Transfer over, Elphaba. A brand new villainess is coming to reclaim her narrative, and it is not fairly — however it’s fairly superior. With The Ugly Stepsister, author/director Emilie Blichfeldt presents a gnarly new spin on a basic fairy story, daring to pose the query: What if Cinderella was a little bit of a bitch?
By centering on the eldest of Cinderella’s much-maligned stepsisters, this twisted fable explores how a patriarchal society pits girls in opposition to one another amid the crushing stress to be fairly. Should you gagged over Coralie Fargeat’s sickening satire The Substance, you will relish Blichfeldt’s spin on “pain is beauty” remedies. And when you love Depraved’s retconning of a baddie’s origins, your coronary heart will certainly exit to The Ugly Stepsister.
The Ugly Stepsister is a fairy story of imply women and fuckboys.
Elvira will get a nostril job in “The Ugly Stepsister.”
Credit score: Shudder
It seems some fashionable archetypes are really timeless. Although set in medieval Germany, a time of corseted robes and royal balls, The Ugly Stepsister feels ferociously fashionable in its depiction of merciless fashionable children.
New to the dominion, Elvira (Lea Myren) has a large crush on Prince Julian (Isac Calmroth), due to his swoon-worthy e book of affection poetry, which incorporates illustrations of his dreamy visage. In vivid daydreams, she imagines how he’ll select her as his one real love, sweep her off her toes, and carry her away to a happily-ever-after. In these visions, she seems to be very very like her new stepsister, Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Næss), with lengthy blond hair, excellent pores and skin, and a chic, pale blue robe that flows to the ground.
Actual life is much less shiny throughout for Elvira. The prince is a sulking wealthy boy with skeevy mates who make horrid intercourse jokes on the expense of any younger girl they arrive throughout. However even assembly this prick of a prince exterior of her desires cannot shatter Elvira’s hopeful ambitions of affection, luxurious, and luxury. Nevertheless, even in her new residence, this poor lady finds solely scorn. The ever-sneering Agnes is delicate about sharing her issues and outright scolds Elvira for her curiosity. Each are handled atrociously by Elvira’s manipulative mom, who seems to be on the women as her greatest means to restoring the household’s wealth by profitable matchmaking. Nevertheless, this Cinderella would reasonably plot her personal escape than help her would-be sister. When they’re invited to the prince’s ball, Agnes will not even share her final title with the court docket’s messenger. Thus, Elvira’s invitation will learn: Elvira Von Stepsister.
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Like a doe-eyed freshman (or a virgin who cannot drive), Elvira earnestly seeks steerage and a spotlight from anybody who may provide it. And as within the case in lots of a teen film, the outcomes of in search of validation by these exterior sources make for a pricey life lesson.
The Ugly Stepsister is a brutal and enthralling story of self-discovery.
Elvira wears a nostril brace in “The Ugly Stepsister.”
Credit score: Shudder
Regardless of the marketable mean-teen angle, Blichfeldt’s tackle the fairy story is not the stuff of Hollywood glamor. The title sequence makes this clear as rotting meals is slowly, excruciatingly revealed alongside the bloated corpse of Agnes’ father. Issues are bleak on this cash-strapped family, as Elvira’s mom (a deliciously ruthless Ane Dahl Torp) is compelled to pay the lifeless man’s money owed; with no money left over for a correct funeral, he is left to decay within the eating room. This can be a festering supply of resentment between Agnes and the stepmother who nicknames her “Cinderella.” However whereas Agnes is berated and made to wash up ghastly messes across the manor, Elvira is pressured into horrid transformations to make her — within the eyes of her mom and the cruel ending faculty madams — worthy of a person’s consideration.
As teased within the first pictures of The Ugly Stepsister, this features a violent nostril job, full with a ghastly metallic brace that makes Elvira a continuing supply of mockery. However there’s far worse to come back, as she is mutilated by varied snake oil salesmen just like the prancing Dr. Esthétique (Adam Lundgren), a groping costume designer who calls himself a “fairy godmother,” and a smiling mentor who presents her a particular reward that results in what I am going to name “Pavlov’s tapeworm.” These scenes of bodily abuse, sexual impropriety, and self-mutilation are all arduous to abdomen, contrasting intensely with the whimsical daydreams of Elvira’s creativeness. However because the world round her calls for Elvira’s blood, ache, screams, and tears, she clings extra tightly to her fantasies, believing the one solution to them is thru obedience and submission.
Whereas her instance is outrageous, it is also achingly touching. With massive, earnest eyes, and a infantile smile, Myren is heart-wrenchingly lovable as Elvira, providing a heroine whose naivete would have fared much better in a Jane Austen novel. Right here, she will likely be ridiculed, maimed, and tortured. Be warned: Blichfeldt won’t stray removed from the Cinderella story you already know nicely. And when she does, it is down a path of damaged bones and ghastly conclusions. And but, like The Substance, the climax — violent and gory — is surprisingly celebratory, discovering freedom from giving up these suffocating magnificence expectations of a society that simply flat-out hates girls.
In the long run, The Ugly Stepsister is a deranged and dizzying achievement, folding in a basic story with a bitingly fashionable satire and daring physique horror. Blichfeldt weaves these parts collectively to make a movie that feels each of this second however aesthetically nostalgic. With the whole lot from robes to banquet tables to castles and would-be kings caked in rot, blood, and bile, this horror gem appears like a misplaced B-movie from the ’80s, so willfully repugnant you’ll be able to virtually scent the stench. The gnarly aesthetic masterfully mucks up our dreamy imaginative and prescient of fairy story castles, princes, and romantic heroines, warning us — and Elvira — that the emperor has no garments! The tragedy is we’re fast to this realization whereas we should watch her battle with it. And but, her journey, as gross and grim as it’s, is threaded with a ribbon of exhilaration, riot, and even defiant pleasure. Merely put, The Ugly Stepsister is savagely brutal and but surprisingly lovely.
The Ugly Sister was reviewed out of the 2025 Sundance Movie Pageant.
