Final 12 months’s surprise horror hit was “The Substance,” Coralie Fargeat’s sensible, bloody physique horror deconstruction of Hollywood’s relationship with growing old and wonder requirements. The Oscar-winning movie helped skyrocket Demi Moore into her first Academy Awards nomination over 40 years after first breaking into the business, alongside the best way exhibiting mainstream moviegoers there is a hell of plenty of magnificence to be present in cinema for actual sickos. As poignant because it was well-liked, “The Substance” sharply subverted what it means to be “lovely” and what self-love can appear like (it is Monstro Elisasue, when you’re curious), nevertheless it was additionally graphic, goopy, and gross sufficient that audiences were said to be vomiting during their screenings. Many feared that “The Substance” was a fluke, an indie horror Cinderella story of a movie scorned by a major studio and picked up by a smaller, art-house distributor to turn into the belle of the ball. Fortuitously, for these craving extra tales just like the aforementioned grotesquerie, she has arrived within the type of Emilie Blichfeldt’s debut characteristic, “The Ugly Stepsister.”
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Impressed by the unique “Cinderella” story by Charles Perrault and retaining the simmering darkness of the Brothers Grimm model (which noticed one of many so-called ugly stepsisters chopping off her personal toes in an try to suit her foot into the glass slipper famously left at a ball), “The Ugly Stepsister” is much less of a revision of the traditional story and extra of a shift in perspective. Popular culture has elected to depict Cinderella’s stepsisters as horrible folks, however was that really the case? Or had been they, like Cinderella herself, battling a misogynistic world, selecting to fixate on their hearts’ needs (by dreaming of one thing higher), and prepared to do no matter it takes to search out love and monetary safety for his or her household?
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Twisted fairy tales are all the fashion due to the public-domain increase of splatter flicks lately, however few can maintain a candle to a voice as assertive and inventive as Blichfeldt. With “The Ugly Stepsister,” the filmmaker has crafted a film as beautiful as it’s ugly, full with just a few moments of gore that had a handful of individuals audibly preventing the urge to retch within the aisles on the 2025 Overlook Movie Competition in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The Ugly Stepsister subverts storybook stereotypes with class and carnage
The Walt Disney Firm has accomplished an unbelievable job at tricking most of the people into believing that its variations of fairy tales are the definitive interpretations, however anybody who has sought out the tales of The Brothers Grimm is aware of that the overwhelming majority of people tales we maintain so expensive are, in reality, horror reveals. “The Ugly Stepsister” lulls the viewers right into a false sense of familiarity with period-piece gown, massive castles, and the poetic sounds of the Norwegian language. On the floor, the film appears like it might match proper in at house with coming-of-age costume dramas like Sofia Coppola’s “The Beguiled” or Greta Gerwig’s “Little Ladies,” however as soon as the simmering horror reveals its face, it snowballs into absolute mayhem.
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Lea Myren stars as Elvira, the lovesick eldest daughter of Rebekka (Ane Dahl Torp), a lady who marries a widower (seemingly for his cash) and turns into the stepmother of the gorgeous Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Næss). After Agnes’ father dies and it is revealed that he is broke (it seems he additionally married Rebekka for her presumed cash), the widow — now accountable for three daughters — is thrown right into a panic. The household would not even manage to pay for for a correct burial, in order that they’re pressured to go away Agnes’ father’s useless physique to rot in a secluded room of the home. However issues change when a proclamation is distributed all through the land that the Prince is throwing a ball for all the eligible virgins to turn into his bride. The viewers wants solely to take one have a look at Agnes, a classically lovely blonde, to know that that is her future … however what of Elvira?
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Hell has at all times been a teenage lady
Elvira isn’t “ugly” by any stretch of the creativeness (Myren appears practically similar to Lindsay Lohan circa 2004 when she’s in her ball robe most interesting), however everybody in her life factors out that she doesn’t appear like her stepsister. Figuring out that she’s primarily competing together with her for the Prince’s coronary heart, she and her mom begin investing in beautification procedures. A nostril job, some false eyelashes, weight reduction, and a brand new gown ought to do the trick — however what does cosmetic surgery appear like in a time earlier than plastic?
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Nicely, it appears like breaking somebody’s nostril with a chisel earlier than placing it in a metallic cage to resize it. It additionally means bodily stitching in eyelashes with cocaine as a numbing agent as a substitute of gluing them on. As for weight reduction … nicely, let’s simply say disseminated cysticercosis is alive and nicely in “The Ugly Stepsister.” The lengths Elvira is prepared to go to enhance her look and have a shot at marrying the prince appear excessive if not downright barbaric, however her strategies should not that dissimilar from what younger ladies proceed to have interaction in right this moment. The movie is an earnest examination of the best way society makes ladies imagine they’re inferior, convinces them to see their compatriots as competitors, and to disregard their physique’s warning indicators that one thing is improper if it means attaining magnificence.
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Refreshingly, nonetheless, “The Ugly Stepsister” additionally rises above lots of the different “the villain was really not that dangerous” tales in latest reminiscence (think “Cruella”). The movie by no means demonizes Agnes for being Cinderella. She is not secretly some horrible one that doesn’t deserve happiness, only a lady caught in the identical machine that’s hellbent on destroying us all however can get out of it due to genetics, privilege, and entry to magic. Some women simply have all of the luck, and that is simply as arduous as a tapeworm egg to swallow.
The Ugly Stepsister is a supremely spectacular debut characteristic
“The Ugly Stepsister” is Blichfeldt’s first characteristic, and it’s unfathomable {that a} first-time characteristic filmmaker was given the house (and finances) to make such a biting, daring, and monstrous inventive swing. The rationale “Cinderella” is a fairy story is as a result of to be a lady so pure and exquisite {that a} wealthy prince takes you away out of your horrible existence is a fantasy. The painful reality is that for almost all of us, we’ll by no means be Cinderella and have much more in widespread with “the ugly stepsister.”
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For as completely disgusting because the scenes of gore are (I can’t stress sufficient how Cronenbergian this movie gets), “The Ugly Stepsister” is actually particular as a result of it is a deeply relatable glimpse on the method so many people have interaction in unhealthy practices within the title of “magnificence.” On the time of this movie’s launch, probably the most well-liked traits on TikTok is the “morning shed,” i.e. movies the place ladies of their early 20s (and even youngsters) take away mouth tape, chin straps, face masks, and under-eye patches they wore to mattress, all within the title of staving off the pure progress of growing old. After some time, taking a look at Elvira together with her metallic cage to reshape her nostril stops trying like an archaic magnificence process in a interval piece and begins feeling like a funhouse mirror of the viewer watching the display screen.
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Blichfeldt spoke to the viewers on the Overlook Movie Competition with a convincing love for Elvira and girls like her as a result of, as she defined, “I’m her.” Elvira and her mom guess all of it on the idea that indulging in drastic measures to twist and contort her physique and face into one thing extra fascinating to “the requirements” is the important thing to like, happiness, and luxury. It is a bitter reminder that, for as oppressively atrocious as magnificence requirements are right this moment, this is not something new.
IFC will launch “The Ugly Stepsister” in theaters on April 18, 2025. It’ll head to Shudder quickly after that.
