The Ugly Stepsister review
Cinderella is reimagined as body horror in a movie that gives public domain horror hope.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
The Ugly Stepsister
Directed by Emilie Blichfeldt
Screenplay by Emilie Blichfeldt
Starring Lea Myren, Thea Sofia Loch Næss, Ane Dahl Torp, Flo Fagerli, Isac Calmroth, Malte Gårdinger and Ralph Carlsson
The Ugly Stepsister Review
Norwegian body horror movie The Ugly Stepsister isn’t a victory lap for public domain horror films…but it is a part of a larger conversation. If you’ve been following along…this website has painstakingly (and often painfully) been covering the deluge of low budget slasher films based on beloved childhood characters suddenly free from copyright laws. Some of them fall firmly into the “so bad it’s good” slasher movie that makes one feel nostalgic for the 80s. The bigger point has always been that a lot more movies utilize public domain characters than we stop to consider. Every Sherlock Holmes iteration you watch, for example. These characters never needed to be limited to cheap slasher films that usually have nothing in common with the source material in the first place.
The Ugly Stepsister is a retelling of Cinderella. Unless you’ve been living under a rock your whole life…you know the story of Cinderella. If you’re only familiar with the Disney version of the story…you may not be aware of how hard some iterations of the story go. Namely…one of Cinderella’s evil stepsisters cutting her toes off in an attempt to fit into the famous slipper left behind at the ball. The Ugly Stepsister is reverse engineered from this moment of the story. What kind of person would do such a thing, one might ask. Writer/director Emilie Blichfeldt decided to answer exactly that.
The story of Cinderella has been public domain for longer than such a concept was thought into existence. Its roots date back to folk tales that predate the turn from BC to AD. The Ugly Stepsister doesn’t choose the slasher path for its twisted adaptation. It hardly even sticks to the concept of the evil stepsister. It has a deeper interest in the character than that. What would psychologically possess someone to go to such lengths? The Ugly Stepsister uses body horror to tell its version of that story.
Elvira (Lea Myren) is the titular stepsister. Her mother marries the father of our Cinderella, Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Næss). The nuptials don’t last long, however…as Agnes’s father immediately drops dead. That’s when both sides discover that the wedding only occurred because each thought the other was rich. It turns out…neither was. It falls to Elvira to attract a wealthy suitor for marriage. And her heart is set on Prince Julian (Isac Calmroth).
The trauma is inflicted on Elvira early and often in The Ugly Stepsister. She’s taken to a doctor for some prehistoric beauty surgery that involves breaking her nose in strategic places to reduce its size. Elvira has to spend most of The Ugly Stepsister wearing a bandage over it. That’s only the beginning. Eyelashes are sewn into her face. A wig is required in place of her natural hair due to excessive hair loss. She swallows a tape worm so that she can eat but still lose weight. Her entire life is dedicated to becoming beautiful enough for the prince to pick her out of the pack.
Elvira attends finishing school along with Agnes. Agnes is the clear favorite, a natural beauty full of poise and grace. Unfortunately, Agnes’s heart belongs to the stable boy. When she’s caught with him while she’s supposed to remain a virgin for the prince, her life becomes more like what we remember from the story. Her stepmother forces her into servitude, and she’s unceremoniously pulled from finishing school…and the path to a better life.
Since this is Cinderella at its core…we know how her story will end. For the most part, The Ugly Stepsister lets that story play out in the background. This is Elvira’s version of events. A girl with insurmountable pressure and expectations placed upon her. She starves herself and endures dangerous and painful procedures to get what she wants…what her mother needs. All while we know that the shoe is always going to fit Cinderella no matter how much she endures.
The Ugly Stepsister is a public domain horror movie done right. Not only does it directly connect to its source material…it presents it in a new way. There are enough moments to make you squirm to please body horror fans…but the real horror comes from the strong character work. Elvira will stop at nothing to get the prince. While she has moments of wickedness…she mostly serves as our protagonist. When Cinderella arrives at the ball and takes away the prince’s attention…it doesn’t feel as cut and dry a happy moment as it does in the traditional text. We watch Elvira go through Hell with (almost) no one on her side.
The latter part becomes key to how The Ugly Stepsister finds an ending for its chosen character. We know that Cinderella is going to get her fairy tale ending. Where does her stepsister…resigned to being a two-dimensional character in most versions…go from here? The Ugly Stepsister chooses to fully break her down, largely by her own hand, to give her the agency the story never has. If that’s not a reason to do a public domain horror movie…nothing is.
Scare Value
Perhaps it isn’t fair to lump The Ugly Stepsister in with the rest of the public domain horror we’ve seen lately. But it does prove something I’ve been saying for a while now. Horror movies focused on public domain characters don’t have to be bad. Dracula is public domain. Frankenstein is public domain. Cinderella’s story is reimagined here as body horror…and it works. The story lends itself naturally to it from the perspective The Ugly Stepsister adopts. Sure, it isn’t Cinderella running around a revenge slasher (which we’ve already seen) …but public domain horror shouldn’t limit itself to that in the first place.
3.5/5
The Ugly Stepsister Link
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