‘Swarm’ reviews: Dominique Fishback ‘twitches and tics’ with ‘pure body horror’ in Amazon Prime Video thriller

Amazon has released Donald Glover and Janine Nabers’ “Atlanta” follow-up, “Swarm,” on Prime Video just days after the first hour of the “clever and fiendish” horror satire divided critics at the South by Southwest Film & TV Festival. 

Dominique Fishback (“The Deuce,” “Judas and the Black Messiah”) plays an impoverished exotic dancer whose fixation on her favorite pop star, a stand-in for Beyoncé, incurs deadly consequences. While “Swarm” directly addresses toxic fandom in the age of social media, the series is rooted in classics like “The King of Comedy” and “Misery.” Glover himself has described it as a blend of Martin Scorsese’s black comedy and a “post-truth ‘Piano Teacher.’” More recent points of comparison include “Ingrid Goes West” and “Magazine Dreams.” 

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Joshua Alston (Variety) praises “Swarm” as a “spectacular showcase for Fishback” that intersperses socioeconomic commentary between “arch comedy and Lynchian horror.” Though categorizing it as a slasher, he writes, “Fishback’s twitches and tics are pure body horror, something more akin to a tale of demonic possession.” Samantha Thornfelt (North Texas Daily) calls Fishback’s character “a uniquely built anti-hero made for Gen-Z audiences.” Comparing it to “Atlanta,” as many have, she adds, “While it has its fair share of comedic elements, his newest endeavor dives deeper into darker elements ‘Atlanta’ narrowly explored.” 

Giving the show a negative review but complimenting its lead, Alan Sepinwall (Rolling Stone) writes, “There’s just not a lot lurking beneath the power of that performance, and of the show’s impressionistic style…’Swarm’ never really lets go of its chief point regarding why it’s bad to stan for celebs.” As most of the show’s detractors have, Sepinwall calls it an exercise in style over substance: “Does all the meta commentary undermine or underline the points that Nabers and Glover are trying to make? Like almost everything about the series, it’s an interesting notion to ponder for a minute, less so the longer you have to think about it.”

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Daniel Fienberg (The Hollywood Reporter), on the other hand, finds the show’s broad allegorizations to be part of its pulpy appeal, writing that “Swarm” reminds him of “the unsettling standalone episodes that peppered the second half of ‘Atlanta‘s’ run, with layered allegory and varied genre threads. It’s a recipe for a ‘Twilight Zone’ episode–or, in this case, seven half-hour ‘Twilight Zone’ episodes–unified by Fishback, notes of almost hallucinatory luridness and a sound design punctuated in moments of high intensity by the underlying titular buzzing.”

Critics are alluding to major shifts in perspective that Amazon has insisted stay underwraps and urge viewers to stay on their toes. Based on 14 reviews, “Swarm” currently holds a 79% Rotten Tomatoes approval rating, while its Metacritic score, aggregated from nine reviews, stands at a 70. The show and Fishback occupy 29th and 30th place, respectively, in our combined Emmy odds for Best Limited Series and Movie/Limited Actress. The series’ stylized aesthetic could also land Glover, who helmed the first half-hour, his third directing bid (he has two nominations and one win for “Atlanta”). 

All seven 30-minute episodes will be available to stream beginning this Friday, March 17. 

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