Review: ‘Spoonful of Sugar’ is a soapy and salacious thriller

Oh, what a tangled web director Mercedes Bryce Morgan weaves. With a script written by Leah Saint Marie, Spoonful of Sugar finds several subplots colliding in epic, if not a bit messy, fashion. The story hooks into various different genres, as well, from demon child to provocative thriller, and often feels as though several films have been stitched together. In simple terms, Morgan’s second feature is The Hand That Rocks the Cradle meets Orphan, splicing each film’s pillar story moments into its own creation. That’s not to say Spoonful of Sugar is a knock-off; Morgan displays an adeptness behind the camera, so there’s plenty of thrills and chilling imagery to be had. As the story devolves, Morgan makes sure it worms beneath your fingernails.

Morgan Saylor plays Millicent, a young woman working on her thesis about young children with severe allergies. To make ends meet, she takes on babysitting jobs and soon lands on Jacob (Myko Olivier) and Rebecca’s (Kat Foster) doorstep. Their son Johnny (Danilo Crovetti) is allergic to literally everything, from synthetic fabrics to strawberries, and walks around in a kid-sized spaceman costume. It’s the only way he’ll stay safe, Rebecca claims. With Millicent’s arrival, Johnny immediately takes a liking to her. He doesn’t speak a word, so he takes to scrawling “h!” on a piece of paper. Rebecca and Jacob have severe reservations about Millicent, but as they’ve been through countless other babysitters, they’re willing to give her a shot.

Spoonful of Sugar then pulls the rug out from under your feet. What you think is going on isn’t necessarily what is. Morgan delights in subversion of expectation, while also tracing an outline around its many thriller predecessors. It borrows, dabbles, and reapplies genre tropes into a heap of delicious and soapy drama. As the days tick by, Millicent’s past comes out to play, exposing vulnerabilities and insecurities in both her upbringing and her current emotional state. In tending to Johnny, whom she pumps full of LSD, Millicent draws closer into Jacob’s confidence and comes to realize that him and Rebecca have rattling skeletons in their own closets.

Each plot element often feels disconnected from the others, and jarringly so. But there’s charm within such a chaotic story. If nothing else, it keeps your eyes glued to the screen as you wait with bated breath for the next twist to slam into your jawline. For her part, Millicent’s obsession with the family is riveting, in an almost Saint Maud sort of way, and it becomes clear she’ll do practically anything to nurture and coerce Johnny out of his shell. Saylor gives the material weight, switching gears between emotions with needle-point precision.

While there’s certainly plenty to like and admire about Morgan’s latest, it unfortunately suffers from a lack of vision. The storylines act like mangled roots, each suffocating the others. And the center stem is cut off from oxygen which leaves the plant choking and turning brown. Spoonful of Sugar could have benefited from another round of trimming — yet perhaps the jumbled story is the point. We all have secrets and double lives, whether we’re willing to admit it or not. Millicent is just a young woman who knows exactly what she wants. Who could fault her for that.

Spoonful of Sugar is now streaming on Shudder.

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