Female Film Critics 24/375
Carlo Mirabella-Davis’ tense drama Swallow — about a repressed young wife who finds herself compelled to eat unusual and even dangerous things — gives new meaning to the phrase “eating your feelings.” Desperate to please her handsome husband and his wealthy parents, Hunter (Haley Bennett) tries to create the perfect life in their designer-ready home. But things are far from perfect under the surface.
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Writer/director Carlo Mirabella-Davis and star Haley Bennett, who gives a stunningly modulated performance, have crafted a contemporary horror film laced with black humor and an empowerment message. Swallow is a rare, original feminist thriller whose mounting horrors gradually reveal that the hidden monster is the patriarchy.
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With its echoes of Rosemary’s Baby and a bewitching leading lady who checks off many of the qualifications of being a Hitchcock blonde, Swallow is a somewhat uneasy watch that tip-toes close to a body-horror thriller. Writer-director Carlo Mirabella-Davis’ haunting film doesn’t always go down smoothly but it does expose how marriage can be a trap, family skeletons continue to rattle and freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.
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Unsettling to watch, the film takes a turn toward empowerment by its end. Writer/director Carlo Mirabella-Davis’ script and direction, paired with Katelin Arizmendi’s lush photography and Bennett’s performance, craft a disturbing psychological thriller with a satisfying, unexpected denouement.
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The risk of spoilers with Swallow is high, so to avoid this suffice it to say that the journey taken by Hunter (Haley Bennett) through her eating disorder takes her exactly to where her story should logically go. Swallow is a film as much about striving for creative freedom as it does a woman desperately clawing her way towards a sense of autonomy, one mouthful at a time. Brave, challenging and desperately needed right now, Swallow is a perfect film about facing our imperfections.
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