Hana meets up with an old friend who has lost a dramatic amount of weight, crediting a miracle weight-loss drug called Grey. Hana soon discovers the drug is nothing more than cremated human remains, so she does what any perfectly rational medical student would do: she makes her own batch from the cadaver she’s studying on. As the kilos melt away, she’s haunted by the spirit of the corpse she used.
This immediately gets extra points from me for having a lesbian main character, and for being an Australian film that wasn’t trying its hardest to hide the fact that it was Australian. References to the TGA and “tumour” being spelled with a “u” made me a proud Aussie. It also has a genuinely interesting premise, with plenty of room to comment on the weight-loss industry, body image, and unhealthy relationships with food.
The main drawbacks are that it overstays its welcome a little, and I never felt the spirit’s motivation for pursuing Hana was entirely clear, although it’s possible I missed something. It’s a body-horror that never becomes excessively grotesque, relying more on creeping unease than relentless gore. It reminded me a lot of The Substance, with a little bit of Thinner and It Follows mixed in.