The Ugly Stepsister (2025) The Overlook Film Festival Review
Beauty is pain.
The reality of fairytales is that they all contain some darkness within. And like every story, there is always more than one side to it. The Ugly Stepsister is a Nordic body horror anti-fairytale about three women who deal with the cards that life has dealt them. It takes the Cinderella story we all know and flips it on its head. This one is for my fellow lovers of The Secret Garden and The King and I who wanted a little more darkness.
In her film debut, Emilie Blichfeldt reclaims Charles Perrault’s Cinderella, twisting it into a grisly reflection of the brutal standards women are expected to meet. There is no glass slipper here. The Ugly Stepsister instead steps into the realm of body horror, where beauty and pain are one. This isn't the fairytale you know. It's a terrifying transformation that is just as grotesque as it is emotional.
Elvira (Lea Myren) has her eyes set on Prince Julian, and her mother, Rebekka (Ane Dahl Torp), sees an opportunity to get out of the mountains of debt forced on her after the death of her new husband. Elvira pales in the shadow of her new stepsister, Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Næss), who is perfect in all the ways that matter, and Rebekka will stop at nothing to ensure that Elvira snags the prince's attention at an upcoming ball.
This whimsical, gothic tale is a daring and bold narrative that balances horror and storytelling. Blichfeldt not only captures the brutal side of beauty standards but she manages to delve deeper into the perspectives of a lonely mother desperate to save herself from ruin, a daughter that wants to please her mother and have a fairytale romance, and a stepsister who can not have the man she truly loves because of his status while dealing with surmounting grief. Along with Marcel Zyskind's cinematography and John Erik Kaada's Norwegian score, Blichfeldt thrusts us into an immersive make-believe kingdom where beauty is everything.
As Rebekka prepares Elvira for the upcoming ball, she takes her through grueling procedures to ensure that she is able to warrant the attention of the prince. These procedures are not for the faint. And there is no reprieve. Blichfeldt keeps the camera focused on every moment of agony forced on Elvira throughout her transformation because the reality of her suffering isn't something we are meant to shy away from.
Credit: Marcel Zyskind
Ane Dahl Torp's dominating performance as an authoritative mother, willing to do what is necessary, even sell her own body, is piercing and relentless. Rebekka has just had her hopes shattered after her new husband died and is now faced with hard choices in order to see that her good name is resurrected. Likened to Frances Fisher's character Ruth in Titanic (1997), she wears a mask to hide her fear and the disappointment of the life she's been resorted to living without a husband, youth, or wealth. Agnes may be beautiful, but she has just lost both of her parents and has been pushed aside to clean, take care of the animals, and ripped away from the only man she will ever love by a woman she doesn't even know. All of these characters are utterly complex and gives life to the sincerity in Blichfeldt's script.
The Ugly Stepsister doesn’t just push boundaries—it rips through them. It’s a grim, stomach-churning experience rooted in fantasy and steeped in the horror of a reality we understand. Every frame is drenched with an unsettling beauty, grounding its body horror in emotional truth.
The Shrouds was shown at Overlook Film Festival. Check out the rest of our festival coverage.
Vertigo Releasing, in association with Shudder and IFC Films: The Ugly Stepsister will be hitting US theaters on April 18th, UK theaters on April 25th and will come to Shudder later in the year.