After few months of waiting, I finally got a chance to see this film. This film is on my 2020 watch list because it has a really good premise. Too bad, the wide release of this film was on 3rd of March 2020, right when the coronavirus pandemic just started getting worse (in Indonesia), and since it is a small studio film, we been knowing that it will release approximately 2-3 months after the original release day in here.
So, here's my thought about this film..
It's a normal thing to see a pregnant woman craves something weird to eat and eventually we have to fulfill her cravings so nothing bad will happen to the baby (i'm a sucker for beliefs and traditions). A pregnant woman may ask a certain thing that is absolutely weird and impossible at the not-so-right time. For example: "I really want original pempek straight from Palembang!", and you have to fulfill her wish. Good luck and go to Palembang to get that pempek! (I'm just kidding) but most of the time it will happen like that. This case, can you imagine that a pregnant woman has a craving for swallowing inedible object like marble, clothing pin, battery, etc? is she like trying to do some "debus" or what.. but you know what I mean.
SWALLOW is a psychological horror/thriller film, written and
directed by Carlo Mirabello-Davis and starring Haley Bennett, Austin Stowell,
Elizabeth Marvel, David Rasche, and Denis O’Hare. The plot follows on a young
woman played by Haley Bennett, who is suppressed by her marriage and her daily
life, and develops an unhealthy habit of consuming inedible objects.
It’s a good premise actually. The fact that we will see what
kind of stuff that she will swallow is surely making the audience cringe, both
in good or bad way. This is already a good start!
The film starts with Hunter, who just married to a wealthy
guy named Richie (yeah he’s rich, so let’s call him that!) doing her duty as a
housewife. She loves his husband and will do whatever she can to please him.
Making him a dinner, cleaning the pool, and wait inside their home until the
husband comes home. What a faithful lady she is. When she is bored, she would
draw something in her notebook (she is an illustrator), she would dress up
nicely, she would dance and twirl in the patio or in the balcony, or she would
play Candy Crush Saga on her phone.
I actually like the introduction for Hunter and Richie
characters here. The way the filmmaker shot this opening is absolutely perfect.
The whole scenery successfully captured the picture-perfect and
too-good-to-be-true moments. The use of colors, the set of the house, they
absolutely look so beautiful but somehow sad. It is kind of “show not tell”
technique that the filmmaker used. We can see inside the beautiful house and
the beautiful furniture they have, it always feels empty or have a lot of
spaces. Hunter herself seems disconnected with her surroundings. Richie also
seems disconnected from his wife. He is always too focused about his work. So,
we have a picture-perfect family from the outside, but not the inside. All done
in a very explicit way with lack of dialogue but showing the condition.
Back to the story again. Not long after that, Hunter is
pregnant. It’s a good news for them. Richie’s parents then invite them for a
celebration. And again, the filmmaker used “show not tell” technique to
introduce us to Richie’s parents. They don’t seem to have interests to hear
Hunter’s story, like the father literally abruptly cut the story and focus to
another thing… work thing and talk to Richie during the story. Felt
disconnected and unwanted, something grabbed Hunter’s attention. She looks at
the glass filled with ice cubes. The ice cubes look so beautiful… she picked
one of the cubes up and she put it in her mouth and crushed it pretty loudly.
Of course, Richie and his parents were shocked by the thing she did. And that
is the starting point of her dangerous and unhealthy habit.
The story progression is pretty great for a horror film, and it has genre-blending with drama and psychological thriller. The truths, secrets, and motives from every character are gripping and one by one revealed in such a good way. It also contains dramatic aspects so we can finally have certain empathy to the character even though it is a bit blurred towards the end of the film but it is still acceptable.
It was such a disturbing experience to me. To watch this
film itself, I had to pause for a moment to fully digest and to calm myself
down. I have never felt so disturbed watching a film. I mean I used to watch a
lot of bloody and gory films, but this film is different. It fucked me with something that I cannot see but it makes me feel certain sensation every time Hunter swallows something, thanks to Haley Bennett’s
convincing performance. This film is lacking of jumpscares. Hell, there is no
jumpscare at all. If you all are expecting jump scares or anything, THIS FILM
IS NOT FOR YOU! This film has already accomplished its mission “To disturb the
comfortable”, which is really rare for a horror film to achieve nowadays.
The performance from the casts is absolutely well-done. No
more words with that!
The cinematography is also great and breathtaking. It is
really rare to see a film with horror label in it to excel the part of
cinematography. As I said earlier, the use of colors, set, framing, they are
showing a lot of complexities in a scene and also the tone and the mood for the
film.
The theme that this film is trying to show from what I get,
is a woman who tries to gain control of her life by swallowing every pain she
has and turn it into something that she finds it exciting and giving her “her
life” that she deserves.
The film also gives a lot of details about a disease called
Pica, which it usually happens to a pregnant woman. You can expect something
about mental health awareness from this film. It also represents how hard to live a life that is being controlled by surroundings and a struggle of being a person who seeks attention and affection from their loved ones and do whatever they want in order to please these people (yikes).
Last words, SWALLOW is a disturbing film that really hard to
swallow (no pun intended). Supported with Haley Bennett’s strong performance, a
well-told story, disturbing and WTF moments, and also beautiful cinematography,
this film has already paved its way to be one of the best horror films of 2020.
Written and Directed by
Carlo Mirabello-Davis
Starring Runtime
Haley Bennett 95 minutes
Austin Stowell
Elizabeth Marvel IFC Films
David Rasche
Denis O’Hare
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