Swallow, written and directed by Carlo Mirabella-Davis in his directorial debut, is a stunning portrait of mental illness, control, and personal autonomy. The film follows a young housewife named Hunter, played spectacularly by Haley Bennett, who develops Pica, a rare psychological disorder that causes her to develop an appetite for inedible objects.
In the film, Hunter is stuck in a controlling marriage and spends most of her day alone and unfulfilled in a remote upstate New York home. The wife of a wealthy man who is set to take over as CEO of his father's Manhattan based company, Hunter's main tasks appear to be decorating the couple's decadent house and embodying the perfect wife. Her secluded circumstance begin to take an emotional toll on her and Hunter seeks out a sense of self through an increasingly dangerous habit.
Hunter's life seems to revolve around her husband's return from work, eagerly prepping dinner and making herself up for him, killing the time in between with gardening, mindless iPhone games and not much else. Trapped emotionally and physically in her routine, Hunter yearns for autonomy and control. She manifests this by developing a habit of swallowing dangerous objects, beginning with a small marble, but quickly escalating to a thumbtack. Her new craving threatens physical harm but Hunter appears ambivalent to the side effects, focused only on the feeling of swallowing.
Swallow: Hunter's Fate Explained
After meeting Hunter's controlling in-laws, it becomes clear they value her in the same, singular way as their son does. They expect Hunter to perform her duties as a wife, especially when it comes to providing a child. Hunter seems lukewarm when she discovers she is pregnant, as the news is quickly consumed by her husband who eagerly tells his parents, making it theirs rather than Hunter's. Not even the child growing inside of her feels like her own; her body feels more controlled than ever. It feels thrilling for Hunter to have such an intimate, raw secret. The process itself of swallowing, keeping an object inside of herself and then expelling it, is a cycle is so rooted within the body that it becomes entirely personal. The cycle is freedom, her husband, her health, and the baby is not.
Hunter's disorder is discovered by her doctor who diagnoses her with Pica, a psychological disorder that drives people to consume the inedible. Her husband and in-laws insist Hunter see a therapist and subsequently hire Luay, a family friend and Syrian immigrant who is tasked with watching Hunter during her isolated days at the house. Initially hostile towards Luay, Hunter warms to him, and the man begins to sympathize with the young woman and her circumstance. As her therapy sessions continue, Hunter reveals that she is the product of rape, telling her psychologist that her father assaulted her mother after meeting in a bar one night. When asked if her mother ever considered terminating the pregnancy, Hunter says it was out of the question due to her mother's strict religious beliefs. With this information out in the open, it becomes clear that Hunter is dealing with intense feelings of shame and self-doubt.
Realizing her therapist is divulging the contents of their sessions to her husband, a panicked Hunter swallows a screwdriver and undergoes emergency surgery. Her husband and in-laws plan to have her committed to a psychiatric hospital until the baby is born, but Luay helps Hunter escape through a window, allowing her to run into the woods and hitchhike to a motel. After tracking down her biological father, she approaches him at his home, where he and his wife are throwing a birthday party for their young daughter. She reveals herself and after he expresses guilt for his actions, Hunter asks if he is ashamed of her; he assures her that he's not. With a new sense of freedom, autonomy and control, Hunter visits a clinic and obtains pills to induce an abortion. Now having sole power over her body and a newfound stability in herself, Hunter is able to start over and begin a life of her own.