Swallow

Hunter, played extraordinarily by Haley Bennett is a young lady from a lower-middle-class family. She's recently married to an absolutely wealthy man, giving her a high mansion life where she doesn't need to work anymore. While this is a Utopia on the forefront, buried underneath it is an abundance of sadness. Firstly, she doesn't get the love, attention and understanding from her husband. The same applies to her in-laws where she is completely out of place and disconnected. She's constantly reminded that she is in debt for this luxury. In other words, she doesn't have any control over her own life. She's rigid and emotionally stiffed almost to a point where she isn't a living thing anymore that you could literally feel this character choking on the inside. She's tied to this situation like a happy prisoner, where the 'happy' part is a major facade.

As time goes, she's arrives to a rather peculiar inciting incident. In an attempt to experience the feeling of achieving, accomplishing or doing something, she develops an adventurous but extremely dangerous habit of… eating inedible objects. She starts from a marble but eventually progresses into eating paper, battery, mattress stuffing, cold metal, thumbtack, needle, rock, padlock, chess piece, ring, key... watch the film to see where this ends up! And she does all this while being pregnant! Writer-director Carlo Mirabella-Davis trusts you to follow this bizarre trail of events before diving deeper into what does all this mean, why is this happening and where it leads to!

Hunter Conrad might be one of the most tragic and pitiful protagonists ever portrayed on the silver screen! This particular eating disorder is called Pica syndrome, and while the common cause is pregnancy, there's something darker lurking inside this character's history. During a psychiatry session, we learn that she is a product of rape. She hasn't met her father before, in other words, she hasn't dealt with this traumatic past and made peace with it. Thus, Hunter has been imbuing heavy guilt complex since birth. While the film could have explained or defined what guilt complex is because not every movie audience is a psychiatrist nor do they carry a dictionary with them, it essentially means a psychological complex in which a person feels he / she is guilty for anything and everything they do or don't. The syndrome, her Ghost plus the current predicament she's in syncs pretty well with each other to form the storm she's in right now!

Her guilt complex only gets worse when her trust and self-esteem is broken, especially by her loved ones. Imagine hearing you're an absolute worth of nothing from your beloved spouse. Imagine your illness is told to every stranger present in your house for a birthday party. And imagine whatever you've told your psychiatrist in confidence is leaked to another person, breaking the privileged promise. Having all this in mind as you see her eat a handful of soil in her motel, your heart can't help but break in agony to witness this one hell of a devastatingly unfortunate character!

Swallow is an exceedingly challenging, highly disturbing and truly uncomfortable true-blue horror, in a great way! It's incredibly impactful, memorable and the best part of it is, it has a happy ending! Hunter deals with her long-awaited Ghost. In an almost perfect scene, a beautiful conversation ensues between her and her father, which will move anyone following her journey to tears! All she needed was to take charge of at least this moment. All she needed was to hear it wasn't her fault and that she did nothing wrong. The many subtext in this scene alone demands a compulsory viewing! After finally burying her burden, she does something her mother couldn't do, that is abortion. She walks away as an independent woman, and we happily wish her all the best in her future undertakings because she absolutely deserves it!

The screenplay is lean with simple scenes and progression of events. Sure, the dialogues could have spent some time on the workbench, but its works for the most parts to provide the necessary impact. The random character who goes around asking for a hug is completely unwarranted for, while the reason for him being there as the outward expression of Hunter's desire for love and attention is understandable. Bleak and sterile color palette is beautiful yet fitting and chills-inducing when coupled with the production design, score plus cinematography that has the same intention. Speaking of cinematography, certain visuals shouldn't be shown on camera, such as the disgusting orascopy view. Isn't the surgery procedure shown enough? Before we forget, the prim and proper tie-shirt match is a fantastic scene among many others aforementioned.