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With a hungry ghost and a series of crippling self-esteem issues in tow, Saccharine leaves a lot for audiences to stomach.
Six years after making her feature directorial debut at Sundance with Relic (2020), writer/director Natalie Erika James is back for the festival’s final year in Park City with a new body horror that examines dysmorphia, eating disorders and the latest diet trends.
In Saccharine, medical student Hana (Midori Francis) is obsessed with studying and trying to reach her goal weight. When she runs into an old friend from high school who’s lost a considerable amount of weight, Hana learns the transformation is the result of The Grey, an expensive new pill of mysterious origins.
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Reverse engineering the pill herself, Hana learns that the contents are human ashes. At first disgusted, she quickly incinerates a piece of her group’s overweight cadaver (dubbed ‘Big Bertha’ by classmates), synthesizing her own version of The Grey.
Although the results are quick, with Hana shedding the fatsuit during a workout montage with the trainer she’s been crushing on, she soon finds her hunger insatiable as she discovers Big Bertha’s ghost haunting her for a snack.
Midori Francis does great with the material, but it might be easier to focus on her acting if it wasn’t for the fatsuit she wears for half of the movie.
Body dysmorphia itself seems to serve as the body horror for much of the film, with mukbang ASMR taken to visceral levels to emphasize the character’s binge eating disorder. But the stakes continue to elevate throughout the film, with the mental health woes merely serving as an appetizer for the real gross-out moments James has in store.
Given its ever relevant themes, the film seems overloaded with influences at times—conscious or not—including The Substance (2024), Raw (2016), the 2001 Smallville episode ‘Craving’, and believe it or not, even the 2019 Bob’s Burgers episode ‘Pig Trouble in Little Tina’. Not to knock the final product based on that alone. What’s that saying about great artists stealing?
Albeit about 30 minutes too long, Saccharine poses the question of whether the shortcuts are worth the results, a valid query in the Ozempic era. But perhaps slimming the film down by a few scenes wouldn’t be such a bad idea.
At one point, the main character ends up performing surgery on herself in a giant dumpster, which feels like an appropriate metaphor for this film. James appears to be unpacking so much of her own emotional experience, she’s not seeing the garbage for the dumpster.
Producers are Natalie Erika James, Anna McLeish and Sarah Shaw.
Title: Saccharine
Festival: Sundance (Midnight)
Director-screenwriter: Natalie Erika James
Cast: Midori Francis, Danielle Macdonald and Madeleine Madden
Running time: 1 hr 52 min
English (US) ·