Saccharine mixes body horror, hungry-ghost folklore and the cruelties of diet culture into one thoroughly stomach-churning package. Natalie Erika James follows a medical student whose homemade weight-loss pills work disturbingly well, until their dead donor comes looking for repayment.
Film details
- Title: Saccharine
- Premiere date in the Netherlands: 6 August 2026
- Director: Natalie Erika James
- Runtime: 112 minutes
- Genre: Horror, body horror
- Country: Australia
- Language: English
- Subtitles: Dutch
- Age rating: 16+
- Cast: Midori Francis, Danielle Macdonald, Madeleine Madden, Robert Taylor and Showko Showfukutei
- Confirmed Rotterdam cinema: Cinerama
What’s the vibe?
Hana is a medical student struggling with body image, binge eating and a painful crush on Alanya, the instructor at her university gym. When an old school friend reappears after dramatic weight loss, Hana discovers the secret behind her transformation: expensive pills made from human ashes.
Unable to afford them, Hana puts her medical training to wildly unethical use and creates her own supply from a donated cadaver. The weight falls away, Alanya begins to notice her and Hana briefly feels as though she has taken control. Naturally, consuming the remains of a stranger comes with terms and conditions.
The dead woman’s spirit grows hungrier as Hana becomes thinner. What follows combines supernatural horror, graphic medical imagery and some very unpleasant eating scenes with a sharp look at desire, shame and the impossible standards placed on women’s bodies.
Trailer
Check out the trailer below.
Why you might like it
- Eyes: Clinical interiors, grotesque practical effects and food imagery designed to look tempting and revolting at exactly the same time.
- Heart: Midori Francis gives Hana’s increasingly desperate choices enough vulnerability to keep her human, even when her methods become spectacularly questionable.
- Mind: The film links diet culture, body dysmorphia and insatiable desire with the Buddhist concept of the hungry ghost.
Critical reception
Saccharine has received a generally positive but divided response. Rotten Tomatoes currently lists the film at 72% from 78 critic reviews, with a 53% audience score from more than 100 ratings. Its critical consensus praises the gross-out scares while suggesting that the film’s many ideas do not always receive enough room to develop.
Metacritic gives the film a score of 62 from 12 reviews, placing it in the generally favourable category. Seven reviews are positive and five are mixed, with none classified as negative.
The strongest reviews praise Natalie Erika James’ visual control, the practical effects and Midori Francis’ physically demanding lead performance. The Guardian awarded the film four stars and called it an intoxicatingly creepy use of body horror as cultural commentary. RogerEbert.com also responded positively, highlighting its gruesome effects and the director’s control of the fear.
More reserved critics felt that the film tries to tackle too many subjects at once. Reviews from Variety and IndieWire admired its imagery and performances but found it less emotionally powerful than James’ debut, Relic. Other critics questioned whether its use of larger bodies as horror imagery sometimes works against its criticism of fatphobia.
Saccharine premiered in the Midnight section of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival and later received its European premiere in Berlinale Special Midnight. Natalie Erika James also won the 2026 AWGIE Award for Feature Film, Original, for her screenplay.
Scene to watch for
Watch the first time an ordinary reflection stops behaving like one. James uses polished surfaces and distorted glass to reveal the haunting gradually, letting Hana notice that something is present before she can properly understand what she is seeing.
It is an effective example of the film’s approach. A kitchen object, spoon or darkened window can become deeply threatening without announcing itself with flashing lights and a helpful ghost-shaped label.
Recommended pairing
Have a light meal well before the screening rather than arriving with a heroic bucket of snacks. Saccharine contains graphic eating, autopsy and body-horror scenes, so popcorn may become less appealing than expected.
Afterwards, choose something calming and non-food-related, such as a walk through the city or a quiet drink. The film leaves plenty to discuss about beauty standards, appetite and self-control, preferably once everyone’s stomach has forgiven them.
Need-to-knows
Saccharine is written and directed by Natalie Erika James, whose earlier films include Relic and Apartment 7A. Like Relic, it uses supernatural horror to explore an intimate psychological struggle, though this film is louder, gorier and considerably more interested in making food look suspicious.
The story draws on the concept of the hungry ghost, a figure associated with endless appetite and desire. That idea becomes both a literal haunting and a metaphor for Hana’s inability to feel satisfied with her body, romantic life or attempts at control.
The film was shot in and around Melbourne, including university and studio locations. Hannah Peel composed the score, while Charlie Sarroff handled the cinematography.
Saccharine contains graphic medical procedures, human remains, binge eating, restrictive eating, body dysmorphia, nudity and strong horror imagery. Its subject matter may be particularly difficult for viewers affected by eating disorders or body-image issues.
