The Ugly Stepsister, 2025.
Written and Directed by Emilie Blichfeldt.
Starring Lea Myren, Thea Sofie Loch Næss, Ane Dahl Torp, Flo Fagerli, Isac Calmroth, Malte Gårdinger, Ralph Carlsson, Isac Aspberg, Albin Weidenbladh, Oksana Czerkasyna, Katarzyna Herman, Adam Lundgren, Willy Ramnek Petri, Cecilia Forss, Kyrre Hellum, Richard Forsgren, Agnieszka Żulewska, Philip Lenkowsky, and Staffan Kolhammar.
SYNOPSIS:
Follows Elvira as she battles against her gorgeous stepsister in a realm where beauty reigns supreme. She resorts to extreme measures to captivate the prince, amidst a ruthless competition for physical perfection.
A demented, socially conscious Norwegian take on punishingly high womanly beauty standards through a body horror Cinderella alternate telling, writer/director Emilie Blichfeldt’s feature-length debut The Ugly Stepsister is simultaneously gross and emotionally devastating. It’s a radical approach to the fable that humanizes the stepsisters, particularly focusing on Elvira (Lea Myren), driven by storybook romance yearning and motivated by her cruel mother (Ane Dahl Torp) to transform her body by any means necessary to be more conventionally desirable to Prince Julian (Isac Calmroth) and suitable for marriage which would immediately fix a financial crisis.
What’s pleasantly surprising is that the film does so without writing off Cinderella (and other elements of her character and the classic fable) entirely, here known as Agnes and played by Thea Sofie Loch Næss. Each has their reasons for wanting to win over Prince Julian’s favor. A rivalry inevitably naturally develops, but Emilie Blichfeldt rarely loses sight that such bitterness and resentment is brought on by familial stress, an overwhelming mother perceiving her daughter as a chess piece to move up in social class, and, of course, the men who have put such impossibly high beauty standards in place, whether it be a shallow and superficially-concerned prince or a mad doctor profiting off performing painful body modifications that, in theory, shouldn’t be necessary to be deemed a suitable romantic or sexual partner. This is typically achieved with scream-inducing, unflinching, close-up photography by Marcel Zyskind, practically challenging one not to look away.
While the usual platitudes dictating that beauty comes from the inside are here, The Ugly Stepsister takes that further with a gross-out metaphor for what happens when an individual becomes wholly fixated on their appearance and presents themselves as objects rather than people. Part of the makeover here involves losing weight, to which Elvira swallows a tapeworm to eat whatever food she ingests. Without giving much away, that tapeworm also feels symbolic of how such a thought process can rot away the beauty of the personality that is inside. Again, that is not to place the blame on Elvira, as her entire predicament and subsequent actions are brought on by a twisted form of mental abuse, one that is steeped in men’s impossible standards for women.
Lea Myren’s fearless debut performance isn’t just about the physical transformation, though (which the makeup and prosthetics department also deserves flowers for, whether it be a modified nose or removed braces), but also one of subtle, emotionally stinging nuance. While wandering in the woods, she inadvertently comes across Prince Julian (she already has a fascination with him, often reading his poetry book while daydreaming about being together), who is nasty about her somewhat unconventional look, reacting with visible emotional pain yet also given more misplaced determination to win him over.
Similarly piercing is a scene where Elvira successfully remakes a dance team, assuming it was through herself and her progress, only to look heartbroken when it turns out her mother used what money the family had left to pay off the dance instructor. Such dances are in preparation for a ballroom gathering where Prince Julian will choose a wife, a captivating sequence replete with exquisite and colorfully expressive costume design from Manon Rasmussen.
Meanwhile, Agnes is mourning the death of her father and is bullied by her stepmother into tending to Elvira’s needs. There is also an attempt to flesh her out as a sympathetic character rather than flipping this story entirely on its head and rendering her an absolute villain. However, there is room for more layers and complexity among the various character dynamics and supporting players, who are somewhat one-dimensional.
Familiar messaging aside, The Ugly Stepsister is assured and genius in how it spins the story and slowly blends it into big beats we all know, doing so in a graphically gnarly fashion that drives the point home. In this story’s more grim and grounded reimagining, some fantasy elements feel slightly out of place, but the vision and performances are hypnotic, disturbing, and spellbinding.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association, Critics Choice Association, and Online Film Critics Society. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews and follow my BlueSky or Letterboxd
