Saccharine

• Director: Natalie Erika James
• Writer: Natalie Erika James
• Starring: Midori Francis, Danielle MacDonald, Madeleine Madden

Grade: C-

Saccharine is the third feature from Writer/Director Natalie Erika James, following her pandemic-era breakthrough Relic and 2024’s Rosemary’s Baby prequel, Apartment 7A.  The film follows Hana (Midori Francis), a medical student suffering from body dysmorphia who experiments with a new weight-loss pill that promises to slim her down in next to no time. With GLP-1 medications now commonplace in our society, this may feel like a familiar and timely premise. But of course, there’s more to it, as Hana finds that what seems like a simple solution to her struggles may come tied to sinister consequences.

undertone

• Director: Ian Tuason
• Writer: Ian Tuason
• Starring: Nina Kiri, Adam DiMarco, Michèle Duquet

Grade: C

A24’s latest horror flick undertone puts a new twist on screen-life horror: instead of playing out the story via windows on a computer screen, the terrors in the film unfurl through a series of podcast sessions. Evy and Justin (played by Nina Kiri and The White Lotus’s Adam DiMarco) cohost a podcast dissecting paranormal events. When they begin to dive into a series of ten audio files sent by a mystery contributor, things start to shift in the home Evy shares with her ill mother (Michèle Duquet). Unfortunately, the story that follows is messy and cliched, failing to live up to the inventive horror films A24 is often known for putting out.