The recent wave of women-directed horror movies centred on image insecurity (The Substance, Thinestra, Grafted, The Ugly Stepsister et al) have all fallen into the body-horror sub-genre. These movies share a Monkey's Paw "be careful what you wish for" setup in which an insecure female protagonist unleashes a nightmare after trying a "quick fix" to alter their looks. Natalie Erika James' Saccharine has a similar starting point, but the scares here are of the supernatural rather than body-horror variety.
Saccharine has a premise that comes off as very modern, yet it's actually rooted in centuries old East Asian folklore. James takes the old Buddhist/Taoist folk tale of the "Hungry Ghost" and updates it to modern day Australia and our current obsession with weight loss drugs. In folklore a hungry ghost is an entity that latches onto those consumed by greed, lust and gluttony.
Here such a demon is unleashed by medical student Hana (Midori Francis), who discovers that her Japanese mother's ghost stories are all too real. Hana is dogged by body image issues, but they aren't provoked by our beauty-obsessed culture. Rather Hana is terrified that she will become like her father, Travis (Robert Taylor), a once great scientist who ruined his life by becoming so morbidly obese that he is now ashamed to leave his home (think Brendan Fraser in The Whale). Hana has tried all the diet fads but can't stop succumbing to her cravings for junk food.
Hana appears to find a solution when she runs into an old school friend who was once overweight but is now supermodel slim. Her secret is a mysterious pill known as "the grey," and she gifts Hana a couple of pills. A dubious Hana tries a pill and is surprised to find that she loses a substantial amount of weight overnight. Trouble is, the grey is prohibitively expensive. But wait, Hana is a med student with access to various chemicals. Maybe she could make her own version of the grey if she can break down its ingredients...
Those ingredients turn out to be little more than human ash. But that doesn't deter Hana. Swiping a body part from an obese medical corpse cruelly nicknamed "Big Bertha" by her fellow students, Hana incinerates it and makes her own supply of pills. It's not long before the weight is falling off her. But in consuming Bertha's ashes she has reawakened her hungry spirit, and Bertha is determined to feed off Hana.
James has found a novel way to combine the lore of her Japanese ancestors with a very modern issue. This makes her film work on two thematic levels. It deals with the insecurity of women in an image-obsessed culture, and also examines how many young people of immigrant backgrounds try to shake off their culture in order to fit in with western society. Hana has followed her white Australian father's lead in immersing herself in science, shrugging off her Japanese mother's spiritual beliefs. When the hungry ghost comes after her it is as though the part of her heritage she has sought to escape is refusing to allow her to forget her roots.
James also taps into the current mixed messages around body positivity. In the past anyone who managed to shed the pounds would generally have been congratulated, but today whenever a female celebrity loses weight it provokes a social media pile-on of accusations that they're betraying both themselves and their fans by succumbing to the whims of a patriarchal society. Hana has no interest in impressing men however. She is a lesbian who is heavily prompted to lose weight to impress Alanya (Madeleine Madden), the fitness instructor at her college's gym. While happy with her weight loss, Hana is frustrated by Alanya's concerns that she is losing weight so rapidly, and by her overweight friend Josie's (Danielle Macdonald) confessions that she no longer recognises Hana, and not in a positive way.
Francis excels in capturing all of Hana's conflicting emotions, from her joy at finally looking how she always wanted to her frustration at the lack of congratulations she receives from those around her. What makes Saccharine more impactful is how Hana isn't particularly overweight to begin with, and her transformation is conveyed with some subtly impressive make-up that adds little more than a double chin to Francis' svelte face.
James manufactures some clever ways to convey the mechanics of this setup. In a novel touch, Bertha can only be seen by Hana, and only in convex-shaped mirrored surfaces like a kettle or a spoon. Hana discovers that Bertha's appearance is tied into her blood sugar level. When it falls below a certain point Bertha materialises. This sees Hana become something of a cousin of Jason Statham's Crank protagonist as she's forced to shovel food into her gob to fend off the malevolent spirit.
As a horror movie however, Saccharine never quite creates enough scary or suspenseful scenarios. To a large degree this is down to Hana's initially relaxed mood when it comes to dealing with Bertha. While it's a nice change to have a horror movie protagonist who approaches a supernatural scenario with logic and reason, Hana doesn't seem particularly unsettled by the fact that a malicious demon has latched itself onto her. It's only towards the movie's conclusion that she begins to panic like any normal person would in such a situation.
Saccharine also commits the horror movie sin of throwing out the lore it's built up for the sake of one last shocking twist. James' blending of modern concerns and ancient folklore, and Francis' central performance, keep us engaged until the movie hits a wall in its final act. Failing to wrap this all up in a satisfying manner, Saccharine sends us out with with a sour, rather than sweet, taste in our mouths.
Saccharine is on Shudder.
Directed by: Natalie Erika James
Starring: Midori Francis, Danielle Macdonald, Madeleine Madden
