{"id":4462,"date":"2026-02-02T00:49:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T00:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/02\/02\/saccharine-is-a-hard-pill-to-swallow\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T00:49:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T00:49:13","slug":"saccharine-is-a-hard-pill-to-swallow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/02\/02\/saccharine-is-a-hard-pill-to-swallow\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Saccharine\u2019 is a hard pill to swallow"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u201cSaccharine\u201d is a psychological body horror film starring Midori Francis (\u201cOcean\u2019s 8\u201d) as Hana, an insecure, overweight first-year medical student suffering from a binge eating disorder. The film opens with an audiovisual statement: squelching and gut-churning chewing of Hana\u2019s mouth as she devours a smorgasbord of junk food in reverse, cross-cut with a fit woman riding an exercise bike, glistening with sweat. The scene ends with Hana throwing donuts in the trash and covering them in dish soap, side-by-side with a scene of her ogling the woman \u2014 later revealed to be Alanya (Madeleine Madden, \u201cThe Wheel of Time\u201d), a fellow student, fitness coach and crush. Hana consumes and lusts without restraint, bewitched by the desire to satisfy her cravings and to be with Alanya. Themes of self-hatred, abandonment and envy usher in the first act of \u201cSaccharine.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Hana, along with her best friend Josie (Danielle Macdonald, \u201cBird Box\u201d), are assigned to an obese female corpse in the cadaver lab, whom they callously refer to as \u201cBig Bertha,\u201d she is undoubtedly perturbed by their similar size and nail polish, so much so she scrubs the polish off her nails before joining her friends at a bar. Here, Hana encounters an old friend from high school who shares a weight loss secret with her: $5,000 pills that make the weight \u201cmelt\u201d right off. She calls them \u201cThe Grey\u201d and gives Hana two capsules. Astonished by their fast results but repelled by their price, Hana investigates the pill\u2019s properties at her school lab in hopes of being able to replicate it \u2014 only to find they share definite similarities with human ash. Hana, being the smart, ethical and resourceful young woman she is, harvests and cremates her cadaver\u2019s bones.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As the number on the scale drops lower and lower and Hana\u2019s confidence grows, so does her fear. Big Bertha, as it turns out, won\u2019t let Hana use her ashes for free. The more food Hana eats, the more she loses weight, the more Big Bertha\u2019s spirit grows, the hungrier Bertha becomes. Bertha\u2019s control over Hana is a clear allegory of the possession that is mental illness and disordered eating \u2014 a metaphor even less subtle than Francis\u2019s prosthetic fat suit. Later in the film, we learn more about Bertha\u2019s past and are madeto feel sorry for her. She is characterized as selfless and endlessly giving, yet unable to care for herself in her self-loathing. Themes of self-love and self-acceptance are pushed here but get lost in the confused mess of the film. Hana\u2019s empathy for Bertha\u2019s struggles suggests the film is heading toward the redemption of Bertha\u2019s spirit and an emphasis on self-compassion, but \u201cSaccharine\u201d fails to take its own cues and opts for indulgent horror.<\/p>\n

Any scene that diverts our attention from the body and paranormal horror of \u201cSaccharine\u201d and detours toward melodrama feels unearned, building from and to nothing of significance. Hana tells Bertha\u2019s sister (Daniela Rene Fink, \u201cFalling for Her Bodyguard\u201d) that \u201cYou can\u2019t love someone into getting better.\u201d It is a trite moment that feels grossly out of place, a sentiment that is abandoned abruptly and revisited only peripherally.\u00a0<\/p>\n