[Every
month, I choose a new or lesser known horror film to highlight and
recommend. The is the first:]
The Film: Swallow
(2020)
What Is It About?:
Swallow
follows Hunter Conrad (Haley Bennett), a newlywed who moves into a
new home with her rich husband Richie (Austin Stowell). It seems as
if Hunter has the perfect life, complete with the discovery that she
is pregnant with her and Richie's first child. However, Hunter begins
to feel a loss of control due to Richie's subtle insistence on her
taking on the role of obedient housewife and her own troubled past
beginning to bubble to the surface. To deal with her inner turmoil,
Hunter begins to swallow
inedible
objects including thumbtacks, marbles and various other random
objects. As her disordered eating and her husband and his parents's
(Elizabeth Marvel and David Rasche) attempts at maintaining control
worsens, it becomes clear to Hunter that something must be done in
order for her conflict to reach a resolution.
Why Do I Recommend it?
Y'all,
I initially wanted to watch this because I knew of Haley Bennett from
her on-screen debut in the Drew Barrymore rom com Music
& Lyrics
in which Bennett basically plays Shakira. After her performances in
that and a teen horror flick called The
Haunting of Molly Hartley,
I lost track of Bennett until I stumbled upon news of this movie. An
actress I hadn't seen in a film in years doing a horror movie, let
alone one with the concept about a housewife who begins eating random
objects? Yeah, I was sold right away. And,
low and behold, Swallow
lived
up to my anticipation when I finally watched it this spring.
There
are a few reasons why Swallow
is
a must-see: I'll start with the cast. As I just mentioned, a large
part of why I wanted to see this was because of this being a horror
vehicle for Haley Bennett. Well, Bennett is a revelation in this
role, playing a character that feels like a spiritual successor to
Mad Men's
Betty Draper. Bennett gets to show off her range, from having several
stretches of the film dedicated to her trying to fulfill her
husband's smothering expectations of her even while he's absent, to
reacting petulantly to her therapist when the doctor tries to prod
information out of her, to metaphorically and literally reflecting
on the choices she's made and the choices she has yet to make. The
supporting cast of Swallow
are
also up to par, including Austin Stowell as Hunter's husband Richie.
As Richie, Stowell gives the character the insidiousness it requires
and gradually dials up the true nature of the role until everything
is laid on the table with the final act. You also have wonderful
character actors like Elizabeth Marvel as Hunter's overbearing
mother-in-law and Denis O'Hare in the minor yet pivotal role of
William, a man with ties to Hunter's past.
On
top of the cast, you have the wonderful direction and screenplay from
Carlo Mirabella-Davis. This is Mirabella-Davis's debut narrative
feature, with his prior credits being a short film from 2008 called
Knife Point and
a documentary he co-directed with two other filmmakers called The
Swell Season.
However, you wouldn't know this is Mirabella-Davis's debut feature as
with this one feature, he displays an immense
talent.
Mirabella-Davis's screenplay is a wonderful, character-driven piece
that is carried by its three-dimensional protagonist. Something that
should come as no surprise when you read interviews with
Mirabella-Davis: The filmmaker has discussed in interviews how the
film and the Hunter character were inspired by his own grandmother,
whom lived with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and was ultimately
institutionalized and lobotomized without her consent. With the
personal origin of the film in mind, it is no wonder Mirabella-Davis
would take extra care with his roles in the construction of the film.
If
talking about the cast and the writer/director didn't sell you on
seeing Swallow,
hopefully the fact that, above everything else, that this film is
simply gorgeous to look at will. Swallow
was shot by cinematographer Katelin Arizmendi, who carries over her
color-driven camera work from her previous film Cam
to great effect. Arizmendi works with Mirabella-Davis to create a
visually stunning film that is fueled by a color palette that mixes
primary colors with natural colors. Yellow, blue and red are
everywhere in
this movie, along with a lot of natural greens, browns and whites. It
creates a really nice mix that allows the film to stand out visually
when it wants to: One scene that features Hunter in a passive
aggressive conversation with her mother-in-law has Hunter bathed in
red drapes and the mother-in-law bathed in blue drapes. Not only is
this scene a delight to look at, but it establishes red as the color
that appears when Hunter tries to make her own decisions and blue as
the color of the Conrad family, a color that smothers Hunter whenever
her autonomy is thwarted. On the flip side, there are also several
scenes that emphasize the natural colors, such as multiple scenes
where Hunter is dressed in brown and tan clothes that blend her in
with her environment. The purpose of this is to emphasize the lack of
visual thrills, as it shows that Hunter feels powerless to the point
where she feels less than human and, therefore, must swallow to bring
herself back to life.
An example of the beauty of Swallow (2020)
Available on: Video
on Demand, iTunes and Amazon.
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