The Ugly Stepsister

Every single time I see that a celebrity has had her (sometimes his) face change in order to look younger and thinner, I sigh and despair and think WHY? You were beautiful before, there's no need to change.

This film takes that message to its goriest and most disgusting levels I've seen in a long time.

This is a horror retelling of the classic Cinderella story. Only Cinderella is not the main character, but it is told from the perspective of one of her "ugly" stepsisters, Elvira.

Agnes, AKA Cinderella, is a naturally gorgeous and rebellious girl who is destined to catch the eye of the prince. Her stepmother, Rebecca, wants Elvira to catch the prince's attention, since she dislikes Agnes and Elvira's sister Alma, is too young to wed.

In order to make her pretty, her mother Rebekka pays for her to have her braces removed, her eyelashes enlarged and a nose job.

Only... this is unfortunately not set in modern day. And the beauty procedures are shockingly and violently brutal. And Elvira goes one over to add another painful procedure in order to lose weight. And it is FOUL.

I really liked the differences between the three sisters. Alma is young, innocent and frightened at the prospect of womanhood. Agnes is a free spirited young woman who is punished by the rest of her family. While Elvira does everything in her power to appear pretty to please her nasty mother.

While The Substance by Coralie Fargeat deals with the fear of getting old, imperfections within the body and an entertainment industry obsessed with beauty standards, this film leans more into trying to please toxic parents who don't care about the well-being of their children, and only care about their own money and reputation. There are a lot of parallels with mothers nowadays who groom their children into being the people that they wished they could be. Whether through dance, entertainment or singers.

Probably not as wild as The Substance, but definitely more gross and squeamish.

I have deep respect for ideas and concepts like the ones featuring in "The Ugly Stepsister". The totally bonkers reimagining of a classic fairytale like "Cinderella", told mainly from the perspective of the hateful stepsister, is pure genius and utmost creative. In fact, I'm even slightly frustrated that I can never come up with simple but brilliant ideas like that! Who thought it up, then? Well, the Norwegian writer/director Emilie Blichfeldt did, and she created a lot more than just an entertaining slice of trash cinema... Blichfeldt made a harsh but socially relevant statement, a brutal upgrade of body-horror, and a hilarious black comedy. All in one.

It may not seem obvious, but "The Ugly Stepsister" has quite a lot in common with Coralie Fargeat's "The Substance"; which is hands down THE best horror movie of the 2020s. Both films were made by strong and professional women, and they both star anti-heroines doing everything - literally everything - to answer to the highest possible beauty standards. Both of the heroines also desire to look young/beautiful not for themselves, but to still matter in the society they are part of. And, of course, their desperate obsession with beauty has terrible consequences for both of them.

Let's not over-analyze, though, as "the Ugly Stepsister" is first and foremost a tremendously entertaining combo of genres. Blichfeld fluently blends period costume piece, comedy, horror, and even a little bit of drama. The carefree life of Rebekka and her daughters Elvira and Alma rudely comes to an end when her rich second husband literally drops dead on the diner table. Their only hope for wealth and luxury would be that Prince Charming chooses the oldest daughter Elvira as his bride, but there's one little problem. With her giant braces, crooked nose, excessively natural curves, and ring-curling hair, Elvira does not immediately meet the beauty standards. Will Rebekka succeed to make her own daughter prettier in time for the Royal Ball, AND to keep the amazingly beautiful daughter Agnes - a.k.a. Cinderella - locked away in the stables?

I truly loved how old-fashioned narratives and outdated clichés from the old Disney story have faded, and even disappeared. The stepsister is no longer an arrogant and evil wench but a very insecure and introverted girl. Cinderella, on the other hand, is not such an innocent angel anymore. She is quite rude to Elvira, and she likes premarital sex with the stable boy while she introduces herself as a virgin to the Prince a little while later. Fortunately, some fixed values from the (original) story are also retained. You won't see it in the Disney version, but here as well the stepdaughter cuts off her toes to fit the shoe. The film is of course far from perfect. Many parts of the script seem underdeveloped, which creates loose ends as well as a very large number of illogical situations and inexplicable plot twists. However, these are only details, because Blichfeldt has created a refreshing and solid long-feature debut film, and I hope to see more of her soon.

This is a very interesting take on Cinderella, a story passed down in many forms which has often had a sinister edge to it. Seeing it now fully realized as a slow burn body horror film is perhaps its most fitting adaptation - more than the Disney one anyways.

What I loved most about it is - it really takes its time. The entire film has such a realism to it, and I honestly can't think of another body horror film that has felt so real. What surprised me is how much more BRUTAL those scenes end up feeling. You won't have the same priming that you do in a typical horror film, where every scene just loses its punch. You're so aware of the practical effects, CGI, gallons of fake blood, etc. But here, the horror feels so shocking and grounded that even I had trouble looking.

As for the character study, it's well done. Elvira seems to be a cautionary tale of insecurity, a broken family, class struggle, and objectification. She would give anything to make her mother happy, to bring wealth to her family, and seemingly to get revenge on Cinderella. She seems to lose herself along the way though, and the brutal ending mostly seems like the result of a sunk cost fallacy.

Cinderella herself isn't really the most sympathetic character either. She starts out as just as judgemental and selfish until an unfortunate series of events. By the end, she seems bitter and vindictive, and there's no satisfaction in seeing her win. She is just as driven to money as all the rest of the family. But this film, as indicated by the title, really does focus on Elvira. Cinderella is completely secondary and irrelevant to the main arc.

While there's definitely some pacing issues and the film takes its time to build up, it was an interesting watch and a nice follow up to the themes touched on in last year's The Substance. If you want to see a more grounded, slow burn, realistic take on the themes I mentioned, definitely check it out.

The Ugly Stepsister is A dark, twisted re telling of the Cinderella story..... with A LOT of added gore.

The film tells the story of Elvira, who is essentailly, the Ugly Stepsister of the classic fairytale, the movie ios from her point of view.

The movie opens with Elvira her mum and younger sister moving in with another family (just the dad and the 'pretty daughter')

Some stuff happens, there's financial worries and.... news comes that the Prince will be having a ball and there he will chose his bride... so every young girl in the area sets off on a mission to... be the lucky lady.

So it is the classic fairytale ...to an extent.

Both Elvira and her Stepsister are after the Princes 'love' (in fact the movie opens with Elvira reading the princes published poems, and she has regular daydream fanatasies about being swept of her feet by him)

But the movie is really about the lengths that Elvira (and her mum) will go to, in order to become 'beautiful' and therefore worthy of the Prince

Thats more or less the plot

The early hype around this has been focusing on the gore element... And while it is VERY gorey at times... I think focusing on that does the film a bit of a disservice....

Yes... Its gorey, but it's much more internal and more of a psychological horror....(in a good way)

(Actress) in the lead role is BRILLIANT. You can see the struggles shes goin through internally on her face.... Its s brilliant, genre topping performance.

The supporting cast, specifically the mum, are also top tier.

I'm going to assume it was a low budget... But it didn't look or FEEL low budget.

The period costumes look great, the makeup snd physical effects dont look cheap....

The Cinematography (especially the fantasy sequences) and more specifically the sound design, it doesn't look OR sound lime a cheap movie.

So it seems they've spent their money wisely.

Score has stranger things vibes, interesting juxtaposition to the period drama setting

Then there's almost a spaghetti western vibe to the score... so, when it works, it works really well, but it did feel a little disjointed at times

It's written and directed by a woman, and I think that's partly what gives this such a unique feel at times. There's elements to the movie about the female gaze, that, lets face it, would probably have been handled differently if directed by a man

The pressure, young women in particular are put under to look a certain way...

The methods used in the movie might be more barbaric than today's.... But the underlying societal issue is the same.

The moral, the theme... while at times can feel a little on the nose (pun intended) is still, sadly relevant in today's society.

There's a line in the movie that stuck out to me "you're changing the outside to fit what you know is on the inside... Its what's inside that counts"

In an effort to make herself beautiful on the outside she becomes ugly on the inside.... (then ugly on the outside)

Now, even though I've kinda down played the goriness.... Its definitely an 18 rated movie

But none of the sex, nudity or violence feels gratuitous.... It all serves the story and the characters, it's not gore for the sake of gore (lookin at you Terrifier!)

Oh, and there is a an ed credits scene so stick around for that

7/10 for the ugly step sister.

I was very pleasenlty surprised by this. I went in expecting a fairly mindless gore fest, what i got was a well thought out, well paced psychological body horror (with a fair amount of gore) that Cronenberg fans would be proud of.

Would make a good double bill with THE SUBSTANCE

Thanks to shudder and strike media for giving me an early look at this, it's in select uk cinemas as of April 25th and I believe it's already in US cinemas.

Thats us folks, I'll catch you ijnthe next video

✌🏻

Seen this at the Berlin International Film Festival.

She was about to unleash the film on us, as the noticeably excited director finally exulted, having been brought on stage beforehand by the screenings moderator. The Cinderella tale was very close to her heart, and she almost spoiled the ending (more on that below). But first things first:

At the beginning, we still wonder, due to the emerging, subtly crude exaggeration, where this journey is headed... whether the film will find its tone. Yet another patchwork family coming together, a few centuries before today.

The penniless widow Rebekka moves with her daughters, Alma and Elvira, into the estate of a supposedly wealthy, older suitor, who has a pretty daughter named Agnes. Unfortunately, the hoped-for benefactor soon passes away. When it also turns out that this household has fallen on hard times as well, the newly widowed and aspiring social climber finds herself in a tough spot.

The prince of the county, meanwhile, is idolized by all the maidens for his poetry-and is soon to host a ball where he will choose his bride. A rivalry ignites between the initially haughty Agnes and the unconventionally attractive Elvira, spurred on by mother Rebekka, who puts every hockey mom to shame. After all, the pool of candidates is as large as in today's casting shows.

The audience may soon suspect: The daughter figures and the "evil" stepmother from the original Cinderella story seem here to serve merely as a foundation. For things appear to be taking a different turn, won't they? Who is the good one, who is the bad one-we recall the director's words: "The ugly stepdaughter, that was me." "There is only one Cinderella, we can't all be her."

Here, one feels pleasantly uncertain about how it will all end. It is crafty how Emilie Blichfeldt (both director and writer) blurs boundaries and plays with expectations, even as she does not shy away from clichés but rather embraces them in keeping with the genre.

The parallels to today, which Emilie Blichfeldt hints at, meaning that the whole thing can also be read as an analogy to current and burgeoning social dreams - are not as far-fetched as they may seem. After all, influencers, beauty ideals, body optimization trends, posing coaching, the excesses of cosmetic procedures, and (model) casting shows all promise dreams that rarely come true.

The drastic visual shock effects in "Den Stygge Stesøsteren" do not come across as mere sensationalism; instead, they powerfully illustrate the delusions of the characters: losing weight by ingesting a parasite, a nose job with hammer and chisel, self-mutilation... These scenes provoked intense reactions from the audience: vehement groans, followed by sudden bursts of laughter-even applause for individual scenes. Rare and strange.

And yet, it is simply faithful to the source: fairy tales have always drawn their effect from horrific deeds. The Grimm version of the story, as one can find, is by no means the only one. The Cinderella legend haunted Europe for centuries in countless variations before the Brothers Grimm-and later Ludwig Bechstein-shaped it into the form we remember today.

It is hard to imagine a better or more faithful adaptation of fairy tale motifs for a modern audience than what this film achieves-through adaptation, interpolation, and remixing.