Wild Swimmers Review – Low-budget ragtag horror movie finds something to worry about in the water | film

WA cap under the surface can be dangerous, as any land swimmer will tell you. There really is something to worry about in the water. But “Wild Swimmers” is not a documentary advocating for clean water; The danger here is not E. coli, but a vampire that has been living in the river for centuries. It’s written and directed by music journalist-turned-filmmaker Rick Rollins, and like his 2023 debut Rewilding, it’s another outsider horror film set in the West Country, played by non-professionals in a way that’s both unprofessional and rickety in a way that you’ll find either charming or a chore.

Valerie Kwok is a deejay, a journalism student from Hong Kong researching a series of mysterious deaths in the Avon River. It follows a retired police officer who investigated the death of a teenage girl in 2018 which was officially registered as drowning. But something felt off, Elnahas told the deejay: One witness described the girl appearing to have been pulled underwater, and an autopsy identified snake bites on her neck. The plot becomes more ridiculous as the body count rises, and Diji is joined in her search for the truth by photographer Kim (Caroline Murray).

Wild Swimmers is a horror movie without the slightest whiff of horror. The blood looks like food dye and the silly amphibian antidote doesn’t seem to be disturbed at all by sunlight. What is unsettling is the River Avon itself, depicted with the mist rising from its surface at sunrise, mysterious and monstrous, capable of holding secrets beneath its surface. As a horror genre, horror often reflects the fears of its time, but Wild Swimmers isn’t written sharply enough to reveal an environmental message or hint at hidden horrors. It may tempt a cult status though.