SWALLOW (2019)

 

Written & Directed By: Carlo Mirabella-Davis 

Cinematography: Katelin Arizmendi

Editor: Joe Murphy 

Cast: Haley Bennett, Austin Stowell, Elizabeth Marvel, David Rasche, Zabryna Guevara, Laith Nakil, Denis O’Hare, Luna Velez, Babak Tafti, Nicole Kang

Hunter, a newly pregnant housewife, finds herself increasingly compelled to consume dangerous objects. As her husband and his family tighten their control over her life, she must confront the dark secret behind her new obsession.

————————————————————————

Will admit, it took me a while to finally watch this film as frankly, one was scared or nervous about the material from reading the reviews of this show, though can happily say it’s not as gory or fitting into the body hard genre of grotesque as much as one fear.

This is more of a character study that at first seems like it’s gonna be more of a body horror film. As it’s focus seems to be more clinical clean, cut and direct. Everything seems sharp and clear in focus.

Tell as the film goes along, we see that the main character has her doubts and problems and seems to repress them, which might be why she has this eating disorder as she keeps everything in so this is a way for her to act out by swallowing small and animate objects as she’s taking them and holding them. The only thing is that eventually they come out as well as leaving damage to her body.

Which can be an analogy for the character herself she’s holding all of this emotions, anger, and despair in and eventually they’re going to have to come out as they are doing damage to her body more to the inner workings and brain

That was throughout the film as she breaks down, so do the characters around her her clean, cut, rich, family, surely shows they’re worth an ugly side as they want her to be the perfect wife, even though they belittle her or never take her truly into consideration other than a show piece, which shows And her look which is more 1950s and 60s even though this is a modern day set

Her loving husband who seems to care and be sensitive to her needs in the beginning as the film goes long his mentality seems to deteriorate, and if he truly loves his wife, he never shows it as he feels like money can take care of every problem and he can’t be bothered to put in too much effort as it makes him look bad.

As he slowly reveals himself to be the villain in this film, though it seems more in his nature, as he is even ready to throw a fit over a tie being ironed. Austin Stowell is subtle in this role, he is mostly quiet,but you can feel his menace

Haley Bennett, truly show her skills as an actress and her star power throughout as she inhabit a character who can be confusing, but you can’t help but care about no matter what and who you truly want to save or hope in someway that she can save herself.

Definitely a movie that could be characterized by class and some might see as partly political also

The film is hard to watch as we see her constantly be betrayed by those around her, which stays a common theme as her problem gets worse. The only people who seem to be decent to her are more random characters.

This is a very chilling film, luckily not as hard to watch as one thought it would be. It’s still a hard film to sit through only because of the more emotional violence and a little bit of self-destructive nature physically.

No, this is definitely a psychological drama thriller. It’s sharp in its own ways, though not as cutting edge as the audience might hope. 

GRADE: B