A Conversation with Roxy Sophie Sorkin (SWOLLEN)
Rising filmmaker Roxy Sophie Sorkin brings her unique comedic sensibility to the screen with Swollen, a sharp-witted short film which premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. In this 13-minute horror-comedy, two best friends recovering from facial plastic surgery find themselves trapped in their Airbnb when a burglar breaks in, creating a premise both outlandish and delightfully original. Through witty dialogue and stylized visuals, Sorkin crafts a distinctive world of absurdity, establishing herself as a bold new voice with a gift for finding comedy in the most unlikely situations.
Hammer To Nail: What inspired you to combine the seemingly disparate elements of a home invasion scenario with post-plastic surgery recovery?
Roxy Sorkin: It started as an inside joke between Lily Rosenthal and I. We had always said, “If we are getting our chins done, we are going to leave LA so no one sees the recovery process.” We also always talked about going on a Napa girls trip. The writer in me started throwing in stuff like, what if someone broke in? What if the cops were hot and gay? I just started layering it with these things to create obstacles. I like to start with a joke or singular idea and slowly add to that.
HTN: The film uses toy/model homes for exterior shots, creating an element of absurdity. What drove this stylistic choice, and what were you hoping to convey through this surreal visual approach?
RS: Our original intent was to shoot the exterior at an actual house. The house we shot in, the exterior was just ugly and weird. We were looking for exterior options when the DP Shane Bagwell suggested we scrap the idea and build exactly what we want as a miniature. Our inspirations were movies like The Exorcist or Death Becomes Her. Films that feel more lo-fi, grainy, crunchy and personable. We wanted the audience to feel the craft in it and I think it worked out well. I took a lot of inspiration from an A$AP Rocky music video for the song Babushka Boi. My films definitely do not exist in the real world. They are their own little universe.
HTN: As both the writer-director and one of the leads, how did wearing multiple hats affect your approach to the project? What were the challenges and benefits of this arrangement?
RS: When I was writing it, I was able to do it so clearly in Lily and I’s voices. The dialogue rattled off because that is how we speak to each other. I know the cadence of our voices. We did not need to rehearse that much because we knew each other so well! It was also horrible and hard. We would do a rehearsal take, I would watch that, then we would do a performance take for notes and then we would do a take that I was not allowed to watch. It was a lot of standing up and walking over to the monitor, holding production, waiting to see if that’s what I liked, etc. I had a lot of people on set that I liked and trusted. Our producers, the DP and I have worked together a ton. They can easily grab me and let me know that a take was shitty and we should do it again. One time Shane Bagwell said “This is just not sexy enough…” I was like, “I’ll try harder!!” haha.
HTN: You use frequent tight shots and close-ups of the bloodied and bruised faces and detailed sound design to convey both humor and horror. Can you discuss your visual and sound design strategy for balancing in these moments?
RS: We did a lot of research. For every single shot we grabbed stills and assigned to the scene with a time code. Before we shot, we could watch a string-out of every single still we had planned. We really had it nailed by the time we got on set. For the sound department I just kept telling them to make it shittier. We would get a rip back and I would say, “This is objectively great sound, but I need you to do a worse job.” When it showed at Tribeca, they optimized everyone’s audio against my film. A lot of these films played in mono and it was my fault because I was the only one who wanted bad audio in mono. Someone came up to me after the screenings and got mad at me for it. I said, “I’m not the one who optimized it!”
A still from SWOLLEN
HTN: could you discuss the sequence where the cops receive the call and then one of the cops stops the other two from making out? I was dying laughing.
RS: I’m pretty sure the script says “The cops are so gay at this moment.” Lily and I did not do much improv on set, but the cops were so unbelievably funny with their improv that I told them, “Do what you want! You guys are better than me.I trust you guys!” They came up with the idea to make out and I was like, “Yes! Go for it…I love it!” I really wanted the cops to be so gay and the girls to be so delusional. The girls swooning over them when, meanwhile on the way over, they were giving eachother head in the cop car.
HTN: I love this moment where you guys are singing a little song about the Air BNB and then the thunder hits and you two scream. We have a quick cut to our injured burglar and then out to the miniature home. What was your thinking here? Feels like a moment that really had to come to life in the editing room.
RS: That was not something I intended originally. The song was in the script. I was really inspired by Pen15. There are so many great moments like that in Pen15 where out of nowhere they start doing a dance or something. It does not make sense, but, it’s also such a girl friendship thing to me. Sometimes we are just singing a song about what we are doing! Our editor pointed out that it was really funny how they were screaming while nothing was wrong with them and it became this fun quick moment.
HTN: This follows into you guys going downstairs, and seeing the burglar. He says “OMG EW” and you respond in a hilarious way, “YOU EW!” Then, you two scream and run up the stairs. This leads to an interesting shot of your shadows talking. What was your thinking here?
RS: The shadow shot was inspired by The Exorcist. It sets a fun tone to shoot it more like a horror. If I shot this like a comedy it would be a different movie. The genre is horror but it is a comedy script. The work was in finding those moments that would be our 80s reference, 70s reference, the darker noir moments etc. I love the “YOU EW” line haha. That is what I would say. If a man looked at me and said “EW!” I would say, “The fuck?! YOU EW!” That was honestly just impulse. That came out like it was part of my body.
HTN: How would you describe your artistic voice and how did you develop it through your previous short films and hope to continue it with a potential feature?
RS: My previous shorts are not as stylistically driven. They have more mumblecore vibes. I have always had a stunt or a major choice in my films. A specialty shot for example. Just something that leans head first into whatever genre it is. Especially in the medium of short films. When I watch other people’s shorts I am looking for that key decision. I think a lot of shorts fall short because they fall somewhere in the middle. It always ends on a note that makes you feel like it’s just a snapshot of a feature. Really, the point of a short is, you have 10 minutes to come across with your intention, idea and voice. Make a decision!! Go hard at it! Even if I hate someone’s decision, I think to myself, “well, at least they decided on something!” They were confident in that decision and have a voice. I have a feature script I have been working on. It’s a horror comedy with more 90s/Twilight influences. It’s like a vampire movie within a mumblecore script.
HTN: The music adds so much here, can you discuss that process?
RS: Isaac Friedenberg, one of my best friends, he was the composer. We pulled from a lot of different 80s music. I loved the score from May December. I liked the idea of sampling as they did in that film. When I heard that Slater song, I thought that was perfect for our soundtrack and “Born to be Wild” “was perfect for the cops. I also DJ a little bit, so I was able to sit down with Isaac and my DJ board and just play around with some sounds.
HTN: Did you watch any movies in preparation?
RS: SO many. We watched all the popular 80s horror films like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Scream, etc. I was living with the producers of the film when we made it and every night we would watch another horror movie leading up to the shoot. It was around Halloween so it was the perfect time to do it. Death Becomes Her was the most important one though.
– Jack Schenker (@YUNGOCUPOTIS)
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