"SWALLOW" // TRIBECA 2019 REVIEW
Just when you think you've seen everything a horror movie can pull, Writer/Director Carlo Mirabella-Davis pulls a rabbit out of a hat. Or rather, pulls a rabbit out of your stomach. Or puts a marble in your stomach. The point is, he creates an original vision and SWALLOW is that vision, starring a remarkable Haley Bennett as a bored and lonely housewife with a very, serious problem. Hunter (Bennett) lives a very privileged life. She's married, has money, is taken care of financially but is terribly alone, both emotionally and physically. She's often left alone in her home as her husband Richie (Austin Stowell) works extremely long hours, desperate for attention. What she discovers about herself starts off more as a fascination; she holds a small marble in her hand and wonders what it would taste like, what it would feel like if she swallowed it. And she does. She knows she shouldn't have done it, and that becomes part of the thrill. No one knows that she did this very naughty, dangerous thing. But she did it. And she now wants to do it again.
Her lonely, controlled existence that has been decided almost entirely for her by others is now in her control. One small thing is completely up to her. So she continues to swallow things, things that don't quite go down so easily. They begin to get bigger, more dangerous. When she swallows a thumbtack, for instance, it comes out in a much harsher way than the marble. You wince in pain each time she chooses a new object, quietly hoping that she won't swallow it. But she will. And each time it will get worse. Swallow is a broken portrait of a woman collapsing, coming undone by her mental illness. It's a horror film not in the sense of Zombies or murders; it's the horror that life and we ourselves bring onto, well, overselves. Bennett is marvelous; quiet and powerful, controlling every moment on screen and demanding your attention. It's not so much dreamlike, but framed like a dream that's falling into a nightmare. One that will fascinate you as much as it disturbs you. You've never seen anything like it, and hopefully in your own life, you never will.
VERDICT: MUST SEE
GRADE: A
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY Carlo Mirabella-Davis STARRING Haley Bennett, Austin Stowell, Elizabeth Marvel, David Rasche, Denis O'Hare. PLAYING AS PART OF THE 2019 Tribeca Film Festival. For more information: http://www.tribecafilm.com/filmguide/swallow-2019