[Review]: The Ugly Stepsister

With the recent influx of reimagined fairy tale horror films flooding the market, it would be easy to pass off Emilie Blichfeldt’s directorial debut as just another cringey example of just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. However, The Ugly Stepsister is a grotesque entry into the female body horror genre, reinventing the classic tale of Cinderella and spinning it into a story of the extreme lengths a person will go to in order to reach unattainable beauty standards. 

Set in 19th century Norway, the film concerns itself with Elvira ( Lea Myren), the eldest daughter of a recently widowed woman, hoping to reach the highest caste of society by marrying her daughter off to the prince who is searching for a virginal wife. Elvira, however, is not the peak of beauty according to both society’s and her mother’s standards. With braces, a slight bump in her nose, and no visible ribs showing through her skin, her mother employs an aesthetician to transform Elvira into a potential bride for the prince. Not only does Elvira have to contend with her mother and her own self-esteem issues, but she is also in direct competition with her step-sister Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Næss, whose looks are a more socially accepted standard of beauty. With the impending royal ball approaching, Elvira’s pursuit of perfection becomes more extreme and brutal, and her body begins to fight back, with disastrous results. 

Following the success of last year’s ageing body horror The Substance (2024) directed by Coralie Fargeat, as well as Julia Ducournau’s exploration of the femme body in her masterpieces Raw (2016) and Titane (2021), Blichfeldt’s The Ugly Stepsister is sure to find a well deserving place amongst these portrayals of the horrific dissection of society’s attitudes to the female body. Using the typically vilified perspective of Cinderella’s “ugly” stepsister, the film seeks to understand and portray the grotesque manner in which beauty standards are set and the irreversible physical and psychological damage that occurs when one seeks to distort their body in order to look a certain way. Elvira’s physical traits are violently broken, taken apart and sewed back together, with her even swallowing a dangerous parasite in pill form in order to slim down her already svelte body. Reflecting the obsession society has with magic diet pills, cosmetic surgery and living above a person’s means in order to keep up with the latest fashion and beauty trends, The Ugly Stepsister is not only gory and sickening in a visual practical effects manner, but also in holding up a mirror to how painful and detrimental beauty standards can be to an individual's physical and mental wellbeing. 

The strength lies in the performances of all of the central female cast who all represent a facet of the detrimental effects of patriarchy on females within this society. Apart from the tribulations of main character Elvira, it is also her stepsister who is punished for premarital sex, Elvira’s little sister who is almost invisible to all due to her refusal to not adhere to the common stereotype of a woman, and even Elvira’s cold and calculating mother who bends to the whims of men in order to prosper in her life. The Ugly Stepsister is a multi-layered examination of the damage gender roles and gendered expectations has on individuals.

Combining gag-worthy practical effects with the very real horrors of being a woman, The Ugly Stepsister takes the idea of a fairytale and transforms it into a nauseating body horror masterpiece.

5 Screams out of 5

The Ugly Stepsister will be in US cinemas from 18th April and UK Cinemas from 25th April