After THE PLATFORM this is the hottest horror movie of spring 2020. Does SWALLOW make for ideal quarantine viewing? Let’s see.
The subject is the Pica eating disorder, meaning a compulsion to eat inedible things. The sufferer is Hunter, the pregnant trophy wife of a richer-than-God businessman named, appropriately, Richie. They reside in an opulent glass-lined house where, feeling supremely dissatisfied with her life and inspired by some bad advice in a pregnancy manual about the need to do “unexpected things,” Hunter impulsively swallows a marble that passes through her digestive system intact. Emboldened, a few days later she swallows a thumbtack, which likewise makes its way through her body without losing any mass. She follows it with lipstick, paper and various household objects.
Hunter’s compulsion is kept secret until she gets an ultrasound, which detects a sharp object in her stomach. This leads to emergency surgery and a row with Richie. He calls in a psychiatrist—to whom Hunter reveals that she was the product of a rape—and a burly male nurse to keep an eye on her. This only intensifies her compulsions, leading to divorce threats by Richie and an attempt at shipping her off to an institution. She escapes before that can happen, and decides to confront the real source of her troubles.
SWALLOW is not a complete success, but it is a masterful piece of filmmaking by debuting writer/director Carlo Mirabella-Davis, who creates an unnervingly staid, antiseptic atmosphere that recalls Todd Haynes’s SAFE (1995). As in that film, this one is packed with deliberately mis-framed widescreen compositions in which the principals are crowded out by furniture and background details, imparting a sense of confinement as potent as any old dark castle setting. Adding to the effect are an assortment of highly evocative close-ups and distorted mirror reflections.
It’s all grounded by the towering performance of Haley Bennett (whose other credits include THE HAUNTING OF MOLLY HARTLEY, HARDCORE HENRY and THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN) in the lead role. Her acting is marked by impeccably defined minimalism, with bodily convulsions after swallowing something sharp that are horrifyingly convincing and a screen presence that compels attention even when very little is happening.
Bennett, and the film overall, are so impressive it’s all the more frustrating that the conclusion is as underwhelming as it is. This is to say that the final scenes, in which Hunter faces up to a figure from her past in a weepy confrontation, close out this tightly controlled, stylish and disturbing film on an asynchronous TV movie note.
So in closing: does SWALLOW make for ideal quarantine viewing? I’d say yes, if you don’t mind being reminded of the helplessness and entrapment facing us all.
Vital Statistics
SWALLOW
Charades/Logical Pictures/IFC Films
Director: Carlo Mirabella-Davis
Producers: Mollye Asher, Mynette Louie, Carole Baraton, Frederic Fiore
Screenplay: Carlo Mirabella-Davis
Cinematography: Katelin Arizmendi
Editing: Joe Murphy
Cast: Haley Bennett, Austin Stowell, Elizabeth Marvel, David Rasche, Denis O’Hare, Luna Valez, Zabryna Guevara, Laith Nakli, Babak Tafti, Nicole King