‘Swallowed’ and Its Homoerotic Gaze
Carter Smith’s Swallowed is far more than a simple body-horror tale. It painstakingly explores the vulnerability of nakedness, while also fetishizing the male form. There just happen to be squirmy bugs involved. Through an erotic lens, Smith excavates centuries-old notions about the beauty and exploitation of the male figure, often feeling perverse and voyeuristic. Yet there remains a sense of magnificent artistry that keeps Swallowed from veering too far into tasteless territory.
The male body as a spectacle has been buried in our culture for centuries. Michelangelo gifted the world his iconic David sculpture, a figure with perfect lines and symmetry, while Myron portrayed the unforgettable discus thrower, known as Discobolus. We have collectively ogled the male form since man turned to art for expression. But even with this preoccupation, it wasn’t until 70 years ago that we collectively fantasized about and leered upon physique specifically in cinema.
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As author Patrick Schuckmann points out in his 1998 text, “Masculinity, the Male Spectator and the Homoerotic Gaze,” the objectification of the male form in cinema dates back to the ‘50s and ‘60s during which historical epics flooded cinemas and framed male forms as an exhibition into sexuality. Think Ben-Hur and Spartacus. Then came the ‘80s and early ‘90s in which action flicks objectified the male body even further, instilling within public consciousness of perfect, muscle-etched masculinity, targeting not only women but gay audiences worldwide. Films like Rambo, The Terminator, Point Break, and Die Hard, among countless others, made a display of the male body through sweaty action sequences with shirtless (or practically shirtless) hunks. These works were made to get the blood pumping and the heart racing. As Schuckmann writes, “The male body has become a commodity.”
Horror has had a similar relationship with conventionally attractive, aka hot, bodies. From Cat People (1942) to Hellraiser and even the portrayal of Dracula in any number of vampiric adaptations, sexuality has always been tethered to horrific storytelling. Sex is the most vulnerable a person can be, so it isn’t any wonder we have a fascination with nakedness. Where horror, particularly in the 1980s, has largely been engrossed with the female body, under the scrutiny of the male gaze, there remains an element of the homoerotic gaze—gay audiences transfixed to the screen to witness scrumptious hotties (gay, straight, or otherwise).
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Take A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, for instance. While Jesse (Mark Patton) busies himself figuring out how to defeat Freddy, his friend Grady (Robert Rusler) serves as a delectable dish meant for nothing more than something at which to leer. Other ‘80s features opting to show off rippling abs, glistening arms, or simply dashing men in sweaty scenarios include They Live, The Lost Boys, Death Spa, The Fly, The Funhouse, Terror Train—you get the picture. We love men. And the more muscles, the better.
Modern times have wrought even more obsession with sinewy brawn. 2005’s The Amityville Horror remake springs to mind as a textbook case of objectifying the male body. Every chance he gets, Ryan Reynolds is shirtless. Then, there’s House of Wax, Hostel, Pitch Black, Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), Gerald’s Game, and many more. If you have a hot guy in your film, you better at least show off his biceps.
Swallowed, one of the gayest films of the year, falls in line with this tradition. While the film’s story engages with the porn industry as merely a plot detail, it does effectively eroticize the male body of its lead Cooper Koch, who plays Benjamin, a doe-eyed young satyromaniac with ambitions to become a famous porn star. As a parting gift, his best friend Dom (Jose Colon) wants to give Benjamin a wad of cash.
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But that desire leads them to get embroiled in a drug smuggling operation moving hallucinatory drugs across the border into Canada. Held at gunpoint, they are forced to swallow small plastic bags containing drug-laced insects. Benjamin’s body becomes a literal sexual vehicle at this moment; the act of swallowing is an implicit sexual act. His actual form is hidden behind a zip-up hoodie, only his lemon-yellow tank top poking out the top.
Once they cross the border, Dom and Benjamin pull into a roadside rest stop, where they’re expected to dispense the drugs and hand them back over to Alice (Jena Malone). But things go south when a homophobic redneck enters the bathroom and punches Dom in the stomach, bursting at least one of the plastic baggies and letting the insects loose. His body begins to absorb the drug, causing him to lose control over his legs. Alice arrives soon after, and the trio pile into Alice’s car and head toward the hospital. But Alice wants to make a pitstop first: a secluded cabin owned by Rich (Mark Patton), a flamboyant drug lord. The drug bugs still need to be dealt with, after all.
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As Swallowed lurches into its third act, both Dom and Benjamin become Rich’s playthings to ogle, to caress, to adore. “All this bullshit and a real-life sex show, too,” Rich says, waving his handgun around in the air. He strolls into the cabin and witnesses Benjamin attempting to retrieve the plastic bags from inside Dom’s body via Dom’s anus. It’s not a sexual act, but it morphs into one through Rich’s perverse perspective. “And such beautiful boys…” Rich trails off as he observes in the background. Later, as a show of dominance, he inserts the barrel of the gun into Dom’s mouth. Dom lies practically lifeless on the floor and is unable to resist.
When Dom’s life drains from his body, Rich suggests Benjamin go take a bath and demands he removes his clothing. Benjamin reluctantly peels the clothing away under Rich’s unwavering gaze. Like his clothes, Benjamin’s hopes and dreams are stripped away, and he’s nothing more than a slab of meat. His body then becomes the central visual fulcrum for the rest of the film. “I would never take advantage of you,” says Rich, who proceeds to wipe down Benjamin with a cloth as he lies in the tub. With Dom out of the way, Rich can have him all to himself. But he’s not like the others out in Los Angeles who’ll use him and toss him away. He’s a good guy. “That town is going to eat you up. They’re gonna lick their lips and come back for more,” he smirks.
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Whenever Benjamin is on screen, the camera fetishistically lingers on his body. And that’s the point. We, the viewer, function as Rich’s double, seeing Benjamin the way he sees him. It’s never at the expense of the plot, and in fact, punctuates the underlying theme about youth and beauty; the smooth skin and toned muscles signify what Rich no longer possesses. In a place of power, he turns self-agonizing shame into flushed-cheek desire, his eyes consuming every inch of Benjamin’s body. Carter Smith, alongside cinematographer Alexander Lewis, allows the camera to engage with every crevice of his form, both in the exploitation of his body and a showcase of his vulnerability. You’re never more exposed than you are when you’re naked. The audience derives titillating pleasure in these moments, yet it’s never voyeuristic. Instead, it feels like you shouldn’t be seeing the images before you.
As Swallowed unravels further, Benjamin learns and understands that in order to escape he must brandish his body out in the open. It’s his strongest weapon. He seduces Rich and asks to try on his fringy leather jacket. He downs a whiskey, its sweet elixir giving him the confidence to exact his plan. As spectators, we cheer him on as he embraces his allotment in life and flips the script enough so he has the upper hand. Benjamin switches from the powerless object to the all-powerful hero in a matter of minutes. His body, a temple of fierce ingenuity, saves him from an uncertain, perhaps tragic, fate.
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In the end, Benjamin takes a drug bug between his fingertips and allows its sharp tail to inject its venom into Rich’s skin. Now, Rich’s body becomes the vehicle through which he’s both exploited and constrained as he’s now unable to move. Benjamin carries Rich out to a nearby outhouse, where he lifts the toilet lid and slides Rich’s body down into a vat of urine and feces. It’s a fitting end that gives Benjamin the ability to reclaim not only his body but his value as a person.
Some time passes, and he’s now a breakout star in the porn world. Benjamin’s body, an object of great adoration to the public, is no longer a thing to be exploited. It’s a power tool. His resilience lies in a willingness to redefine it on his own terms. And that means confronting popular notions about what it means to be naked and raw. While his body remains a spectacle for those who watch porn, his own value is no longer lost. He relishes in it, rather than allowing it to drain him.
Swallowed offers up a striking meditation on the homoerotic gaze, coalescing exploitation and vulnerability. Through its character dynamics—Benjamin and Dom, and Benjamin and Rich—Carter Smith astutely observes that the male human form is often defined by its relationship to and with others. On its own, the body is an art piece, one of singular, profound beauty. But when tangled with another, either literally or figuratively, it becomes a way through which we can perceive the ideas of sex, power, and intimacy.
Categorized:Editorials
