Try as I might to watch every horror release I can, I have unfortunately let many slip through the cracks. Luckily, however, I am a lover of lists and have begun collecting all the titles I have missed over the last five-ish years so that I can return to the ones that still pique my interest. Below you will find short reviews of these films I almost missed, but didn’t.
Swallow (2020)
Swallow is a story all about control–how men exert control over women and how women attempt to gain control over their own lives in turn. The lead, Hunter, is introduced only in relation to her husband, not as her own person. The aesthetics on display are obviously 1950’s inspired, from Hunter’s full A-line skirts to the mid century modern architecture. It’s all to underscore Hunter’s role as traditional housewife. Her only domain is their carefully curated home. Her choices are limited to décor, and based on her husband’s reaction to a damaged silk tie, even mistakes in that realm come with consequences. More than that, Hunter’s husband is obviously not interested in her as a person with an interior world. She exists as just another pretty object he has collected in his house, something he cares for but doesn’t really know or love, and views as replaceable.
In response to her lack of autonomy, only exacerbated by her new pregnancy, Hunter begins to indulge in pica, or the eating of objects that are not edible. It is her one source of “freedom”, the choice to invite some novelty into her day-to-day life, the opportunity for a secret. Of course, when her husband finds out after she is sent to the emergency room, her privacy and self-determination are only further diminished.
Reading through the Letterboxd reviews, it seems like one plot detail that people struggled with was that Hunter was herself conceived through a rape her mother experienced. Many seem to feel that it is a superfluous detail. I’d counter that.positioning Hunter as the literal product of male control. Her mother, a religious fanatic, represents another version of a woman trying to assert power in the aftermath of male violence. When Hunter finally seeks out her biological father, she asks him if she’s like him. He says no. He doesn’t know about her disorder, but he’s still right: she doesn’t seek to control others for her own ends.
If I could change one thing, it would be the retro aesthetic. The 1950s housewife trope is well-trodden territory—The Stepford Wives, Don’t Worry Darling, Companion. While the visual shorthand works to evoke a domestic patriarchy, it’s become so common it now risks diluting the message. These issues persist today, even if they no longer come with apron strings.