World premiering at The 2022 Overlook Film Festival, Carter Smith brings a very intense and proudly gay piece of cinema to the big screen with his new feature film, SWALLOWED. Providing strong queer representation, Smith’s film breaks away from the heteronormative approach to the genre by combining gay themes with body horror that create believable and surprisingly heartwarming moments. And even with a small cast, SWALLOWED’s focus on queerness and the overall intimate (and invasive) exploration of the male body helps elevate the story beyond the typical installments in the subgenre.
In the movie, we meet best friends Dom (Jose Colon) and Benjamin (Cooper Koch) who have reached a rough part in their relationship because Ben got the opportunity to move away and become a porn star. Dom worries about his friend’s future but tries to keep his sullen behavior from ruining their last night out together. Dancing and drinks create a light-hearted time, and Benjamin’s good mood gets even higher when Dom announces a going-away present. Wanting to provide some financial security for his bestie, he makes the poor decision to partake in a drug run to earn cash for Ben. However, the drugs must travel internally, and it’s too late to back out now. The pair of friends just have to swallow (at gunpoint) a few condoms filled with drugs and deliver them safely.
Ben and Dom unwillingly consent to swallow the contraband and nervously carry their cargo across the border. They get to the rendezvous, but while waiting for the dealer, an unfortunate run-in with a violent bigot puts Dom in a very dangerous situation. One of the swallowed parcels comes out, and the guys discover the condom contains something far more dangerous than heroin, and something much more alive. Only after Dom gets very sick do they learn their intestines are hauling some kind of bug that supposedly unleashes a drug-fueled bite that leaves the buyer extremely high and painfully aroused for nine hours.
Smith presents a really unusual approach to body horror, but even with the stomach-churning extraction of mutant bugs, the characters unexpectedly add a bit of the “best-friend road trip” subgenre to the film. Ben and Dom offer such a high level of authenticity to their relationship that their compelling interactions seem very organic. Traveling all through the night and into the next day, we never learn the history of Ben and Dom, but through their conversations and their constant fight for each other, we understand the two love each other (in a platonic, yet flirty way) and no amount of drug dealers or unworldly insects will stop that. Defending each other’s honor, taking dangerous risks, and offering physical comfort and words of kindness to one another, Colon and Koch believably play a bonded pair of besties.
And to complete the well-chosen cast, the friends are joined by Jena Malone (The Ruins, Donnie Darko) as their drug dealer and scene-stealing Mark Patton (Nightmare on Elm Street 2) as the drug-bug kingpin. And all four of these characters combine for a very well-casted film. The love of the good guys will make you cry, and the villainy of the bad guys will have you fuming with rage.
Weirdly, the terrifying bugs inside our characters’ intestines are not the scariest part of the story. In fact, the strange creatures serve more as a McGuffin to demonstrate a lot of the horrors which happen to members of the gay community. Sexual exploitation, threats of physical violence, denial of medical care, and isolation all play major parts in making this the most frightening night of Ben and Dom’s life. Sex, drugs, and violence might be the main components on the surface of the film, but the underlying theme which runs throughout the story involves isolation. Throughout the journey, Dom and Ben go from one place of isolation to the next. They start in their car, then at a secluded rest stop, and then end in a hidden away cabin in the Maine woods. And despite the darkness and the tears, Smith presents an unapologetically queer film with shots of naked butts, plenty of male on male gaze, and even some peen.
SWALLOWED, overall, gives a lot to enjoy, so gulp down some anus-related body horror, full-frontal nudity, and a very tender and loving friendship.
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