On a recent episode of Dead Talk Live, Carter Smith, director and writer of Swallowed, dished on the individuality of his film and his approach to a plot combined with drugs, romance, and horror. 

Swallowed focuses on two best friends, Benjamin and Dom, who experience a nightmare of drugs, bugs, and “horrific intimacy”, according to the plot synopsis. Benjamin is about to embark on a major move in his life, but he grieves leaving his friend, Dom, whom he has feelings for. Once the two get involved in a dramatic drug run, all hell breaks loose for them. The movie stars Cooper Koch as Benjamin, Jose Colon as Dom, Jena Malone as Alice, and Mark Patton as Rich. 

Smith, who directed 2008’s The Ruins, talked to us about his approach to such a unique storyline, admitting that he surprisingly hadn’t seen “many drug mule movies before.” 

“Everything that could go wrong does go wrong,” the writer explained, referring to his movie’s plot. 

Despite not having previously watched many drug crime-related films beforehand, Smith recalled that he had read about a “trend of natural substances,” since his movie doesn’t involve the run-of-the-mill narcotics that audiences tend to see on screen (i.e. Breaking Bad’s crystal meth.)