The Ugly Stepsister

great visuals pretty and horrifying

Den stygge stesøsteren / The Ugly Stepsister (2025) A Dark, Gruesome and Twisted Nordic Version of Cinderella (11,758 – 11 Jun 2025 – by Claudio Carvalho) The ambitious widow Rebekka (Ane Dahl Torp) travels with her daughters Elvira (Lea Myren) and Alma (Flo Fagerli) to get married with Otto (Ralph Carlsson) believing he is a wealthy man. On arrival of the carriage in his manor, they meet his beautiful daughter Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Næss), and Otto and Rebekka immediately get married to each other. During the wedding feast, Otto dies on the table and soon Elvira learns that Otto is penniless and was expecting that Rebekka was wealthy. When Rebekka learns that there will be a royal ball promoted by Prince Julian (Isac Calmroth), she sees in the marriage of Elvira with the Prince the salvation of her family. Aware that Elvira is ugly and fat, Rebekka uses her last savings and credit to improve her daughter, who is submitted to a primitive plastic surgery of the nose and joins a finishing school to prepare her for society. Meanwhile, Elvira swallows a tapeworm egg to lose weight. When Elvira sees Agnes having sex with the stable boy Isak (Malte Gårdinger), she tells her mother and Agnes becomes a servant at the house. The day before the royal ball, Elvira rips Agnes‘ dress to avoid her presence in the ball. But her mother appears and uses worms that are eating Otto to sew the dress and warns her that she must return at midnight. Who will Prince Julian select from among so many donzels? “Den stygge stesøsteren”, a.k.a. “The Ugly Stepsister” (2025) is a dark, gruesome and twisted Nordic version of Cinderella by Shudder. The well-known storyline of “Cinderella” becomes a hilarious satire of the fairy tale. The scene when Elvira witnesses Agnes and Isak having sex in the stable is very funny. The subverted tale has great performances and is worthwhile watching. My vote is seven. Title (Brazil): Not Available My Blog: https://maniacosporfilme.wordpress.com/

A brutal portrait of modern perfectionism! Absolute recommendation, but nothing for the faint-hearted.

If "The Substance" turned it up to 11, "The Ugly Stepsister" clocks in at a solid 10. A retelling of Cinderella told from the perspective of Cinderella's step-family members, this film comments as well on the awful lengths women will go to to enhance their beauty. Like "The Substance," this film was also made by a woman director with a focused, cinematic style that conveys the story and commentary with admirable clarity and brevity. Blichfeldt would seem to have a bright future in cinema...

Back to the good old ways of telling horror. Plus, nice message sent with it. Somehow I see a parallel on how it works today with social media and the push to look good, that eventually takes you to sadness and loneliness (with yourself).

Norwegian director Emilie Blichfeldt's debut is downright sensational, with a terrifying take on the Cinderella story, as if Lars von Trier were emanating all his blood in this film. The new generation of female directors in the horror genre, such as Julia Ducournau and Coralie Fargeat, now have a new member in Emilie Blichfeldt, who, in her first screenplay and directorial debut, offers one of the best horror films of the year with a critical, satirical, sadistic, and cruel look at female beauty and the canons that have represented the genre throughout its history. She confronts us with her own version of The Substance, but much more extreme in its cruelty and humiliation. Its director writes a script that doesn't hold back on anything, from pus, blood, broken teeth, sexual fluids, and extreme humiliation. The director goes all out to make you uncomfortable and feel bad while you can't stop seeing everything hidden in the suffering of Elvira, played monumentally by Lea Myren. A dark version of the Cinderella story, where our Cinderella is neither saintly nor sweet, she is just as calculating and cruel as the rest, where Thea Sofie Loch Næss's performance fits perfectly with the version that the director wants to give us of her beautiful and long-suffering princess. As I mentioned before, we are in the presence of a perversely imaginative critique of the punishing canons of female beauty, and its director isn't afraid to confront us with the absolute reality of the stereotype and the suffering of always having to deal with that status of beauty. And with this, she wraps up a horror tale transformed into pure art with gothic photography, colorful artwork, and a soundtrack where every chord elevates the harmonic torture of a film that is quite uncomfortable in every sense, but that makes you addicted to the suffering and the maximum gore, with scenes that are truly difficult to bear at first. It's a hopeful debut from a director to watch for in the future. This is a work by a bold and fearless filmmaker willing to explore the darkest, most somber, and most gruesome aspects of physical beauty in all its dimensions. Men are mere spectators to a highly feminine proposition that doesn't hide their own internal struggle within the fight for beauty and standing out to please a man who is simply the presence of stupidity. A film that isn't for everyone, but is definitely worth everyone's time to see. It's raw, it's tough, it's bloody, it's disgusting, it's insensitive, it's violent, but it's an absolute pleasure. It's a film that enchants and fascinates, one of the great horror offerings of 2025, offering us a dark, perpetual, and limitless story about beauty in all its dimensions and a war to achieve what's precious, no matter how much self-inflicted you have to commit to feel satisfied within a dark, violent, and suffocating fairy tale. You had your chance and you didn't take advantage of it, that's what the film says, and it makes sense when you get to see it.

Είδαμε και λίγο τσόντα, 11880. It is so bad, i wanna give you a zero, but that's not possible so i give you a one

This interpretation of the fairy tale feels to be close to the Brothers Grimm version. Cinematography was great, I totally love the ending credits song. Characters were unlikable in a good way, but I kinda didn't like they all were bad including minor characters., ok the younger sister wasn't all bad, she took care of the horses when needed. I totally recommend it.

Highly enjoyed the hell out of this and really admired the heartbreaking twisted dark take by Director Emilie Blichfeldt on the legendary Cinderella story with a different physiological horror perspective from the evil stepsister. The cinematography by Marcel Zyskind is Mesmerizing bringing a suffocating cold atmosphere that will haunt the mind. A Great cast all around with at the lead A downright Astonishing fearless powerhouse performance by Lea Myren !! She is F***ing Awesome and F***ing murders this role !! Emilie Blichfeldt 'THE UGLY STEPSISTER' (2025) Is So F***ed Up, I Love It. 🤘🏻😈🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 'THE UGLY STEPSISTER' (2025) ☆☆☆☆ 1/2 Out of 5 Stars⭐️ (92%)

A breath of fresh air. Beautiful and disgusting at the same time. I loved it!