Saccharine, a bold and intoxicatingly creepy film from writer-director Natalie Erika James, takes a daring route into the exploration of eating disorders and body dysmorphia. This film is a testament to the power and malleability of horror movies as vessels for cultural commentary. James has a unique ability to visualize core themes, as evidenced by her excellent feature debut, Relic, which illustrates the deteriorating forces of time through individual images. Saccharine continues this trend with its unsettling depictions of food, beginning with extreme close-ups of a person gorging on jam doughnuts, unfolding in reverse. This is just the tip of the iceberg in a film that is stuffed with weirdly unsettling imagery.
One of the most striking aspects of Saccharine is its ability to fold supernatural horror into corporeal dread without leaning on tired ghost-movie cliches. The film presents the insides of humans in ways that make them look like food, playing with aesthetic elements that seem simultaneously desirable and disgusting. This is a grossly impressive visual embellishment that offers plenty to chew over on the way home.
However, Saccharine is not a film to be discussed over dinner afterwards. It is a film that raises a deeper question about the insatiable desire for perfection and the horror that can arise from it. The question of how bad things are going to get for Hana, the main character, is a central theme of the film. As Hana, Midori Francis delivers a put-through-the-wringer performance that hits all the right beats, bringing a measure of restraint and nuance to a film that is fiendishly unsubtle in many respects.
In my opinion, Saccharine is a film that should be seen and discussed. It is a film that challenges us to confront the darker aspects of our desire for perfection and the horror that can arise from it. The film is a powerful commentary on the cultural obsession with appearance and the devastating consequences that can arise from it. Personally, I think that Saccharine is a film that will stay with me long after I have watched it, and I am eager to see how it will be received by audiences around the world.
