.
But despite the horrors, Ray is miraculously getting better.
What happened at the end of Night Swim?
Eve learns from the previous owners of the house that the natural water that feeds into the pool comes from a mysterious spring that once flowed freely before the homes were built over the land. The people who lived indigenously in the area used to view the water as a miraculous gift, capable of bringing great fortune to those who swam in the waters, but one that required an oblation in return. The pool essentially serves as both a wishing well and a monkey's paw, meaning it will provide great healing in exchange for a life. Once affected by the powers of the water, Ray's actions grow increasingly dangerous.
The family throws a pool party to better get to know their neighbors, and during a game of Chicken Fight, Ray locks up under the water with a child on his shoulders, refusing to let him go in the hopes that he'd drown and the pool would get the soul it craves. Fortunately, as Ray is not yet fully possessed by the spirits of the water, they can save the boy, but their communal reputation is destroyed. The family tries their hardest to explain away the event as a result of his M.S. causing his muscles to lock up, but deep down, they know the truth.
Ray is slowly being overtaken by the water spirits and is going to kill someone unless he is stopped. Eve tries to flee the home in the hopes that it'll free Ray from their power, but the water spirits are relentless. They take over his body and mind, and he begins to terrorize his family. His strength is unmatched, he moves around in ways no human should be capable of, and he takes great joy in taunting his daughter with a demented game of "Marco Polo" throughout the house.
The only way out? Someone has to die.
What the end of the Night Swim means
The rules of the pool water are immovable. There's no outsmarting the water spirits or the powers within, or a loophole to be found that allows the family to stay as a complete unit. They swam in the water, Ray made a wish to get better, the water granted him healing, and now someone has to die. It's a bold move by McGuire and company to embrace the bleakness of the water's lore, especially in a landscape where most studio horror films try their hardest to maintain the nuclear family. Elliot Waller is the child with the "least potential" for a successful future as far as the pool spirits are concerned, and have made him their target. Even the matriarch of the house's previous family — who knows what the pool is capable of as it took her daughter — tries to convince Eve that sacrificing Elliot is the better option for the family. It's as if the spirits want to punish Elliot for not being unnaturally talented or powerful immediately, instead of being a kid still trying to figure himself out.
During the film's climax, when it looks as if a possessed Ray is going to kill his son, the part of him within still fighting against the pool's power breaks through. Instead of letting it take Elliot, he dives back into the water and sacrifices himself. He finally gives himself over to his kids, something he couldn't do throughout his demanding career as a professional baseball player. The water, satisfied with its new soul, is done terrorizing the Waller family. But there's no telling what could happen the next time someone takes a dip in its waters and happens to make a wish.
What does the ending mean for the future of Night Swim?
Now that Eve, Izzy, and Elliot know the truth about the water that filters into the pool, the family decides to end the cycle and fill it up for good. The water no longer has somewhere to go, and they've eliminated the possibility of anyone diving in without knowing the true, monkey's paw-style power ever again. But of course, all water has to go somewhere, so there's no telling where the natural water that poured into the pool will end up. Perhaps "Night Swim" will spin off into a franchise where the water begins to feed into the roots of a tree that soon bears cursed, forbidden fruits. There's the possibility the water will filter into the town's water supply and suddenly plague the entire community. Or maybe, just maybe, the nightmare has truly come to an end.
"Night Swim" certainly seems like a one-and-done horror story, but the horror mavens at Blumhouse managed to turn out sequels for "Paranormal Activity," "Happy Death Day," and have follow-ups to "M3GAN" and "The Black Phone" on the horizon, so we there's no telling what the deep end holds for the future of McGuire's film. If the series is willing to embrace the bonkers potential of the lore established in this film, there's no telling where the water could flow next.
"Night Swim" is currently playing in theaters everywhere.