Hallowatch 2026 No. 4: Swallowed (2022)

Day Four. You feelin' spooky? Here's the wikipedia synopsis; as always, spoilers follow.

This movie unnerved me. Like in the first ten minutes it does a "eat this or I'll shoot you" and man if that's not a page out of my nightmare journal I don't know what is. Basically all of the horror of this movie falls into one of three buckets: It is a nightmare to have a body; It is a nightmare to exist as a sexual minority; and isn't it gross when bugs are sticky and wiggly, which I think is sort of a variation on the "it is a nightmare to have a body" thing.

Swallowed did have a couple really nice sequences of demonstrated intimacy and empathy that I found unusual for a horror movie; somehow, they didn't feel sentimental or sanctimonious. Like there was legitimate mourning for some of the characters that died. How often do you see that in a movie, let alone a horror movie?

It also did have a big heroic ending, which, had it lasted a little longer, would have felt mis-matched or goofy. But hey, this is a breezy 90 minutes long. It didn't need it any longer. The credits stinger, kind of a played out thing but not awful. The implication that he's using the bugs is grody.

In terms of performances, Jose Colon and Mark Patton kill it. Mark Patton especially, he's like a gay Henry Dean Stanton, every wrinkle on that face is telling a story. Cooper Koch and Jena Malone are both competent in their roles, although I feel like they had less opportunity for expression given they had to move the plot along.

Strong recommend; this was great. I'd rewatch it, it's remake, maybe not its sequel, although "what do the larvae turn into" could be a fun angle, more of a creature feature than body horror. But hey, why not both 👀?

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