Australian director Natalie Erika James demonstrates the power of movies as vessels for cultural commentary in her new horror film Saccharine, an intoxicatingly creepy production that tackles eating disorders and body dysmorphia through the body horror genre. The film arrives amid a resurgence of both body horror and Australian horror cinema, following recent critically acclaimed titles such as Talk to Me, Late Night With the Devil, and James's own debut Relic.
Plot and Premise
The story follows medical student Hana (Midori Francis), who is obsessed with losing weight and with her gym trainer Alanya (Madeleine Madden). After encountering an old high school friend (Annie Shapero) who has lost significant weight through miracle pills, Hana samples them and experiences almost instant effects. She soon discovers the pills contain human ashes—a revelation reminiscent of the film Soylent Green. Undeterred, Hana begins producing her own DIY versions using the corpse of a large woman who donated her body to science, referred to as "Big Bertha."
Thematic Depth and Visual Style
James riffs on the Buddhist mythology of the "hungry ghost," often interpreted as an allegory for insatiable desire. The film poses the question of how far Hana's horror will escalate and how much James is willing to show. Rather than a barrage of scares, Saccharine unfolds as a slow infection, with a well-judged atmosphere that feels both haunting and haunted. James folds supernatural horror into corporeal dread without relying on tired ghost-movie clichés, and even when deploying more conventional elements, she takes a stranger path through the forest.
A grossly impressive visual embellishment involves presenting the insides of humans in ways that make them look like food, playing with aesthetic elements that are simultaneously desirable and disgusting. The film is stuffed with weirdly unsettling depictions of food, beginning with extreme closeups of a person gorging on jam doughnuts, the footage unfolding in reverse.
Performance and Direction
Francis delivers a put-through-the-wringer performance that hits all the right beats, bringing restraint and nuance to a film that is fiendishly unsubtle in many respects but also carefully layered. James's knack for visualising core themes, first seen in Relic—a horror film about dementia that illustrated time's deteriorating forces through images like a mouldy fruit bowl and an overrun tennis court—is on full display here.
Release and Availability
Saccharine is in Australian cinemas from 9 July and available to stream on Shudder in the US from 24 July. In Australia, the Butterfly Foundation is at 1800 33 4673. In the UK, Beat can be contacted on 0808-801-0677. In the US, help is available at nationaleatingdisorders.org or by calling ANAD’s eating disorders hotline at 800-375-7767.
