Saccharine is an inventive Australian horror film that puts a new spin on the body horror subgenre.
Saccharine is a unique Australian body horror film, perfect for the Ozempic era.
Saccharin is a film that fits firmly into what I like to call the “eating disorder horror” subgenre. Raw, Swallow, Titanium… There is LOTS more movies in the unofficial canon than you might initially think.
There will inevitably be immediate comparisons with The bottom. And there are many thematic similarities. At their core, both films are about insecure women who think their value as human beings is inexorably linked to their body image (or, more precisely, how their body is perceived). by others.) But director Natalie Erika James throws us a few curve balls, ultimately turning Saccharin in a bizarre supernatural thriller that is anything but predictable.
Midori Francis plays the main character, Hana, a completely female obsessed going down to 60 kilograms (that’s about 132 pounds for those of you who avoid the metric system.) Since she’s a lesbian, however, she’s obviously not trying to lose weight to appeal to the much-maligned “male gaze,” which is certainly one of the most intriguing elements of Saccharin. This isn’t really a film about societal pressures and unrealistic media standards, but rather a film about singular compulsion…that irrational belief that all the problems in your life will be solved and you will become the person you’re supposed to be as soon as you reach a certain number on the scale. Yes, there is a minor subplot in which Hana tries to woo a thinner woman, but the film makes it very clear that the character’s neurosis isn’t it about appealing to potential romantic partners. The film never makes things entirely straightforward, but it’s obvious that Hana has some sort of long-term complex stemming from her childhood and especially his father absent. But saying anything more about it would totally ruin the movie for you, so I guess I’ll just keep quiet for the rest of the article (until I don’t, anyway.)
You are obviously waiting for the lurch roll in and out Saccharin this takes the form of a literal panacea pill called “Grey”. Hana meets a woman who tells her that the mysterious unregulated supplement allowed her to lose a huge amount of weight in a very short time, so guess what Hana does when she is offered a free pill. And no, it’s not a spoiler, because if she didn’t take it, we literally I wouldn’t have a film.
Now there is obviously there are some parallels here with the current GLP-1 craze. Obviously, this movie wouldn’t have had the same kind of subtext just ten years ago, when the idea of Ozempic was still in the realm of science fiction fantasy. And that puts James in a strange position as a filmmaker and storyteller – intentionally or not, Saccharin it looks a bit like a anti-Ozempic film, which I’m sure will irritate some viewers as anti-science default declaration. It’s not really a film about diet culture more, even if that was the director’s intention. Instead, it becomes a straightforward portrait of clinical anorexia, where the fixation on weight loss takes precedence over everything else in an individual’s life. In this regard, Saccharin is one of the best and most accurate depictions of anorexia in modern cinema, even though the word isn’t mentioned once during the film. Watch Hana continually reduce your “target weight,” comprehensively plan your exercise routines, and fanatically weigh yourself on a scale again and again definitively said to true story underlying Saccharin.
I guess I should have mentioned this earlier, but Hana is a medical student whose current mission is to dissect the corpse of a morbidly obese woman. There’s a great scene where Hana sees the color of the corpse’s nail polish and how it strangely matches hers – so she goes home and delete that, just because. It’s little touches like this that make Saccharin work; it is a representation of a rational person seized struggling with irrationality.
Of course, given that this is a horror film, there must be a few kind of taken with this miracle supplement. I don’t think it’s necessarily a spoiler to reveal the pill’s secret ingredient – in fact, the marketing materials for the film itself reveal it – but it certainly is related to Hana’s work as a student. Which gradually leads to major twist of the film, which is sure to divide the public. There’s really no way to even tiptoe in without spoiling the whole movie for you, so again…I’ll keep my trap shut and let you find out for yourself.
The overall cast is pretty good. Danielle Macdonald plays Hana’s best friend while Madeline Madden plays Hana’s object of affection. Showko Showfukutei plays Hana’s mother and Robert Taylor plays her father. Which brings me to the biggest problem I had with the film as a viewer.
Again, slight spoiler territory ahead. For a film that prides itself on promoting body positivity and eschewing traditional beauty standards, the fact that Taylor’s character is a morbidly obese ghoul in obvious prosthetics, this seems a bit counterproductive, even a bit hypocritical. Further – and now we enter MAJOR Spoilersthe children — the main villain of the film, the thing who threatens the life of our heroine, takes on the strength of a morbidly obese ghost. No matter how it is presented as a psychodrama, the film always gives morbid obesity a terrible, monstrous, inhuman and something to avoid at all costs. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that Saccharin is a film to shame, but it is certainly not a celebrate fat neither does the film. Make of it what you will.
Oddly, the film Saccharin What reminded me the most was a somewhat obscure South Korean animated film called Beauty water as of 2020. It’s pretty much the same central location of Saccharinbut with some obvious cultural differences. This makes for a great double feature, especially if you’re looking for how two filmmakers can approach almost identical source material in two completely different ways.
Saccharin is a film with a strong first act, a solid second act, and a third act that largely derailed. The pacing is a little uneven and some scenes drag on for far too long. At nearly two hours, it’s probably 20 minutes too long for its own good. But the end result is a captivating film, even if it has some uncertain aspects. It’s not for all tastes, but if you like neurotic, slow-burn, character-driven psychological horror, this might be for you.
GIVE A WATCH IF YOU LIKE: Ti West Movies, Singularity, this episode of Tales from the dark side with sensitive vegetables in it
DIRECTOR: Natalie Erika James
WITH : Midori Francis, Danielle Macdonald, Showko Showfukutei, Robert Taylor
STUDIO: Stan / Thrum / Carver Films
DISTRIBUTER: Maslow Entertainment / Frisson
LANGUAGE: English
RUNNING DURATION: 113 minutes
RELEASE DATE: May 22, 2026
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