****
Written and directed by Emilie Blichfeldt
105 mins - 2025
Certificate 18
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| Lea Myren gets her nose fixed in The Ugly Stepsister |
The Ugly Stepsister is a charmingly horrific take on Cinderella, largely based on the premise that physical beauty equates to wealth. Beautifully acted, the movie is a Polish/Swedish/Norwegian collaboration that is set in a fairytale world of princes on horseback and castles in the snow.
Written and directed by Emilie Blichfeldt the film cleverly interweaves aspects of the classic story, contrasting the radiant beauty of Agnes, the story’s ultimate Cinderella with the uglier features of her stepsister Elvira, this fable’s key protagonist. Blichfeldt portrays a bleak world however, where beauty is consistently shown to be a veneer that masks a moral vacuum, while the humble Elvira’s striving for physical perfection, whilst doomed, starts from a position of personal principle. Principles it is fair to say, that she sheds (together with her toes, well how else is a girl gonna fit into that glass slipper?) as the narrative unfolds.
Lea Myren scoops the honours as the uglier of the step-siblings, while the deliciously named Thea Sofie Loch Næss is Agnes. The men are mostly chauvinist pigs, with The Ugly Stepsister proving a fabulous fusion of romance, gore and unashamedly raunchy sex. And when a horror flick goes so far as to include In The Hall Of The Mountain King from Peer Gynt at the Prince’s Ball, what's not to love?
Classy, toe-curling entertainment.
On general release
Photo credit: Marcel Zyskind
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