“I didn’t want you. Your mother paid me. Understand?”
A sinister take on the classic Cinderella tale, following Elvira (Lea Myren) as she prepares to win the prince’s affection at any cost. In a kingdom where beauty is a cruel trade, Elvira will compete with the beautiful and enchanting Agnes (Thea-Sofie Loch Næse) to become the queen of the ball.
With The Ugly Stepsister (Den stygge stesøsteren), Emilie Blichfeldt delivers a macabre and contemporary reinterpretation of the Cinderella story. A film that disturbs and hits hard…
A Macabre Body-Horror
Elvira’s journey highlights the anguish of adhering to unattainable physical standards. The director draws inspiration from David Cronenberg’s approach to the genre: bodily transformations serve as metaphors for the flaws, dilemmas, and inner fears of her characters, even as a political commentary on society’s impact on the individual.
The director hits hard with the theme of the pursuit of the “perfect” body. The story obviously draws inspiration from Cinderella, particularly the Brothers Grimm version, which is much more macabre than Disney’s. It is Elvira, one of Cinderella’s “wicked” stepsisters, who is at the heart of this desire for beauty.
To achieve this, everything will be attempted. From simple diets to bodily mutilation, surgery, and the ingestion of harmful substances. Although the film is set in a “once upon a time” somewhere probably in the 1800s, the film draws as much from that era as it does from the modern age. This choice underscores how the film’s themes, while resonating with current issues, are truly timeless, rooted in cultural traditions that continue to shape our vision of beauty and identity.
The scenes of mutilation and surgery are striking, as they should be to capture the viewer’s imagination. They are used not only to create a frightening film but also to critique our society, which puts enormous pressure on women to achieve an appearance that will allow them to find their place in the world.
Wicked and Kind…
Where this film gains its originality and strength is in the fact that it does not place Cinderella and the stepsisters in total opposition, as Disney or even the Brothers Grimm do by assigning a “good” versus “evil” role to the characters. Blichfeldt opts instead for a magical realism and gives more complete and complex personalities to her young characters.
Elvira (Lea Myren) getting an operation
Thus, Cinderella is not just an ideal; she is a girl with secrets unknown to Grimm, Perrault, or Disney. But the director does not reverse the narrative to make the stepsister the heroine or Cinderella the villain. She maintains the idea of a rather good Cinderella while giving the stepsister a personality that provokes empathy, discomfort, and reflection in the viewer.
Walt Disney, drawing inspiration from Charles Perrault’s French version, consolidated the idea that inner beauty and outer beauty are intrinsically linked: kindness is the hallmark of beauty, while ugliness is synonymous with cruelty. The stepsisters are mocked for their large noses, large feet, and their illusory belief that they can win the prince’s favor. But this vision does not align with reality, and that is why Blichfeldt has taken a better path.
“As a child, I shared this point of view. I dreamed of being Cinderella, laughing at their clumsiness. But rereading Grimm as an adult, especially the scene where one of the stepsisters cuts off her toes to fit into the glass slipper, changed my perspective. For the first time, I understood her desperation. The mockery and cold laughter at her expense seemed unfair to me. I too dreamed of being chosen – whether by a prince or simply by a boyfriend – and I felt the pain of not meeting impossible criteria. Despite all my efforts to conform, I could never put myself in Cinderella’s shoes because I am also a stepsister.”
And not giving a completely villainous role is not common in horror cinema. Often, the easy way out is chosen. Here, the choice is rather to bring a true character to life.
A Little More…
The film’s aesthetic is strongly inspired by the Eastern European fairy tale cinema of the 1960s and 1970s, celebrated for its raw realism, gothic settings, practical effects, and natural lighting. These films strike a unique balance between the real and the unreal, creating a strange and enchanted realism. This can be seen in the choice of sets and the locations where the story unfolds.
The result is a film that plays on the iconic silhouettes of Disney’s Cinderella and the stepsisters, linking these creations to the mid-to-late 1800s, when cosmetic surgery was beginning to emerge in medical practice. Imagine having your nose done without anesthesia and without modern scalpels. Just that is frightening.
