After agreeing to a night out together, a pair of friends undergoing an illicit drug run for extra money find themselves stranded across the border in a remote cabin with the drugs slowly being revealed as being more than what they were told, igniting a deadly struggle for survival between everyone.

On the whole, there's quite a lot to like with this one. Among the more impressive elements found here is the incredibly engaging setup that provides for an intriguing time throughout here. With the initial trip providing an excuse for the two to remain isolated alone together for as long as they are while still generating an intriguing overall premise involving the two smuggling the drugs in the midst of their relationship quarrels to add an extra wrinkle to their dynamic. This becomes especially more chilling as the situation worsens with them stranded there and the situation becoming drastically more desperate as time goes on. Given the highly immersive queer subtext involving their relationship together as well as the later relationship with their boss, it gives a rather fun storyline for this one. That becomes all the more fun and chilling once the film switches gears to the genuine body-horror breakdown that transpires in the second half. Spending the majority of the film in the remote cabin where the side-affects of the trip become all the more apparent involving some rather unexpected elements of the extraction that come into play. With some rather harrowing moments here that come into play here once the shipment has been ruptured and their lives are at stake the longer it goes on with just them and the drug-runner together which starts an extremely tense section of the film throughout. The build-up given their relationship beforehand gives this one a much-more impressive setup that allows the impact to hit that much harder for a lot to really enjoy here. There isn't much that holds this back but it does have some minor issues. Most of these come in the finale where its somewhat disjointed and rather chaotic nature comes at the expense of what had come before it. Switching from a tense drug-deal-gone-wrong film about the paranoia involving the contents of the drugs inside them into a suspense-filled crime-thriller involving the drug-dealer looking to prey on the surviving member of the trip comes off with a lack of energy and direction that makes this end on somewhat of a whimper. Alongside the somewhat limiting budget that crops up at times, these hold it down somewhat.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language, Full Graphic Male Nudity and Violence.

Directed and written by Carter Smith, Swallowed starts with the last night together of friends Benjamin (Cooper Koch) and Dom (Jose Colon). Benjamin is leaving for California to be a porn star and Don is convinced he'll forget him and their friendship when he's gone. To make sure his friend has enough money -- he doesn't trust the porn company who promises to pay for everything -- Dom makes a stop to set up a drug run that'll get his friend some money.

Except that Alice (Jena Malone),who they are to get the shipment from, seems off. The drugs seem weird, having to be kept at a specific temperature. And swallowed, because they need to cross the border to Canada with them. They try to back out, she sticks a gun to their head and the decision has been made.

Whatever is now inside their bodies is making Dom fall into a state of pain mixed with pleasure. The platonic love between two men, gay and straight, is tested in this film and along the way, they deal with deadly situations. And that's before they meet the dangerous crime boss on the other side of this adventure, playing with snarling menace by Mark Patton.

Shot often in close up, which jams up the tension, director and writer Carter Smith has made a story that can be taken as survival or body horror, depending on the time of the story, but the idea that a drug that might be a living thing going inside -- and needing to be pulled outside -- of your body is beyond upsetting. This is a movie that really gets into your head and I want Smith to keep making more personal and smaller films like this other than the only of his movies I've seen, the mainstream horror movie The Ruins.

... come out right? Well no pun intended here, but as the title suggests ... well if you only know the title, you may be in for quite the ride, like I was. Just the beginning was quite something - you get the feeling for our two main characters and what they are about.

Of course only as the movie progresses we get to see how deep their friendship goes ... almost literally and no pun intended. There are scenes here that are not easy to watch - even if they are not explicitly shown. On the other hand, this has quite a lot of male nudity in it. If you have issues with that - well you have been "warned" (I too am more fond of the female body, just saying).

On another note, the movie has Mark Patton in it. If you do not know him: he was in one of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies. And his character was quite prominent - also in how he changed perception in male leads. Not just for the time this was made.

He really goes all out with his character here. Even more fun when you have met him in real life and know what a sweetheart he is - the character he portrays is anything but. But that is acting - the slow burn on the other hand may not be everyones cup of tea ... suspend your disbelief and go with the flow ...