‘The Ugly Stepsister’ assessment: What if ‘Depraved’ and ‘The Substance’ had a grubby child?

Transfer over, Elphaba. A brand new villainess is coming to reclaim her narrative, and it is not fairly — however it’s fairly superior. With The Ugly Stepsister, author/director Emilie Blichfeldt presents a gnarly new spin on a traditional fairy story, daring to pose the query: What if Cinderella was a little bit of a bitch? 

By centering on the eldest of Cinderella’s much-maligned stepsisters, this twisted fable explores how a patriarchal society pits ladies towards one another amid the crushing stress to be fairly. When you gagged over Coralie Fargeat’s sickening satire The Substance, you may relish Blichfeldt’s spin on “ache is magnificence” remedies. And should you love Depraved’s retconning of a baddie’s origins, your coronary heart will certainly exit to The Ugly Stepsister. 

The Ugly Stepsister is a fairy story of imply ladies and fuckboys. 

Elvira will get a nostril job in “The Ugly Stepsister.”
Credit score: Shudder

It seems some fashionable archetypes are actually timeless. Although set in medieval Germany, a time of corseted robes and royal balls, The Ugly Stepsister feels ferociously fashionable in its depiction of merciless standard children. 

New to the dominion, Elvira (Lea Myren) has a large crush on Prince Julian (Isac Calmroth), due to his swoon-worthy guide of affection poetry, which incorporates illustrations of his dreamy visage. In vivid daydreams, she imagines how he’ll select her as his one real love, sweep her off her toes, and carry her away to a happily-ever-after. In these visions, she seems very very like her new stepsister, Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Næss), with lengthy blond hair, excellent pores and skin, and a sublime, pale blue robe that flows to the ground. 

Actual life is much less shiny throughout for Elvira. The prince is a sulking wealthy boy with skeevy associates who make horrid intercourse jokes on the expense of any younger woman they arrive throughout. However even assembly this prick of a prince exterior of her goals cannot shatter Elvira’s hopeful ambitions of affection, luxurious, and luxury. Nonetheless, even in her new house, this poor lady finds solely scorn. The ever-sneering Agnes is delicate about sharing her issues and outright scolds Elvira for her curiosity. Each are handled atrociously by Elvira’s manipulative mom, who seems on the ladies as her finest means to restoring the household’s wealth by way of profitable matchmaking. Nonetheless, this Cinderella would slightly plot her personal escape than assist her would-be sister. When they’re invited to the prince’s ball, Agnes will not even share her final title with the court docket’s messenger. Thus, Elvira’s invitation will learn: Elvira Von Stepsister. 

Like a doe-eyed freshman (or a virgin who cannot drive), Elvira earnestly seeks steering and a spotlight from anybody who may supply it. And as within the case in lots of a teen film, the outcomes of looking for validation by way of these exterior sources make for a expensive life lesson. 

The Ugly Stepsister is a brutal and enthralling story of self-discovery. 

Elvira wears a nostril brace in “The Ugly Stepsister.”
Credit score: Shudder

Regardless of the marketable mean-teen angle, Blichfeldt’s tackle the fairy story is not the stuff of Hollywood glamor. The title sequence makes this clear as rotting meals is slowly, excruciatingly revealed alongside the bloated corpse of Agnes’ father. Issues are bleak on this cash-strapped family, as Elvira’s mom (a deliciously ruthless Ane Dahl Torp) is compelled to pay the useless man’s money owed; with no money left over for a correct funeral, he is left to decay within the eating room. It is a festering supply of resentment between Agnes and the stepmother who nicknames her “Cinderella.” However whereas Agnes is berated and made to scrub up ghastly messes across the manor, Elvira is pressured into horrid transformations to make her — within the eyes of her mom and the cruel ending college madams — worthy of a person’s consideration.

As teased within the first photographs of The Ugly Stepsister, this features a violent nostril job, full with a ghastly steel brace that makes Elvira a relentless supply of mockery. However there’s far worse to come back, as she is mutilated by numerous snake oil salesmen just like the prancing Dr. Esthétique (Adam Lundgren), a groping costume designer who calls himself a “fairy godmother,” and a smiling mentor who presents her a particular present that results in what I will name “Pavlov’s tapeworm.” These scenes of bodily abuse, sexual impropriety, and self-mutilation are all arduous to abdomen, contrasting intensely with the whimsical daydreams of Elvira’s creativeness. However because the world round her calls for Elvira’s blood, ache, screams, and tears, she clings extra tightly to her fantasies, believing the one technique to them is thru obedience and submission. 

Whereas her instance is outrageous, it is also achingly touching. With large, earnest eyes, and a infantile smile, Myren is heart-wrenchingly lovable as Elvira, providing a heroine whose naivete would have fared much better in a Jane Austen novel. Right here, she can be ridiculed, maimed, and tortured. Be warned: Blichfeldt is not going to stray removed from the Cinderella story you understand properly. And when she does, it is down a path of damaged bones and ghastly conclusions. And but, like The Substance, the climax — violent and gory — is unusually celebratory, discovering freedom from giving up these suffocating magnificence expectations of a society that simply flat-out hates ladies. 

In the long run, The Ugly Stepsister is a deranged and dizzying achievement, folding in a traditional story with a bitingly fashionable satire and daring physique horror. Blichfeldt weaves these components collectively to make a movie that feels each of this second however aesthetically nostalgic. With every little thing from robes to banquet tables to castles and would-be kings caked in rot, blood, and bile, this horror gem looks like a misplaced B-movie from the ’80s, so willfully repugnant you possibly can virtually odor the stench. The gnarly aesthetic masterfully mucks up our dreamy imaginative and prescient of fairy story castles, princes, and romantic heroines, warning us — and Elvira — that the emperor has no garments! The tragedy is we’re fast to this realization whereas we should watch her wrestle with it. And but, her journey, as gross and grim as it’s, is threaded with a ribbon of exhilaration, insurrection, and even defiant pleasure. Merely put, The Ugly Stepsister is savagely brutal and but unusually lovely. 

The Ugly Sister was reviewed out of the 2025 Sundance Movie Competition.