10 Horror Movie Concepts That Should NEVER Work (But Do)

10. Swallow

In Swallow, Haley Bennett plays a bored and traumatised housewife who begins eating small, inedible objects. She suffers from a condition called Pica, in which the patient develops a compulsive need to consume non-food items, it’s very much a real thing!

Where the mind instantly goes when hearing this and linking it with horror tropes is perhaps that she eats gross things, like human teeth or maybe…babies (?) or something, but it’s not that kind of movie.

In the whole of the film, the biggest and most upsetting thing Hunter swallows is a small screwdriver, perhaps the length of a finger. Don’t get me wrong, it’s horrible to see someone choking on a screwdriver, or puncturing their tongue on a thumbtack (a tonguetack now, if you will), but it’s still fundamentally not that scary.

What makes the film work is the atmosphere it builds. It’s a constant air of repression; Hunter is stuck in her house like a prison and the world outside is hostile. You fear the blowback from her abusive husband and his family, the impact the world could have on Hunter - being as fragile as she is - and the truth of her past that casts it all in a miserable light.

Sure, ‘woman swallows marbles’ isn’t a great pitch for a horror movie, but hear me out and give it a go.