By Sarah Musnicky
The ugly stepsister has always been a popular trope in fairytales and folklore. She provides a visual and moral contrast with the heroine of a story, highlighting all the heroine’s positive characteristics in the process. But what happens when the stepsister is good and sympathetic? It twists and shapes the narrative into something more tragic. This is the feeling Emilie Blichfeldt’s THE UGLY STEPSISTER evokes.
The titular stepsister in question is a dreamer and a romantic, hoping one day to marry the prince of the land. Named Elvira (Lea Myren), there is a sense of innocence and naivety from the jump that is made all the more painful when it is seen how everyone around her treats her. She's not considered a beauty, and it's not long before her mother's marriage to Agnes' (Thea-Sofie Loch Næss) father that we see how quickly she is made the butt of the joke.
Fortunes shift and change, though, when Agnes' father suddenly dies, leaving all of the women of this family on the brink of financial ruin. Elvira's mother, Rebekka (Ane Dahl Torp), shifts gears and places the future and pressure on the family's salvation on Elvira. The process of transforming her from an ugly duckling into a beauty more fitting of the times is arduous and horrifying.
THE UGLY STEPSISTER is a painful awakening and coming-of-age body horror peppered with beats of comedy that, while funny, only serve to amplify how screwed up the quest for beauty is. A discussion over nose shapes is light at first before the reality of the situation dawns. A pulled-back shot of Elvira getting a rudimentary variation of a rhinoplasty hides nothing. The pause between blows to her cartilage is punctuated by her cries, with little comfort to follow.
Body horror is carried out simply yet effectively, with sound being its messenger.
As THE UGLY STEPSISTER continues onward, the bodily torture Elvira subjects herself to becomes more jarring. Needle punctures, tapeworm fixes that manifest in grotesque bodily sounds, and binge eating reflect how little has changed when it comes to beauty. Caught between her mother's wishes and the desire for beauty and love, the downward descent into madness the girl succumbs to is one familiar and devastating. With the added importance of needing to make a successful marriage, her fate is sealed.
Making her feature film debut, Lea Myren is a star. There's a freshness and depth to her portrayal of Elvira that never feels forced. Instead, taking the screenplay and direction given to her by Blichfeldt, she dives deep and draws out an undeniable empathy for the character. In less capable hands, the character could have turned into a caricature. In Myren's hands, she becomes something more.
As for the Cinderella of THE UGLY STEPSISTER, Blichfeldt's reimagining of her as Agnes is smart. Played by Thea-Sofie Loch Næss, Agnes is incredibly complex. She is a young woman who understands what she wants and is left to deal with a family that's been forced upon her. She's not perfect, but her beauty puts her on a pedestal, and she leans into it. While she's not necessarily kind to Elvira, there's an element of understanding and pity that adds a nuance.
The world of THE UGLY STEPSISTER is deadly and beautiful.
While the characters are the main focus of THE UGLY STEPSISTER, the world is not complete without the visuals that elevate its fairytale origins. Manon Rasmussen's costuming is exquisite and sumptuous. The detail is to die for, with the nineteenth-century influences twisted into something unique and beautiful to behold.
Marcel Zyskind's cinematography of THE UGLY STEPSISTER has a nostalgic tinge, reminding me of films like The Feather Fairy (Perinbaba), where there is a dreamlike haze, fuzzy and otherworldly. It plunges the viewer into a world where dreams are not so easily achieved, and romance can be a temporary balm to cruel realities. The layers added to the lens when Elvira slips into a daydream plunge us further. Zyskind crafts magic here.
But amidst the magic is always a darker parable. Blichfeldt's THE UGLY STEPSISTER reshifts the focus to a character oft neglected in retellings. It is painful and tear-jerking and another reminder of how societal beauty standards and our quest to achieve them cause more harm than good. As Blichfeldt has said, we are all stepsisters, and through Elvira's journey, we have been warned.
THE UGLY STEPSISTER had its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, and has been picked up for distribution in the North American, UK, and ANZ by Shudder.