This Queer Horror Film is the Perfect Bloody Valentine

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, a new queer body horror flick promises to get your heart pumping. Director Carter Smith (The Ruins) describes his newest indie feature Swallowed as a “slimy, wild queer horror movie.”

Starring They/Them’s Cooper Koch and newcomer Jose Colon, the film follows two childhood friends who have to navigate a wild, drug-fueled adventure on the eve of their separation.

“Set in a remote township on the border between Maine and Canada, it’s a story about friendship and loneliness. About the extremes we are willing to endure to protect the ones we love,” the official synopsis reads.

“Benjamin (Koch) and Dom (Colon) have been best friends since they were kids – and Benjamin has been in love with Dom for almost that long. But the time has come for him to leave their tiny hometown for a place where he can be himself – and maybe find someone to love him back.

“We meet them on their last, bittersweet night together. Benjamin’s heading to sunny Los Angeles. He’s just got the lead in ‘Backwoods Boy Bang’ and a blazing bright future in gay porn. Dom’s being left behind. His plan is to send Benjamin off with a pocketful of cash. All he has to do is deliver a package over the border for a friend…

 

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“Dripping with blood and pus, Swallowed is queer body horror with all the naked flesh and shocking violations of a classic midnight movie.”

Smith made a name for himself as a body horror artist with his directorial debut The Ruins, in which a killer plant consumes its victims from the inside out. Now, The Ruins’ leading heroine Jena Malone (The Neon Demon) is returning as a villain in Swallowed.

Mark Patton, star of the iconic queer-coded horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddie’s Revenge, makes his return to the silver screen as a sinister, gun-toting man living in the woods. “Working with Mark Patton was like a teenage dream come true,” Smith gushed on an Instagram post celebrating the wrap on production. “The fact that I found him here on IG and just sent him a DM about the project is crazy.”

After a successful film festival run last year, Swallowed is headed for a digital and VOD release on February 14.