#horrors

"Eat. Pray. Lose Weight" (2026, Australia, Finland)

I watched a good and in some sense curious horror movie, which in the original is called Saccharine, which can be translated as "sugar". At the center of the plot is a girl who strives to get the perfect figure by literally any means. And this turns into a fierce nightmare for her.

The concept of a film about stress due to excess weight and psychological problems due to eating disorders is not new to cinema. Although usually dramas are made about this. It's great that here the creator Natalia Erica James decided to especially emphasize that in the fight for the best version of yourself, first of all you need to love yourself. Otherwise, no means will help [if anything, in my opinion, there are no special parallels with "The Substance" here, although the messages seem similar]

The main antagonist in the film is food. Moreover, it doesn't matter whether it's healthy or unhealthy, and I think this is a very important point. It's important to maintain balance in everything, otherwise an imbalance can change everything very much. By the way, the subtext that by changing externally, we change internally, also seems to be present.

I liked that the director was not afraid to make the heroine's obsession with food quite repulsive, bringing it literally to the most forbidden point in the finale. Usually in such stories, food still looks appetizing, but here your appetite disappears. From here, two main and very opposite arenas of events are well paralleled - the kitchen and the morgue.

The whole film itself turned out to be quite repulsive. Or at least gloomy and heavy, discussing the problem of eating disorders and excess weight not only in relation to young people, but also as a social phenomenon. For some, food becomes a best friend and support during periods of isolation, loneliness, when there is no strength even to leave the house. And then a friend suddenly becomes an enemy.

This Australian horror does not look polished. It feels like it was shot by an amateur with good filming skills. And this is even a plus, since it's easier to get involved in the story, there is no cinematic distance, but there is a sense of realism. What distinguishes it, for example, from the films of the Philippou brothers, who have honed their skills on shooting music videos. Their cinema seems more polished to me.

I would especially like to highlight the visual techniques. While everyone is thinking about how to make the monster scarier, here the director simply decided to use the trick with a blurred image on convex surfaces and the trick with an invisible person. Cheaper and more effective.

All the ideas, fears and messages in "Eat, Pray, Lose Weight" are read very easily. There are no hidden metaphors, although I believe there is an incredible reference to Denis Villeneuve's first "Dune". But hardly anyone will expect intricate dramaturgy from a horror movie about teenagers. Nevertheless, I would not say that the film is passable, since it raises important topics.

Thanks to the guys from @worldpicturesrus for the curious horror movie. In cinemas already from August 13!

#reviews