“Night Swim,” directed by Bryce McGuire, follows a family of four as they try to leave their past behind in their new home. But when an ancient evil lurks in their swimming pool, they must learn that love requires sacrifice.

With uneven pacing, the first and second acts of the movie seem like a slog to get through. The character exposition feels bland, the cold open doesn’t set up anything the trailers don’t already establish and the little elements of horror sprinkled throughout the rising action fail to keep audiences interested, mostly consisting of fake-out scares that lead into real ones.

The father, played by Wyatt Russell, presents an uninteresting character arc despite a solid performance. Coming off of a career-ending baseball injury causing him to potentially never play the sport again, Russell’s character struggles with change, yet quickly overcomes it upon the idea of moving to a new neighborhood. Rather than a slow perspective change throughout the movie, he takes one large leap in his mindset that only serves to push the real conflict of the movie: the haunted pool.

The haunted pool exceeds expectations in the absurdity department, possessing a personality by constantly toying with its prey like a real predator. Audiences may go in skeptical hearing its concept explained, but as the movie goes on, the insanity of the pool makes the ride through act one and two worth it.

The pool’s motivation remains unclear until the final act, but the gist of it comes down to its ability to grant people their deepest desires in exchange for a sacrifice. It also messes with spatiality, as characters seemingly swim into the drain and dive deeper into an ocean-like abyss filled with victims of the pool from hundreds of years ago. The detailed makeup and designs of the ghosts come off as a visual feast for the eyes despite lacking the fear factor.

“Night Swim” acts as a perfect movie to kick the year off as it doesn’t present itself as anything serious but sells audiences on an admittedly stupid concept through pure popcorn-horror bliss. While not remarkable, the hate this movie received from critics and people online seems more like a scramble to label all movies released in January as garbage rather than looking at the movie as a B-horror film that succeeds in what it sets out to do: entertain with a killer pool.

2 ½ flips off the diving board out of 5.