Swallow (2019)

Directed by: Carlo Mirabella-Davis | 94 minutes | drama, thriller | Actors: Haley Bennett, Austin Stowell, Denis O’Hare, Elizabeth Marvel, David Rasche, Luna Lauren Velez, Zabryna Guevara, Laith Nakli, Babak Tafti, Nicole Kang, Olivia Perez, Kristi Kirk, Alyssa Bresnahan, Maya Days

A good horror film plays on feelings of fear. The best genre films deal with deep-seated fears such as the fear of being hunted or abusive partners. The closer rooted in reality, the better. Because what’s scarier: a psychopathic giant with a hockey mask or being trapped in a straitjacket in which you lose yourself? The chance that the latter scenario will become a reality is a lot more real than a murderous colossus.

‘Swallow’ revolves around Hunter (Haley Bennett). This somewhat mousy woman has apparently hit it off. Married to a wealthy man, she has plenty of time to focus on her art and interior design. That sounds like a fairy tale, but the reality is different. Hunter is imprisoned in a golden cage and her in-laws expect her to obey their whims. The woman feels isolated from the world. Then she suddenly becomes pregnant. News that overtakes her and makes her develop a special tic. Hunter decides to eat various utensils. It starts with a marble, but quickly progresses to thumbtacks. This habit does not fit the perfect picture to which it must fit…

‘Swallow’ is a special film. Carlo Mirabella-Davis has not made a classic horror, but a completely quirky horror story. This production mainly focuses on psychological terror. Mirabella-Davis pays a lot of attention to the setting and the characters, so the atmosphere gets more and more gloomy as the film progresses. The fact that Hunter consumes all kinds of strange objects – a thumbtack and a battery, for example – is clearly less important than the interaction between the woman and her cold-hearted in-laws.

This is a ‘slow burner’. A film that slowly builds up to a climax. Bennett puts on a phenomenal performance and proves he can easily carry a movie. ‘Swallow’ is a special film about a special woman. A film about human interaction and the fear of being left alone. However, a stifling relationship like the one Hunter is in, no one has to… swallow!