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A ‘gnarly’ body horror film coming to cinemas has been compared to Ocsar-winning flick The Substance.
The Ugly Stepsister, directed by Emilie Blichfeldt, is a warped retelling of classic fairy tale Cinderella, from the perspective of one of the princess’s stepsisters.
Elvira (Lea Myren), is obsessed with winning the heart of Prince Julian (Isac Calmroth) and will stop at nothing to do so, even if it means subjecting herself to painful cosmetic procedures closer to medieval torture methods.
When it appears that her beautiful stepsister Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Naess) is about to receive what she believes is fated to her, Elvira resorts to drastic – and gruesome – methods to make sure that doesn’t happen.
The Ugly Stepsister comes to US cinemas on April 18 and hits UK theatres a week later on April 25.
It holds a whopping 98% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with many critics detailing how ‘gorgeous’ yet ‘gory’ the Nordic horror film is.
In their review, Slashfilm wrote: ‘A movie as gorgeous as it is gruesome, complete with a few moments of gore that had a handful of people audibly fighting the urge to retch in the aisles.’
Slant Magazine added: ‘Emilie Blichfeldt knows the exact point of queasiness to which she can push an audience and gradually tests how much further she can move that mark with each successive scene.’
Autostraddle hailed The Ugly Stepsister ‘one of the best horror films of the decade’, while Mashable thought it was ‘savagely brutal and yet strangely beautiful.’
Many heaped praise on Elvira actor Lea Myren, describing her as ‘wonderfully expressive’ and ‘captivating’ in the lead role.
Variety said: ‘Contrasting how her female characters feel with the expectations men put on them, Blichfeldt makes clear that impossible beauty standards are the unfairest of them all, whether in the real world or this twisted fictional kingdom.’
Bloody Disgusting summarised: ‘Instead of whimsical romance set in the Renaissance, Blichfeldt gets graphic with the medieval torture women endure in their pursuit of happily ever after. It’s elegant, stylish, and gnarly.’
Polygon compared the film to Coralie Fargeat’s hit film The Substance, highlighting how The Ugly Stepsister uses unrealistic beauty standards as the catalyst for its horror.
Director Blichfeldt spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about how she decided to flip the script on Cinderella and tell the classic story from the stepsister’s perspective.
‘I’ve always been very fascinated by, and have empathized with, women who have trouble with their body image, and who are struggling to fit within femininity,’ she said.
‘In my previous work, I’ve tried to show these characters, where you can empathize with them, but also see them as beautiful, to really challenge the ideas of what is beauty, and what does it do to us to have these struggles.’
She continued: ‘I’ve taken the liberty to combine different versions of Cinderella. The Brothers Grimm one describes the sisters as beautiful on the outside and ugly on the inside, which I still think is very interesting. Then there’s the Charles Perrault version, the French one, which Disney drew from.
‘Disney added the idea of linking beauty and kindness on one side and physical and inner ugliness on the other. You had that in fairy tales before, with witches and their big noses, but Disney really makes it obvious.’
The Ugly Stepsister is released in US cinemas on April 18 and UK cinemas on April 25.
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