’Swallowed’ review: Dir. Carter Smith [Fantasia]

Carter Smith’s The Ruins was a stomach-churning story of an excursion gone wrong and featured some truly icky imagery involving vines and veins. He returns to the gruesome and uncomfortable with Swallowed, a new film currently on the genre festival circuit. Swallowed revolves around two friends, Benjamin (Cooper Koch) and Dom (Jose Colon). The pair are on the precipice of being separated; Benjamin is set to leave to the bright lights of Los Angeles, and the allure of the adult entertainment industry. Their bond is what keeps the first part of the movie interesting. They’ve been friends forever and despite having different sexual preferences, have a clear and undiluted love for one another. It is this love that drives Dom to accept a risky job smuggling drugs across the border as he strives to send his bestie on his new path with a substantial nest egg in the bank. The title refers to a key part of Dom’s task – to smuggle drugs – and even in these early moments, Swallowed demonstrates a flair for the grim. 

Drug smuggling has never been viewed as a desirable profession, but Smith highlights just how terrifying an ordeal it can be, and that’s before the complications arise. Soon after arriving across the border, Dom is assaulted and becomes ill. The contents of his package cause an extreme reaction and it quickly becomes clear that the bundles don’t contain your typical Class A narcotic. With no one else to turn to, and desperate to alleviate Dom’s agony, Benjamin turns to the shady Alice (Jena Malone). Malone is excellent as the criminal that sets Dom and Benjamin on their nightmarish journey. Her initial cold calculation slips as her own fears rise to the surface. The need to keep Dom’s cargo intact sees her anxiety spike and the reveal of a potential connection to Smith’s excellent (and devastating) short, Bugcrush, is revealed. 

Those that struggled through the sound design and visuals of The Ruins may want to sit this one out. Swallowed dials the intensity to maximum. Benjamin and Alice have only one option to help Dom purge his contraband, and it’s as unpleasant for the viewer to witness as it is for the characters to endure. Something that made Smith’s Bugcrush so excruciating was the way in which the director opted to show very little. Rather than put everything on show, he allowed the sound design and viewer’s imagination to conjure up images of terror. During the most extreme and invasive of moments the camera remains tightly focused on Benjamin. His winces, grimaces, and the clear upset at the task he has been set is plain to see on Koch’s face, the actor emoting every nuance of Benjamin’s turmoil. When coupled with Dom’s ear-shredding moans of anguish, Swallowed proves to be a film only for those not faint of heart.  

The intensity on display distorts and morphs into something else for the final part of the story as the eccentric Rich (Mark Patton) arrives. Rich is the buyer of Alice’s product and a man who takes an instant shine to the attractive young man thrust in front of him. And so, the third act of Swallowed plays out as a spider and fly scenario. The older man uses his position of power to try and seduce Benjamin. It’s a powerfully unsettling performance by the A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge actor, and one that will hopefully lead to a resurgence of Patton’s career. 

The shift in tone and focus, as the story moves away from the powerful ties of friendship and into darker territory, does not entirely work. It’s familiar ground for Smith, throwing back to Bugcrush, but its potency is lost when placed next to the emotional punch of what has happened prior. In a twisted way, this final act almost becomes tension relief to the white-knuckle experience of earlier events. It doesn’t diminish what has come before, but does pale in comparison. Though the reality of the ending may not hold up to expectations, Swallowed remains an exceptional calling card for Smith. Proof that the writer and director knows exactly how to manipulate camera angles, sound design, and his actors to craft a viewing experience that is stomach-churning, haunting, and emotional in equal measure. 

Swallowed was reviewed at Fantasia International Film Festival. Swallowed will screen next at Arrow Video FrightFest on Sunday 28th August 2022.