With the divide between critics and audiences growing ever larger in today’s day and age, fans of films and genres have begun looking to industry leaders and seasoned storytellers for recommendations that would otherwise fly under the radar of the mainstream audience. Stephen King has come out to recommend one such film, starring Monarch: Legacy of Monsters alum Wyatt Russel.
Night Swim is a horror offering by first-time feature-length director Bryce McGuire, who previously also created a short film of the same name. The film is produced by Blumhouse Production and Atomic Monster. It focuses on a family moving into a house with a swimming pool that has something very wrong with it.
Night Swim received less than favorable reviews from critics
The film has a critics score of 21% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is contrasted by a 43% audience score for the film. Critics have described the film as not having enough plot to sustain its run time, which might be a holdover from the fact that it was a short film before it was a feature-length film.
Metacritic gave Wyatt Russell-starer a weighted average of 43, with the film looking at generally unfavorable reviews. With reviews talking about the run time not justifying the story (again), the film has also been accused by critics of not being able to hold its last act together, given the thrill and horror of the plot are undone by the revealing of the entity, with the character’s motivations being a little lopsided and not fleshed put enough.
However, despite the bad reviews and seeming disinterest from the audience, the film has found a great recommendation from the horror legend himself, Stephen King, author of such acclaimed books as It, The Shining, and Cujo.
Stephen King praised Night Swim on Twitter
Taking to Twitter as Blumhouse announced Night Swim‘s arrival to Peacock, Stephen King was quick to tweet out his opinions on the film, asking the audiences to give a chance to the film.
Don't believe the critics. This is a terrific suspense movie. https://t.co/OfCwzdP3ui
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) April 5, 2024
While audiences become more and more concerned with critical opinions on films and television, it has become more and more likely that fans would listen to industry leaders in the field of storytelling for recommendations rather than look at critics’ scores on websites.
With creators like Hideo Kojima (who recently endorsed David Benioff and D.B. Weiss’s 3 Body Problem on Netflix) and Stephen King taking to their socials to praise media that could be overlooked based solely on their critic scores, one might wonder if audiences are on the precipice of entering a new age of media criticism.
