The Ugly Stepsister (2025) review – Cinderella meets Cronenberg

Welcome to Knockout Horror. Today we are checking out a period, fantasy, psychological, satirical, comedy, drama, body-horror (I think that is everything?) from Norway – The Ugly Stepsister (Den stygge stesøsteren).

A movie featuring an eclectic genre mix

That’s a lot of subgenres listed alongside this movie and for good reason. The Ugly Stepsister is an extremely transgressive film that is pretty hard to pin down to just one style. In much the same was as Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance did last year. The Ugly Stepsister is melding a number of different ideas together into one fascinating body-horror package.

“In much the same way as Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance did last year. The Ugly Stepsister is melding a number of different ideas together into one fascinating body-horror package.”

The story is, pretty much, a retelling of Cinderella told from a slightly different perspective. Elvira (Lea Myren) is a young woman who is desperate to hook up with the handsome prince. The only problem is her far better looking step-sister Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Næss) is also in the chase. A fact which prompts Elvira to go to sickening lengths to achieve perfection.

The Ugly Stepsister is set in a non-descript time period and features a presentation that is somewhere between period drama and fairy-tale. Rather than seeing the events from Cinderella’s perspective, we follow the so called “ugly stepsister” Elvira. Elvira isn’t an immediately odious person but her pursuit of beauty sends her on a rapid decline towards selfishness and cruelty.

This is an interesting way to present the story. Elvira is, at least for some of the movie, fairly likable and sympathetic. She desires love and affection but most of the people around her treat her like shit; even her own mother. As she goes to extreme lengths to fix how she feels she looks on the outside. She gradually becomes more and more ugly on the inside.

An interesting approach to horror storytelling

The Ugly Stepsister features an incredibly interesting approach to character presentation and storytelling. The characters, here, are all a pretty complex mix between good and bad and beautiful and ugly. A fact which reflects real life but, naturally, it is taken to a hyperbolic degrees.

This could be seen as a satirical take on the ridiculous nature of the beauty industry itself. It keys in on the way the perpetuation of certain beauty standards impacts everyday people. As well as the basic idea of what constitutes attractiveness and how that relates to self image and happiness. The way we feel we should look, or the way we feel we should act, leads us to betray our actual selves. Sometimes even leading us to become “ugly” in the process.

Director Emilie Blichfeldt wanted to illustrate the body-image struggles that she, and many other women, have faced in their lives. Much of which is pushed onto people by the traditional images of beauty perpetuated by social media, Hollywood, and celebrity. Doing it via the medium of body-horror was a choice made after binging a ton of Cronenberg films and Julia Ducournau’s 2016 hit Raw.

Considering the fact that Blichfeldt didn’t have any real grounding in the genre before making The Ugly Stepsister, it’s tough not to be impressed. After all, this is one of the better entries into the genre for quite some time. It’s pretty awesome to see a body-horror revival and it is amazing that it is female directors leading the charge.

It’s a visual feast for the eyes

The Ugly Stepsister is aesthetically absolutely fantastic. Cinematography, costume work, and set design all deserve special mention. This film is gorgeous in the most utterly gritty and grotesque way that you could possibly image.

“Sure, everything looks pretty from a distance but look up close and you will see the crow’s feet and fine lines… The overall picture is far dirtier and much more seedy.”

Depictions of Fairy Tales often feature an almost dreamlike, over-saturated Disney, quality. Something which is rather at odds with the intended, cautionary nature of the stories. Blichfeldt has no such intention with The Ugly Stepsister. This is a fairy-tale in the original manner in which they were intended.

Sure, everything looks pretty from a distance but look up close and you will see the crow’s feet and fine lines that many of us try to hide with makeup. We have the horse drawn carriages and elaborate dresses that you might expect but the overall picture is far dirtier and much more seedy.

Colours are often washed out, there is a distinct sense of griminess to everything, and every other scene is punctuated by bodily fluids and mud. Blichfeldt goes to great lengths to highlight the phoniness of the glamour and beauty industry. Showing that something altogether more ugly hides behind the shiny, plastic, veneer.

The body-horror stuff is delightfully vile

Blichfeldt uses body-horror as a vehicle to create some legitimately brutal scenes. It’s quite grotesque, in parts, as well. If elongated worm like creatures being pulled out of throats along with all the accompanying bile and viscera doesn’t sound like your thing, you might want to give this one a miss.

Certain moments will definitely have you flinching and you might even want to turn away now and then. Much like Fargeat did with The Substance, Blichfeldt takes a bunch of risks and many of them pay off. I suppose the body-horror sub-genre is the perfect place to do this.

“If elongated worm like creatures being pulled out of throats along with all the accompanying bile and viscera doesn’t sound like your thing, you might want to give this one a miss.”

Expect plenty of wince inducing depictions of terrible plastic surgery procedures; expect a liberal smattering of graphic nudity and sexuality; and expect to see some genuinely nauseating stuff, as a whole. Body-horror fans are going to have a great time because The Ugly Stepsister ticks all the right boxes.

It’s a movie that is tough to pin down as simply horror

I wouldn’t describe The Ugly Stepsister as being overtly horror. It’s a mish-mash of so many different things that it is hard to pin down. It certainly isn’t scary and I think something like The Substance works as a good comparison. It’s quite funny at times, often rather disgusting, occasionally keen to act as a form of social commentary, but rarely an outright horror movie.

With that being said, it isn’t going to be for everyone. Body-horror fans may be disappointed that “grossing the viewer out” isn’t the primary focus of the film. Though what is there is really well done and pretty nasty. Some might be put off by the overt sexuality though these scenes are fairly infrequent. In fact, I would say that the few nude scenes and sexual moments feel a bit tacked on to tick boxes. Some might also feel that the movie lacks in the horror department, too.

With that being said, The Ugly Stepsister will prove extremely satisfying to those who go in with their expectations correctly aligned. It’s a fantastic film with tons going for it including a great visual style, fantastic acting, and a lot of laughs. I really wish there were more dark depictions of fairy tales and this is definitely one of the better ones.

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