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After spending the entire previous day wandering around the movie theater, I had to drag my tail for the 8am screening, but it wasn’t the worst choice for the job. swallowWritten and directed by Kevin Kölsch and Dennise Widmeyer, it was a cute nod to “The Raft.” Creepshow 2 (1987). This film is also the closing film selected to conclude Fantastic Fest 2026.
This year’s Fantastic Fest was all about creature features. swallow It fit the theme perfectly. For background, see: Creepshow 2 (1987) and “The Raft” – a short story by Stephen King published in November 1982. This is a story about a vacation gone wrong. A group of teenagers are literally swallowed by a cosplaying entity into a pit of mud. Like many people, I am not unfamiliar with movies about escapades, but swallow A new take on a familiar story.
We are Ziggy (Grace Van Dien – Stranger Things, Silver Star (2024) And her friends. They are her boyfriend (Jack Wright – All There Is (2025)) young man. Before they reach the space, they encounter a fence indicating that some changes have occurred since their childhood visit. It’s also (surprisingly) about a mile into the woods and far from parked cars.
The group decides to crawl through a hole in the bottom of the fence. This is obviously a red flag and signal to skip this trip and head home, but we digress.
creature
When we’re introduced to the movie’s “big bad,” we waste no time stripping the paint off the cast. And honestly, I appreciate the creators for that move. We experience an “oh shit” moment as we see how the entity moves, manipulates, and ultimately engulfs our group. But I felt like something was missing in the depiction of this story. In particular, the story has been somewhat reorganized.
Like “The Raft”, I was geeked out when I found out that the being digests anything that falls into its midst. And it works like an advanced nega pseudo-like. There were moments while watching this movie where it felt like our group got so turned around that they forgot their way back to the car. Or the forest around them could also be manipulated like the Black Woods Forest. The Blair Witch Project (and sequel). Either way, this movie was exactly like most things I saw at Fantastic Fest. But the conclusion was delivered in a grim seal.
The end of this movie left me bald, but it also made me stop and think. Will people be able to enjoy this film as the closing film of a film festival? i know swallow But in my opinion, this film was more festival filler than a closer. I enjoyed how this movie breathed new life into a familiar story. But ultimately, I left this film half-hearted and looking for more. i will give swallow 3 out of 5 underwater skeleton hands for the adventurous.