"Saccharine:" Beauty and Brutality at Sundance

[the following review is spoiler-free]

Heart-pumping, gut-wrenching, spine-tingling, stomach-churning, bone-chilling. These are some of many ways one could describe Natalie Erika James' Saccharine, a new Australian horror feature that premiered this week at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Despite a busy start to the last Sundance in Park City, this is by-far a personal favorite not only as a film fanatic, but as a young woman. Saccharine is unlike anything I've ever seen, but one thing's for sure: the future of body horror is female!

Saccharine follows Hannah, a young medical student struggling with her weight and body image. As a last resort, she begins a new supplement with an effective but sinister secret ingredient: human ashes. Hannah soon finds herself haunted by the ghost of the woman whose ashes she has been consuming for the sake of her own vanity.

Saccharine is the third feature film from Melbourne-based director, Natalie Erika James. The movie is led by Midori Francis and also features the talents of Danielle Macdonald and Madeleine Madden.

I went into Saccharine totally blind, having only heard the tagline from a friend, the very next day I was first in line at the theater in downtown Park City. The most concise way I can describe this film is a mix between Coralie Fargeat's The Substance, Julia Ducournau's Raw, and Leigh Whannell's The Invisible Man. It is a maximalist film when it comes to its themes and there isn't a drop of subtlety about what the filmmakers are trying to say. The central thesis of Saccharine is about women's body image, something you'd be hard pressed to find someone who hasn't struggled with. Over the course of the film we see Hannah get thinner and thinner, achieving her goals at the cost of pretty much everything she holds dear. As a fellow young woman who has lost a substantial amount of weight and struggled with my body for as long as I can remember, I felt uniquely equipped to cover it at Sundance this year.

Saccharine has a strong sense of femininity throughout the runtime, as in the truths of womanhood that are often too ugly to show in mainstream media. The self-loathing, constantly comparing yourself to others, pushing yourself to the brink of insanity to conform to what society says you should look like. So when I say it's feminine, I don't mean "ladylike," but it is abundantly clear this film was made by a team of exceptionally talented women who aren't afraid to get gross. Throughout this entire film I couldn't help but think: "wow, Natalie Erika James gets it." When Hannah discusses her horrifying symptoms with a fellow supplement user, she laughs it off and says: "but it's kind of worth it, right?" echoing the notion that modern women have been conditioned to believe the perfect figure is worth literally everything. There is no other line that exemplifies Saccharine more than that. This is the kind of movie I do not want to hear a man's opinion on unless it is glowingly positive.

Playing the role of Hannah was clearly a lot to take on in terms of subject matter, physicality, and intense emotion, but Midori Francis makes it all look effortless. Her performance is the cornerstone of this film and you can tell just how much she believes in her director's vision and story. Francis made Hannah a marvel to watch develop on screen, or rather descend into madness.

At no point during Saccharine did I not find myself in awe of purely how this film looks. So much careful attention to detail was paid to every aspect of the visuals in terms of production design, cinematography, lighting, and editing. Special props are due to director of photography, Charlie Sarroff and editor, Sean Lahiff, and lighting designer, Jesse Moyes whose styles blend so perfectly to create an impressively cohesive vision. There were so many moments throughout this film where I couldn't help but mumble to myself: "wow what an amazing shot." My one complaint would be that the script feels as though it could've been 10-15 minutes shorter, but overall this film blew me away.

Everyone who worked on Saccharine should be incredibly proud of this project. As a young woman, I found it to be one of the most emotionally resonant I have seen in a very long time. Fortunately it has already acquired North American distribution rights so make sure to see it when it comes out on the biggest screen possible!