Cinema Scholars interviews writer/director Carter Smith about his new LGBTQIA+ horror/thriller Swallowed. The film stars Cooper Koch, Jose Colon, Jena Malone, and Mark Patton. Momentum Pictures will release Swallowed On Demand and Digital on February 14, 2023.
Introduction
When you think of squirm-inducing body horror, a poignant and complex love story isn’t always what initially comes to mind. Yet, horror aficionados know that an emotional core at the center of any genre framework is what makes the terror of a particular situation truly resonate. Without that connection, the horror itself can often feel like a checklist of jump scares and cringe scenes that fulfill the assignment but leave no lasting impression.
While those cinematic guilty pleasures certainly have their place within the genre, it’s always impressive when a film makes you think and squirm at the same time. In Carter Smith’s new horror film Swallowed, the writer/director crafts a sweet story of love and friendship amid a mysterious drug deal gone woefully wrong.
Benjamin is a young twenty-something enjoying one last night out dancing with his best friend Dom. He is finally moving to Los Angeles to get away from his small Maine hometown and embark on a career in the adult entertainment industry. Benjamin’s lofty goal is matched by an even more questionable scheme hatched by his wistful pal.
In an unexpected gesture at the night’s end, Dom reveals that he’s brokered them an easy slam-dunk drug-muling gig across the Canadian border. He wants to show some love by sending off his bestie with a nice chunk of dough. Reluctantly agreeing to the sudden change in plans, Benjamin soon regrets his decision as the mysterious cargo and specific means of, ahem, transportation, come into sharper focus.
With a title like Swallowed, the rest can surely be put together without much more explanation. The film has a simple but brutal premise and body horror that is mostly left up to the imagination. But a conveyor belt of subliminal takeaways from a beautiful core story of complex love and friendship takes Swallowed many notches above typical squeamish fare.
Highlights of the film include a powerhouse performance by Nightmare On Elm Street 2’s original “Male Scream Queen”, Mark Patton. The long-retired actor, who is enjoying a sort of renaissance/comeuppance now as a revered LGBTQ+ horror trailblazer, delivers a chilling, unhinged take as the main villain, Rich.
Jena Malone turns in another badass and nuanced performance as Alice, the henchman managing the deal. And Cooper Koch and Jose Colon as Benjamin and Dom both keep the emotional story at the center of all the madness so sweet with heartbreaking realism.
With various cringe-worthy scenes in addition to sparse, but effective creature work from guru Dan Martin, Swallowed still fits firmly in the squirm-horror subcategory despite all the highfalutin substance. A moody, ethereal needle drop featuring Rina Mushunga’s “Narcisc0” bookends the film, while Christopher Bear’s ominous score beautifully propels and evens out the quick pacing.
Cinema Scholars’ Rebecca Elliott recently talked with Swallowed writer/director Carter Smith about making his chilling yet emotional film, working with a personal icon, and making an earworm your muse.
Interview
Rebecca Elliott:
Hi, Carter. Thanks for talking to me today. It’s nice to meet you.
Carter Smith:
Yeah. Thanks for talking Swallowed.
Rebecca Elliott:
For sure. Obviously, Swallowed tackles some complex LGBTQIA+ themes within the horror context. But really, at its heart, it’s a lovely story about love in many forms. I was so surprised by how poignant the film is. Even though it’s super cringy and fun with body horror! But it’s really poignant too. Can you talk a little bit about framing such an emotional story in the horror context?
Carter Smith:
I think that the best horror stories are centered around characters that we’re deeply and emotionally connected to. The script started with Benjamin and Dom with that relationship and with this crossroads in their relationship. Benjamin’s moving to LA, and Dom is staying behind, and how that might affect them. I knew that I wanted to do something that was intimate and nuanced in terms of what that relationship looked like. Benjamin is gay. Dom is straight. There are a lot of people that can relate to how complicated that relationship can be. Where the smallest little thing, a brush of a shoulder, that stuff means so much more. And I found that really interesting.
Rebecca Elliott:
Definitely. I kept thinking the whole time, there are so many layers here. There’s so much going on because I just love their relationship. It’s such a true love, for whatever that is and whatever that means.
Carter Smith:
Yeah, for whatever that is. I knew that as an audience if they’re going to get on board really caring about these guys, they have to be invested in it. And not only them but in their friendship and their relationship and in how much they care about each other. Because if that had not landed, the horror wouldn’t be horrific.
Rebecca Elliott:
Exactly. You gotta have that beautiful juxtaposition.
Carter Smith:
Exactly.
Rebecca Elliott:
Well, you have terrific casting. Some relative newcomers with Cooper and Dom. And the always incredibly badass, Jena Malone. But, of course, I want to talk about Mark Patton, who is incredible as a villain, which is so ironic because he started off his career being chased by Freddy Krueger! And then of course with the recent release of the Scream, Queen! My Nightmare On Elm Street documentary…If people haven’t seen that, they need to see it. It’s very fascinating and highlights what performers like Mark went through in Hollywood. I just love that he’s having this renaissance and comeuppance now being hailed as this unwitting LGBTQIA+ trailblazer in horror. Like this new horror icon.
Carter Smith:
Yeah. 100%.
Rebecca Elliott:
Can you talk about working with Mark and then also just how… I feel like horror today is becoming such a bastion of inclusivity. So can you touch on working with Mark and touch on that trend?
Carter Smith:
Yeah. Working with Mark was a dream. Of course, I saw A Nightmare On Elm Street 2 when I was a kid. Even though I didn’t understand it at the time, I saw something in that character that I identified with and connected with in a way that I hadn’t seen in the horror movies that I loved. When I saw Scream, Queen!, I just became fascinated with Mark. I wrote the part specifically for him, knowing that he would bring so much to this role. At first, when we started talking about it, he said, “Well, I was reading it and I was a little confused because I’m too old to play Ben.” He’s like, “I’m used to getting the scripts where I played the beautiful young boy.” Then he’s like, “Then Rich appeared and I understood exactly what this was all about.”
It wasn’t an easy role. It really required him to really go there and drop all pretenses of how he looks and how he acts and how gay he is all that stuff. But I think it was a really exciting challenge for him too because he’s someone that is willing to dive into that role in a way and he’s grateful for the opportunity. What’s been so exciting is he just has such an incredible fan base of people that love him so much. And so to talk to those people and have them come out and support him in the film has been great. Because horror has not always been a super-inclusive atmosphere.
Thankfully, it’s getting to that place now, but for me growing up, it wasn’t as queer-friendly as it is now. I think that’s only by creating these stories where the characters and their queerness are not meant to be the punchline. These are just characters that live in this world and horrific things are happening to them the same way they would to any other character. I think that’s really exciting.
Rebecca Elliott:
Definitely. As far as that horror goes, you leave a lot to the imagination, but there’s still some effects work. I noticed that you worked with Dan Martin who did some of the creature work on movies like Color Out of Space among a ton of others, which is like, whoa!
Carter Smith:
Yes, the incredible Dan Martin.
Rebecca Elliott:
Can you talk about the design? Was that on the page when you wrote it? How specific were you? Or did you collaborate with your effects team on that?
Carter Smith:
It wasn’t really on the page so much because writing it, I knew I was going to direct it. A lot of times when I’m writing something that I know I’m going to direct, there’s like a shorthand on the page. But when it came time to design the creature or the bugs, there was just a lot of back and forth between Dan and me sending weird little YouTube clips. Most of it was based on real nature. It’s not meant to be something from outer space. These are very realistic and I wanted them to move in a realistic way and to be something that you might look twice at it if you saw it in real life. But you wouldn’t think, “Oh, my God, that’s a crazy monster!” It’s like, “Oh, yeah, that’s an insect. That’s a bug.”
Rebecca Elliott:
Well, it’s very effective. I was thinking the whole time, like, there’s probably stuff like that inside us right now. It’s just microscopic. We just don’t see it or feel it. Gah!
Carter Smith:
Yeah. And also what I found really interesting was there’s this whole thing about people who go to the Amazon to do this ceremony with the venom from a certain toad. There are a lot of natural nature-based trips, and drug experiences that I’ve read about and I’ve heard about. That was fascinating that this could be only half a step away from reality.
Rebecca Elliott:
Right. Yeah. It’s scary how close sci-fi is to reality sometimes.
Carter Smith:
Well, that’s the most horrific to me because this is stuff that could happen in the real world.
Rebecca Elliott:
Yeah, for real. Well, I guess I need to wrap it up, but I wanted to ask one more question. You have this incredible needle drop that bookends the movie at the beginning and at the end. I saw it’s “Narcisc0” by-
Carter Smith:
“Narcisc0” by Rina Mushonga.
Rebecca Elliott:
Yeah. It’s such a great song.
Carter Smith:
I love that song.
Rebecca Elliott:
I just thought it, I don’t know, it bookended it well. It somehow leaves it on an up note, which is nice. But also, I was just curious because I noticed Cooper, your lead, is lip-syncing it in the beginning. Did-
Carter Smith:
That was the song always.
Rebecca Elliott:
Okay, so that was always the song! Can you talk about that?
Carter Smith:
I heard that song. It was a random song that was suggested to me on…I started a Spotify station based on some other song. That song came up as I was writing the script. I was writing the scene where they were dancing in that opening. There was something about listening to that song and writing that the words just came out, I’m not even kidding you. I put that song on repeat and I listened to the song for the entire time that I wrote the script. There are literally probably 12,000 listens of that specific song. I found that as long as that song was playing, the pages were flowing out, Which any writer knows that if you find that, you take advantage of it.
Rebecca Elliott:
Heck yeah!
Carter Smith:
You keep playing that song. Then I found her and I reached out to her from some archived MySpace page. I explained to her how powerful the song was and how much it inspired me. She was just on board and was so psyched that it had inspired another artist to create something.
Rebecca Elliott:
Oh, that’s such a great story!
Carter Smith:
And people love it. Everyone is like, “What’s that song?”
Rebecca Elliott:
Yes. Okay. So it’s not just me! Because I was like, what is that? I even took a screenshot of the credits. I got to know that song. It’s so good. It has this ambient flow, that inexplicable thing where it just perfectly bookends.
Carter Smith:
It’s melancholic and optimistic. So many things at once.
Rebecca Elliott:
And so is your film, so that wraps up our interview perfectly! I guess that my time is up, so I will let you go but thank you so much for talking to me today. Have a great day.
Carter Smith:
Thank you, Rebecca. I’m so glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for helping us spread the word.
