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CINEMA FEATURE

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T hrough tragedy and triumph – and under the shadow of their domineering father and coach – the four brothers sought immortality at a cost that none of them expected to pay. “The Von Erichs were magnets for attention, and the biggest rock stars in wrestling to ever come out of Texas,” says Efron, who portrays Kevin Von Erich. “They had a very quick rise, and they shone really bright. They were just dynamic athletes, all of them. And then awful things started to happen.” Efron, 36, hit the gym to transform his body into a muscle bound hulk. “It was one of the most challenging things I've ever done physically,” he reveals. “I started the most Zac Efron and Jeremy Allen White absolutely crush it in this true story of the Von Erich brothers, who dominated the intensely competitive world of professional wrestling in the early 1980s. Words Gill Pringle IRON CLAW

Most of us have experienced that irrational fear of swimming while the Kreepy Krauly is busy at work, so imagine how traumatising it would be to take a dip in an actual haunted pool! Words Glenn Cochrane NIGHT SWIM

N ever resting on their laurels, the purveyors of terror at Blumhouse deliver their latest fright flick, Night Swim , which chronicles a family who move into a new house and discover a supernatural presence in their backyard swimming pool.

Director Bryce McGuire

Like many effective horror films of late, Night Swim taps into a nostalgia that informs so much of our modern pop culture. “We set the cold open in the ‘80s in part because I wanted to evoke the feeling of nostalgia from older movies like Poltergeist, Christine, Burnt Offerings, or Jaws that inspired Night Swim ,” reveals director Bryce McGuire. The film stars Wyatt Russell (son of Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn) alongside Kerry Condon ( The Banshees of Inisherin ). “Wyatt was a joy to work with, because he was completely fearless,” says the director, who also helmed the 2014 short film of the same name, on which Night Swim is based. “Without saying too much, he has to go to some extreme places in the movie and he was never self-conscious. He was game for anything, very selfless, and always thinking of the movie”. Careful not to provide spoilers, Russell explains the themes that attracted him to the script. “I just love everything that the swimming pool represented: how it gives life and takes it away, how it holds both good and evil, and how it made for a refreshingly different approach to a genre story,” he says. Elaborating on his character’s Multiple Sclerosis affliction, he continues: “I liked how his selfishness and his misguided strategies for dealing with everything that comes with MS end up being the forces that drive him. He’s

rigorous training and diet programme that I've ever been on in my entire life. It was very tough. But it was ultimately a really big insight for me into who Kevin was – just the dedication that he was willing to put into his physicality, into wrestling, and into his body. The way that he strove for perfection,” he says. With Holt McCallany in the role of patriarch Fritz Von Erich, Harrison Dickinson and Stanley Simons play David and Mike Von Erich, respectively. White, 32, admittedly was daunted when he first studied a picture of Kerry Von Erich in preparation for his role. “I thought I was in pretty good shape to start with, but Kerry was something else,” laughs the actor who has swiftly become a household name from his role in TV drama The Bear . “So I did everything I could. I ate a lot more, lifted a lot. But Zac is definitely the most fit out of all of us, so I tried to keep him on the other side of the room when I had a scene with him!”

a nice guy with a nice, normal family, dealing with very real human

dilemmas; but there’s this little kernel of narcissism that leaves him vulnerable to corruption, that can take over his soul. It was just a fun part to play.”

22 JANUARY 2024

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