The Ugly Stepsister Review: Emilie Blichfeldt’s Directorial Debut Gives Her Cinderella Story a Twisted Body-Horror Spin
What if the familiar story of the Cinderella character takes a backseat in favour of The Ugly Stepsister? That’s the premise for the Norwegian body horror, marking the directorial debut of Emilie Blichfeldt, who also wrote the screenplay and gives it a wickedly perverse spin. The Ugly Stepsister is far from your usual Disney version, and the fairy tale is nothing cute, charming or whimsical but rather a slow descent into darkness.
The titular character in question refers to Elvira (Lea Myren), who often finds herself daydreaming of marrying Prince Julian (Isac Calmroth). She has a younger sister named Alma (Flo Fagerli), and the Cinderella in their family is the blonde and beautiful Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Naess). Elvira’s mother, Rebekka (Ane Dahl Torp), recently remarried a well-to-do man named Otto (Ralph Carlsson). At least that’s what Rebekka thought in the first place, only to find out he’s heavily in debt after he passed away one night while having dinner.
With no money left for Rebekka to inherit in his so-called fortune, she becomes desperate until an opportunity knocks following the news about Prince Julian seeking the right suitor to become his bride. Rebekka sees this as a chance to reverse their family’s poor fortune by grooming Elvira, beginning by appointing a doctor (Adam Lundgren, channelling the kind of mad plastic surgeon role straight out of the B-movie horror) for a nose job.
The familiar “beauty is pain” adage is certainly depicted both literally and figuratively in The Ugly Stepsister. And it doesn’t stop there, as Rebekka wants her to ingest a tapeworm, which helps her to lose weight. Beauty perfection isn’t the only thing that Elvira needs to fulfil as Rebekka also sends her to a finishing school under the strict guidance of Madame Vanja (a no-nonsense Katarzyna Herman), a ballet instructor who doesn’t mince words when she sees anyone fail to meet her high standards.
Elvira’s journey to become beautiful requires a lot of sacrifices, and Blichfeldt isn’t shy of depicting these moments as stark as possible. The movie also reminds me of last year’s The Substance since it shares the same dark side of unrealistic beauty standards. Elvira is portrayed as a naive young woman who listens to whatever her mother tells her to do. She isn’t as independently minded as Agnes, and all she cares about is winning the heart of Prince Julian, hence the recurring daydreaming scenes.
The biggest question is whether Elvira’s sacrifice is worthy of all the pain. Well, let’s just say Blichfeldt isn’t interested in playing safe here as the story progresses. The promise of the body horror elements isn’t as fully embraced as I thought it would be. These moments, which are reminiscent of the early David Cronenberg’s body-horror era, are few and far between, and it wasn’t until the third act that it’s best described as “stomach churning”. The kind of gore and graphic moments that I won’t be surprised you end up wincing, particularly the way Blichfeldt favours a matter-of-fact execution.
I also can’t help but feel the otherwise foreboding story tends to meander around to get to the point, leaving a noticeably clunky pace that could have used some serious editing. Still, Blichfeldt’s directorial debut remains an above-average body horror. She brings out the best in her cast from Lea Myren’s impressive performance playing the “ugly duckling” Elvira to Ane Dahl Torp’s solid supporting turn as Agnes’ wicked stepmother, Rebekka.
Blichfeldt’s dark and dreamy, fairy tale-like atmospheric visuals are spot-on, thanks to Marcel Zyskind’s moody cinematography, and props also go to Sabine Hviid and Klaudia Klimka-Bartczak’s extra attention towards their production design. And the same can be said for Manon Rasmussen’s costume design.
The Ugly Stepsister is currently streaming on Shudder.
