{"id":37459,"date":"2022-07-18T22:13:01","date_gmt":"2022-07-19T02:13:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=37459"},"modified":"2022-07-18T22:13:01","modified_gmt":"2022-07-19T02:13:01","slug":"swallowed-2022-fantasia-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2022\/07\/18\/swallowed-2022-fantasia-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Swallowed (2022) [Fantasia 2022]\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Two best friends about to be separated by life and dreams to follow decide to make a bit of money by mulling a drug for a woman they barely know. When things go wrong, they also get very personal and intimate in the worst way.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Written and directed by Carter Smith, this film is a drug-mule-body-horror-cabin horror tale that has a plenty of twists and turns, taking the idea of a drug mule\u2019s package bursting to a whole new level. Here, everything is stressful, everything is tense, and everyone is more nervous than they probably should be. Every character has something to lose and that something is not small. The film takes 4 people, shoves them in a bad situation, and lets things develop. There are drugs, there is body horror, there is death, there is friendship, and so much more. The film is well-written and moves at a good pace while staying easy to follow. The film adds new elements to the drug mule gone wrong story and those elements make it more than worth the time to watch.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When it comes the cast, Swallowed is kept to a minimum of folks, a bit like director Carter Smith\u2019s The Ruins. Not many locations, few people. Here the cast is led by Cooper Koch who does great work here showing panic, fear, and determination, something all at the same time. Playing his character\u2019s best friend and the one central to the main events is Jose Colon who also does well here, especially with what his character goes through. The other two main characters here are Alice and an unnamed man, respectively played by Jena Malone and Mark Patton. Malone gives a great performance as can be expected of her at this point. She knows what she\u2019s doing and she does it well. Patton is allowed to go unhinged here and he seems to be having fun with it. He goes fully on with his character and really gives him that menacing edge to potential imbalance. The work overall is more than solid from the cast, really selling the story.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The film here is shot in an interesting manner, limiting the size of the image to an now-unusual format. The cinematography by Alexander W. Lewis work really well with this and in general. There are a few scenes and sequences where things get a bit too hyper for this reviewer, but this is clearly done for an effect which works here. The look of the film fits the story and the mood of it all, bringing its own energy to the screen when needed.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Swallowed is an effective drug\/body horror\/departure film that works on many levels. The film has some true emotional moments that bring it all into perspective and make it something stronger than expected. It does have an odd idea during the credits that, while logical, doesn\u2019t really work in terms of tone and mood, but it\u2019s easy enough to remember the rest of the film and ignore that small part.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Fantasia International Film Festival 2022 runs from July 14th\u00a0to August 3rd, 2022<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two best friends about to be separated by life and dreams to follow decide to make a bit of money by mulling a drug for a woman they barely know. When things go wrong, they also get very personal and intimate in the worst way.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2497,1284,12],"tags":[1282,302,1350,477],"class_list":["post-37459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasia-fest","category-festivalsevents","category-movie-reviews","tag-body-horror","tag-drama","tag-drugs","tag-horror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37459"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37460,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37459\/revisions\/37460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}