“Saccharine”, interview with director Natalie Erika James

March 2, 2026

Natalie Erika James: “Saccharine is a love letter - to anyone who has grown up wishing their body was different, to my family and the hidden pain we carried, and to myself”.

“Saccharine”, interview with director Natalie Erika James Chiara Nicoletti

Podcast | Download

Following “Apartment 7A” and her breakout horror hit “Relic“, writer and director Natalie Erika James presents at the 76th Berlinale for a Special Midnight screening, her new film “Saccharine“, after a successful premere at the Sundance Film Festival, back in January.

The film follows Hana (Midori Francis) , a lovelorn medical student who becomes terrorized by a hungry ghost after taking part in an obscure weight-loss craze.

Blending Body horror and psychological thriller

“Saccharine is the culmination of my own personal reflections, explored through the lens of horror. It is an intimate look at one woman’s struggle with body image, self-worth, and shame-driven compulsion”. These are the words of Natalie Erika James, explaining, in her director’s notes, the themes guiding her third feature film.

The film comes from James’ personal experience in her family as her father, while she was growing up, struggled with food and weight shaped much of her family’s life.

She used this experience and her ability to transform it into cinema blending body horror and psychological thriller, two genres that are much more nuanced and effective in showing, understanding, exploring these struggles.

By utilizing supernatural and body horror elements, the film portrays the haunting nature of internal battles related to body perception and mental health. The genre-savvy approach amplifies the emotional truth behind the characters’ experiences, making the story both impactful and entertaining.

Self-Acceptance

At its core, “Saccharine” tells the story of a woman striving for love and acceptance in a world that often conditions conditional regard. The film highlights how a weight-loss journey, if not supported and guided in a way that safeguards mental health, does not guarantee self-acceptance; on the contrary, it can even worsen one’s self-perception.

Plot

When first-year medical student Hana becomes fixated on weight loss after reuniting with a dramatically transformed friend, she’s drawn into a disturbing world of body image obsession. Encouraged by her crush, fitness influencer Alanya, to join an intense body transformation program. Hana takes the diet pills her old friend gave her – and they really start to work straight away, but she’s unable to afford the high cost, so she tests the contents of the pills —only to discover they contain human ashes. Desperate for more, she secretly harvests bones from a cadaver in her anatomy class. As Hana begins shedding weight, she is haunted by the ghost of the person she’s consuming. At first a spectral curiosity, then a terrifying, growing presence with a ravenous hunger that begins to consume her life.
With her grip on reality slipping and the ghost gaining power, Hana must find a way to break free before she loses control entirely.

Written by: Chiara Nicoletti

Guest

Natalie Erika James