Director: Carlo Mirabella-Davis
Writer: Carlo Mirabella-Davis (Screenplay)
Starring: Haley Bennett, Austin Stowell, Denis O’Hare, Elizabeth marvel, David Rasche, Luna Lauren Velaz
Plot: Hunter, a newly pregnant housewife, finds herself increasingly compelled to consume dangerous objects. As her husband and his family tighten their control over her life, she must confront the dark secret behind her new obsession.
Tagline – Open Up.
Runtime: 1 Hour 34 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Swallow starts as we meet newlywed Hunter (Bennett) who has married a successful businessman Richie (Stowell), she has become a housewife, with little to do through the day, while her husband is working in a ruthless job where he looks down on Hunter most days.
Hunter does get pregnant but around the house, she finds herself feeling lonely. Hunter starts to get the desire to eat items from around the house, starting small with a marble, before escalating to bigger items.
Thoughts on Swallow
Characters & Performances – Hunter is a newlywed housewife and artist who finds herself alone in the house most days. She becomes pregnant with this looking like the rest of her life, housewife and mother. Alone in the home, Hunter starts to become obsessed with eating different household items, starting small getting more dangerous as the time goes on. This will put her own life at risk, along with her unborn baby’s, with her new obsession being the only way she can get through the day. Haley Bennett is brilliant in the leading role, she shows how distant from her new family she is, showing the loneliness which is causing the problems in her characters life. Richie is the husband of Hunter, he keeps the busy life, where he will find himself being more interested in business and following in his father footsteps, than just being there for his wife. He constantly ignores her through her stories, much like his parents, showing he seems to have picked a trophy wife over someone he likes. Austin Stowell does give us a true asshole character that we just learn to hate quickly in the film. We do meet the rest of the family that are always looking down on Hunter, never giving her the respect, she does deserve.
Story – The story her follows a young housewife and mother-to-be that starts getting obsessed with trying to swallow different items from around the house, putting the lives of both herself and baby at risk. Seeing how poorly treated Hunter is by her new family is one of the most disturbing factors in this film, which is saying something because we see where she ends up with her disorder and the damage it causes. We see how the isolation of loneliness can cause the bigger breakdown in the victim and getting no support from the loved ones around you can drive someone further away. On the downside, we never really get to the bottom of what suddenly bought this all on, which will lead to more questions including whether it has happened before or not.
Themes – Swallow is a thriller about how one person starts eating household items to see if it gives them a different feeling in life, the way she starts trying these items does help show just how far she will go to feel like she exists. The settings show us the higher lifestyle that Hunter has found herself living in, one that will see her needing to adapt to being away from people.
Swallow is a thriller that is filled with different disturbing moments that will leave us wondering how someone can end up this way.
