Folktales review – taking on tyranny of social media as teens learn to live like hunter-gatherers

In this documentary, high schoolers camp out in subzero temperatures, making their own fires and driving sledges in the wild The Pasvik Folk high school in remote northern Norway teaches teenagers to grow as young adults and escape the pressures of toxic social media by challenging them to get back in touch with their “stone age brain” and live like hunter-gatherers in the snowy wild. This is the subject of a documentary from Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady. Over winter months of almost continuous darkness, the teens cleanse themselves with tasks such as camping out in subzero weather, making their own fires and driving sledges with huskies. Prior to all this of course is presumably a solemn promise to do without their phones, tablets and laptops, although there are no scenes of the kids actually having to surrender these gadgets (this isn’t rehab, after all). They have to swim in icy water; and they make it look like fun. What doesn’t look like fun is the camping out and there is one t...

Swallowed review – greasy gay body-horror offers plenty of icky moments

There’s potential here for an exploration of queer power dynamics, but the film-makers have focused instead on gruesomeness

For reasons too complex to delve into here, horror as a genre has proved an adaptable vehicle for marginalised groups to explore the tensions between mainstream society and its discontents. So there has been a wave of female-centric horror films made by women, a renaissance in horror focusing on race thanks to Jordan Peele and others, and all kinds of scary films addressing ethnic identity by directors far and wide.

Swallowed, a very low-budget sci-fi/body horror with an out-and-proud gay angle, may prompt viewers to wonder why there aren’t more queer-themed horror flicks. The Hunger (1983) and Ginger Snaps (2000) spring to mind, but it seems as if the pickings are distinctly slimmer than in other areas.

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