In Spoonful of Sugar, Millicent is a young student who is struggling with her mental health. She has regular counselling sessions, to help her cope with day-to-day life, and is currently taking a semester off from studies to give herself some much-needed head space.
With more free-time, Millicent decides to take on a new job that she has seen advertised for a nanny. The role is to look after a young, non-verbal boy, with a number of health conditions, and after impressing the boy’s mother, she is given the job.
Over the next few days, Millicent begins to look after the boy, and she develops a close bond with him. But Millicent is harbouring a secret: She regularly takes LSD, which causes various hallucinations, and she has begun to fantasise about the boy’s father.
Will Millicent’s drug-fuelled trips, and sexual desires break up this seemingly harmonious family or will they become wise to her shift in personality? And what other horrors could be lurking in the shadows, that could create additional complications?
Directed by Mercedes Bryce Morgan, and starring Morgan Saylor, Kat Foster, and Myko Olivier, Spoonful of Sugar is a slow-burning horror movie, which is new to Shudder from today. The film follows the story of Millicent and her interactions with her new employees, and is a dark, sombre affair, with occasional trippy moments.
However, while Spoonful of Sugar looks pretty good, and has occasional sequences of interest here and there, it is very, very dull. The film drifts around trying to be all ethereal and atmospheric, yet it is a bit of a snooze-fest that never seems to go anywhere.
Spoonful of Sugar largely centres around an unhinged nanny, who loses her shit over the course of the movie, and that’s mostly it. Ok, so there is a touch more to it, and there is something a little more sinister going on, but the whole thing feels stretched out beyond its capabilities.
For the most part, it plays a bit like a darker, low-budget version of The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992), which incidentally is a much better film. I wanted to like this picture, and I did enjoy some of the visuals (there’s some great cinematography in here), but that’s about all it offers.
There are a number of scenes in the film in which characters take drugs or engage in sexual acts, and none of these scenes do anything other than remind the audience that partaking in one of these pastimes would be a far better way to spend 90 minutes. I expect taking a mind-altering drug while watching the film would also improve what’s on screen, or at the very least, it would make the time pass far quicker.
This isn’t a recommendation by the way, so don’t put me down as some kind of drug pusher, my actual advice would be to forgo the drugs, and not bother with Spoonful of Sugar at all. While this film isn’t awful, it’s simply not very interesting, and it struggles to really get going.
To be fair to Spoonful of Sugar, things do pick up a touch during the final twenty minutes, and there is a decent little sequence at the end. However, rather than adding a new perspective to the movie (as intended), this end sequence just leaves audiences questioning why the rest of the film couldn’t have been as interesting?
I believe this movie was produced with all the best intentions, and everyone gives it a good whack, but the material isn’t strong enough. The whole thing is not as good as it wishes to be and it just lacks momentum.
If you’re a Shudder subscriber, and you like to give everything a fair go, then depending on your mood, you might get something out of this picture. I don’t believe you’ll be all that engaged with the film, but a few sequences here and there may be of interest, and you might latch onto the more unhinged aspects of the drama.
However, this is largely a non-starter for me, and I expect it will be for others too. Spoonful of Sugar is too slow for its own good and needs a much stronger story to match its aesthetic.
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