Being a people-pleaser is exhausting. You are constantly worried about how someone is thinking or feeling; you try to do everything in your power to make sure they are happy, and you absolutely panic at the thought of someone being upset. It doesn’t matter what they are upset about; if they are upset, it feels like a failure. People-pleasing is often an effect of trauma, as you have been programmed to expect that you are the cause of someone’s unhappiness. No matter who you are talking to or who is in your life, this trauma follows you in every interaction. This is the life of Hunter in Carlo Mirabella-Davis’ Swallow.
In Swallow, Haley Bennet plays Hunter, a housewife who has married into an extremely wealthy family. With that wealth comes a certain set of expectations and standards, ranging from the length of her hair to the way she dresses to how she gets mental health services. She is a beautiful blonde puppet who is constantly reminded that without him and his money, she is nothing. She has no talents, she has no wealth, so she must comply with any and all orders or risk being turned onto the streets.
So, Hunter reads self-help books and does whatever she can to find solace in her new life. One of those coping mechanisms is swallowing items like marbles, thumbtacks, and batteries. The act of swallowing these objects is something that she is doing for herself; no one else is telling her to do it. It is a little treat, or so she thinks, something she can do without her husband, Richie (Austin Stowell), knowing or policing. This small act is one of rebellion, a grasp at control that is constantly slipping from her fingertips.
However, the illusion of control begins to vanish as she discovers she is pregnant. Of course, her pregnancy is celebrated by her husband as he exclaims “we are pregnant” and sees this as another thing he can make about himself, as well as his family. But, as seen in films like Rosemary’s Baby, pregnancy is often used as an exploitation of the female body. Women become a vessel for a man’s child, and hopefully heir. She is just a body to carry the precious cargo, something that is only protected and cared for out of necessity until the baby is born. In Rosemary’s Baby, the baby was the literal son of Satan. In Swallow, the baby is more symbolically the spawn of an evil family, but it still represents the hold his family has on Hunter’s life.
When Richie discovers Hunter’s appetite for the inedible, drastic measures must be taken. His child must be protected and he will do anything to ensure their safety. Don’t be mistaken, any help given to Hunter is only given to help the baby. She is medicated, given a caretaker—against her will— and reluctantly taken to therapy. To him, therapy is out of his control and a place where he can not dictate her every thought. It is a place for her to freely express herself and that terrifies him.
Yet through therapy, something much deeper and traumatic is revealed: Hunter was conceived when her mother was raped. She cheerily explains the story to her therapist, going into detail about who her father is, how he raped her mother, and how long he was in prison. While explaining this, she also continues to minimalize the effect such information has had on her life. Yet Hunter has offered an explanation for her actions and can be further understood; this was not just some event that happened and didn’t shape who she was. Her entire existence was marked by a single horrific act of violence, and she wants to avoid that fact as much as possible.
While her mother is not shown in the film, Hunter tries to quickly explain just how happy she was with her mother, stepdad, and new sisters. But through that sparkling veneer of a perfect family, Hunter slowly reveals how isolated she was from her family. Growing up, Hunter wanted nothing more than her mother to love her regardless of how she was conceived. She has spent her life trying to make people happy and make them love her despite everything else. She is a chronic people-pleaser due to her own neglect as a child, and that is reflected in her romantic relationships
But as Hunter peels back the layers of her trauma, she begins to recognize the cycles of abuse she has been stuck in her entire life. For so long she has focused on making others happy instead of herself. Swallowing was the one thing that made her happy. Now she seeks more than a clandestine marble; she seeks liberation.
Liberation for Hunter comes in the form of an abortion, done with the symbolic swallowing of a pill. Hunter has swallowed objects to exercise control, and this final swallowing scene is the ultimate act of bodily autonomy and rebellion. Abortion, in Swallow, is ultimately an empowering act, one that has freed Hunter. Her abortion also frees her from the cycle of abuse perpetuated by her own mother. While Hunter was conceived in rape, and her child was conceived presumably consensually, the child still represents a life where she cannot ever be herself. She is a child that represents guilt and regret, and she does not want another child to experience a life of resentment. Further, the baby, if they had been born, would have been a bargaining chip, a piece of capital used by her husband to dictate her actions. Hunter takes control over her own narrative through abortion, doing what her mother didn’t.
While this is not a film centered on the politics of abortion, it does show abortion as empowering and a way to exercise control over one’s body. Abortion is Hunter’s ultimate act of control, of removing herself from abuse. It marks her beginning to move towards a life where she does what makes her happy. Swallow is Hunter’s painful journey towards that realization, as well as a rumination on how difficult coming to such a realization can be. The female body is so often a battleground, and Hunter found a way to win her war.
Swallow is now available on VOD.
