The Ugly Stepsister

That’s impressive — 30 years of film criticism and this is the first time that I’ve had to turn away from the screen for fear of retching.

The film’s creative gore alone cannot paper over the ultimate flimsiness of Blichfeldt’s concept, which amounts to an adolescent scrawl of fairytale satire.

A smart, bold, and visually rich work that both enchants and challenges.


The Norwegian writer-director Emilie Blichfeldt roasts conventional heroines and female beauty standards in this gruesome, hilarious reworking of Cinderella.

This is a movie hyper-aware of the sexual and patriarchal imagery of Cinderella... Blichfeldt has made an elegant debut.

Blichfeldt revels in the grotesque and gory, pushing things to their limit, with an unmistakable sense of glee.

You’ll never look at The Ugly Stepsister without understanding her pain and suffering again. Yet this gore and violence seem to be here for shock value, reminding us with very blunt metaphors that the price of beauty is pain.

If you're a fan of the fairytale of cinderella but looking for a more sinister and dark version of the story, well look no further then "The Ugly Stepsister. A twisted fever dream you never knew you needed. 


[The gory] scenes punctuate the brutal unfairness foisted on these characters, an ocean and a couple centuries away from us — but as real and as sympathetic as your neighbor.

Emilie Blichfeldt’s directorial debut gives her Cinderella story a twisted body-horror spin.