‘The Ugly Stepsister’ cleverly flips the classic Cinderella tale, offering a smart and emotionally resonant reinterpretation from the perspective of the frequently misunderstood stepsister.
Norwegian writer-director Emilie Blichfeldt delivers a brutal, body-horror reimagining of Cinderella, centered on Elvira, the “ugly” stepsister, who embarks on a grotesque transformation to win the prince’s attention.
Elvira (Lea Myren) undergoes horrific beauty treatments—nose reshaping with chisels, eyelash stitching, and ingesting tapeworms to rival her beautiful stepsister Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Næss).
Visually, the movie is striking, blending lavish Scandinavian storybook aesthetics with modern, gritty realism with close-up body horror. The cinematography oscillates between fairy tale elegance and visceral horror, using extreme close-ups and muted palettes to underscore Elvira’s physical and emotional metamorphosis unraveling. It’s a visceral critique of beauty standards, and patriarchal oppression. The theatrical horror use of maggots and tapeworms feels both literal and symbolic, reinforcing the “beauty is pain” notion.
Thus, this daring, unsettling fairy-tale subversion about beauty, suffering, and complicity succeeds in being both haunting and thought-provoking. ‘The Ugly Stepsister’ invites viewers to rethink the definition of “ugly” and question who deserves to be the center of the story.
