The Swerve

Holly (Skye) has been living a life of quiet, brooding desperation that only gets worse when a rat infests her home and her mental health takes a serious hit. She starts believing her family is out to get her and that her husband is having an affair all the while she develops a strange obsession with one of her high school students and while having haunting nightmares about causing a deadly car crash.

Did Holly actually cause this crash? Is everyone really out to get her? The Swerve doesn't seem very interested in answering most of these questions, which makes the whole thing seems all the more paranoid and nightmarish. We never leave Holly's side for a second and the whole story is told from her POV, so who knows what's the truth and what's made up?

It's Skye's harrowing performance that keeps one glued to the screen throughout The Swerve. It's one of those rare, surprising performances from an actor whom we didn't know had a performance like this within them.

The Swerve might just be the bleakest movie of the year and, considering the kind of year we've all been having, no one could blame you if you decided to keep this one on the back burner until happier days arrive, but it'll still be waiting and it'll be just as powerful.

If you're a fan of tense family drama, this is for you! They're calling it a Horror movie, and I certainly found it horrifying. I understand why others may call it more of a dark drama. It's that too.

Performances were incredible!

This movie, though depressing, is a very good watch. It sees a woman who is a teacher going through day to day life, only battling major depression. What makes it sad is nobody sees it, even though its painted all over her. Only one person really gets it and sees her struggle, and I won't spoil who that is. Not going to spoil anything but all I can say is that it was all I could do not to start bawling at the end. Watch at your own risk, because I could honestly see how this film could end up putting someone in a slump. If you're prepared though or movies like this just don't have much of a negative effect on you mentally, definitely watch it.

First, it is NOT, as the one-line synopsis says, about a woman battling insomnia. Yes, it is implied she has insomnia, but she is obviously battling a number of things - mostly the lack of attention and affection she gets from her family. I kept wondering if I liked this movie as I was watching it, but I kept watching, so it had something that held my attention. Perhaps I just kept waiting for something significant to happen. Eventually it does. Performance of the main character in particular was excellent. I'd recommend this only to those who enjoy character studies.

I saw this reviewed elsewhere as 'horror' and 'elevated horror'. It is neither, and thankfully so , as far as the the latter is concerned. I assume because this movie played at the end of Frightfest it has been given that tag. It's important to know this going on, because if you are expecting a horror movie you will be very disappointed.

It is however a very good movie, that providing you can get through the first 15 mins without abandoning it as being more pretentious crap, becomes very watchable and hooks you in.

The main proponents of that are the acting and the direction. The plot itself is pretty silly. Thankfully though, it is a vey watchable movie, albeit exaggerated on reviews as to how harrowing it is.