Weight control is one of those things that everybody grapples with to some degree. It used to be that you couldn’t turn on a television without seeig a commerical for Weight Watchers of Jenny Craig. Now, ads promoting GLP-1s, medical weight loss solutions, are a dime a dozen. The effectiveness is debatable, the side effects can be staggering, and it could be argued the prevalence of these options has only made people feel worse about themselves. Director Natalie Erika James tackles the weight loss craze with Saccharine, a sharp, creepy body horror that might have you wishing for the days of fad diets to return.
Grey’s Anatomy actress Midori Francis gives a compelling performance as Hana, who suffers from extreme body dysmorphia. A medical student with a troubled home life, Hana indulges on sugary foods but hates herself for it. She’s terrified of her increasing weight, and has a crush on the gorgeously fit trainer, Alanya (Madeleine Madden) at her gym. Smartly, James doesn’t portray Hana as someone who is obviously obese. She looks fairly average, but a combination of past trauma and social media have seriously fucked up her self-image. Heavy prosthetics used to increase Francis’ bulk aren’t perfect, but they’re effective enough that you really notice the difference once they go away.
Hana thinks she’s found the solution to her problems when she runs into her old friend Melissa (Annie Shapero) at a club. Melissa used to be overweight, but now she’s thin and gorgeous as a supermodel. She thanks a miracle drug called “Gray”, and offers some to Hana. The pills are expensive, costing upwards of $5K each. Fortunately, Hana can use her med school labs to synthesize the drug herself. She discovers that the key ingredient is human ashes, so she steals from the cadaver of an obese woman they have nicknamed “Big Bertha”. Hana’s homemade Gray works, too well. Not only does she begin dropping weight like a demon, but Hana also begins having unnatural cravings, and she keeps seeing the ghostly form of an extremely irritated Big Bertha.
There’s a lot going on in Saccharine, and James takes her time exploring all of it. The film’s nearly two-hour runtime is due to the gradual pacing, which can be patience-testing. But the subject matter is so compelling that you can almost forgive it. Hana is dealing not only with impossible beauty standards and identity issues, but her feelings as a queer woman embarking on a potentially new romance with someone she sees as out of her league. Hana isn’t without supporters in this. The always-terrific Danielle Macdonald plays her best friend, Josie, who tries to steer Hana into having a more positive body image.
In the thick of all of this is a deliciously gory body horror. James prefers extreme close-ups on things that seem inoccuous, such as people eating, making out, or working out, but they look disgusting in slow motion and from tight distances. The gurgling noises emanating from Hana’s gut (they reminded me of the tapeworm scene from The Ugly Stepsister) might be enough to make you queasy, but it’s nothing compared to when she starts gorging herself on anything and everything within reach. If you have an appetite going in, you’ll be eager to start fasting by the time Saccharine is over.
Francis delivers a complex, sympathetic portrayal of a woman so desperate to lose weight that she’ll take any short cut to achieving it. If anything, Saccharine is a warning that all of these weight loss drugs may not be all that they’re cracked up to be. They present an easy solution to a difficult problem, and trying to drop pounds without putting in the hard work could lead to disaster.
IFC and Shudder release Saccharine on May 22nd.
