The Ugly Stepsister (2025)
Directed by: Emilie Blichfeldt
Premise: A reworking of Cinderella. Set in a fairy tale world, Elvira (Lea Myren) is the homely daughter of a woman who marries an older man and is immediately widowed. Elvira is determined to marry the local prince to save her family from poverty.
What Works: The Ugly Stepsister follows in a tradition of erotic revisionist fairy tales, notably Walerian Borowczyk’s The Beast and Immoral Tales. The Ugly Stepsister revisits the Cinderella story from a contemporary feminist point of view. In most versions of this fairy tale the stepsisters are rude, stupid, and cruel. Writer and director Emilie Blichfeldt puts the focus on Elvira, the elder of Cinderella’s stepsisters. Elvira is introduced as an idealistic and sweet young woman who wants to live peacefully with her new family but when they are broke it becomes necessary for Elvira to marry. That puts her in competition with Cinderella (Thea Sofie Loch Næss). The Ugly Stepsister is about the way society pits women against each other and the indignities and discomfort women put themselves through in the name of beauty and courtship. That idea is visualized effectively in The Ugly Stepsister. The filmmakers imagine medieval versions of plastic surgery and diet pills and the crudeness of the technology allows for some very horrific moments. The filmmakers impressively manage our sympathies for these characters. Elvira is introduced as a sympathetic character and Cinderella is mean but things get more complicated. Cinderella is in love with the stable boy but their love is doomed by economic necessity. As Elvira gets prettier she also gets more villainous, sabotaging her competition. Elvira’s corruption comes with an emotional cost and the ending of The Ugly Stepsister threads revulsion with pathos. The stepmother (Ane Dahl Torp) is given a similarly complicated characterization, alternately sympathetic and wicked and forced to be that way because of the economics of their situation. The Ugly Stepsister dramatizes its point without feeling didactic. The point emerges organically from the drama.
What Doesn’t: As is often the case in Cinderella stories, the prince is uninteresting. He’s introduced in an unusual way but ultimately the prince is just a MacGuffin. This isn’t the fault of actor Isac Calmroth. He’s given nothing to do. The disregard for the prince is not unusual in Cinderella stories; the prince is usually just a prize and lacks characterization. But given how The Ugly Stepsister aggressively reimagines the Cinderella story and critiques it through a feminist lens, the disregard for the prince is a missed opportunity.
Disc extras: Available on various streaming services.
Bottom Line: The Ugly Stepsister is a bold and intelligent reimagining of Cinderella. It’s horrific but also a politically and emotionally complicated take on this fairy tale.
Episode: #1068 (October 12, 2025)