Helvette, it’s another weird Swedish horror comedy! Hey Sweden! They’re not Swedish Mac, they’re Norwegian! I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of using this line from The Thing. In recent years, we started to witness a truly heartwarming trend. At least for us horror fans. Movies featuring not just graphic body horror but also intelligent storytelling and character development have stepped into the mainstream. I remember talking about Titane, some five years ago, hinting at this possibility. Of course, 2024’s The Substance marks a definite breakthrough moment. With all of this being said, it’s time to focus on the movie at hand. A surprisingly competent debut for Emilie Blichfeldt, a young Norwegian director with a bright future.
The Ugly Stepsister is a delightfully subversive and visually impactful black comedy with strong horror elements. As you might’ve noticed, it takes the premise of Cinderella and focuses on one of the stepsisters. Rebekka and Otto have both lost their spouses and found “love” in each other. Sadly, Otto dies shortly after the wedding, and now Rebekka has to take care of his beautiful daughter Agnes. She already has two daughters, but both of them are pretty ugly. To solve her financial problems, she decides to marry one of them to the prince of the realm, Julian. However, Elvira, the bride-to-be, will have to become the most beautiful girl in the world before that. So, she’s enrolled in a beauty school to get ready for the big ball at the palace.
First of all, I want you to know that this isn’t some artsy-fartsy movie. The Ugly Stepsister is not only visually impressive, featuring excellent sets, costumes, and makeup, but it’s also narratively coherent. It tackles two very relevant themes: beauty standards and classism. Actually, these might be the two I loved the most, but there are others here as well. I could talk for hours about the parenting style on display here or the fucking Finishing Schools that are very much real. Moreover, you simply can’t figure out where it’s going or what’s going to happen. Moreover, moreover, it’s genuinely funny. Some of the scenes had me literally bursting with laughter and then disgust and then laughter again. This movie has it fucking all.
The cast was wonderful, starting with Lea Myren, who plays the poor Elvira. I don’t know about you, but when I hear that name, I instantly think of Elvira: Mistress of the Dark. The way she enters that horse carriage in the opening scene was fucking brilliant. She knows what she has to do, and she does it perfectly. I felt that opening sequence on a personal level. Like when I first entered a fancy house of one of my friends, emerging from my cave. With that thing she has to wear on her nose after medieval rhinoplasty, she looks like the Maneater himself. Thea Sofie Loch Næss was a great choice for Agnes, while Isac Calmroth was the embodiment of rotten prestige. Although the story takes place in the past, it feels extremely current.
And I fear it will only become more and more in the coming years. Hell, I’m sorry, helvette, one of the most disgusting beautification procedures is akin to the latest Ozempic craze. This brings me to an element I probably should’ve discussed much earlier in this review/recommendation. The Ugly Stepsister features some truly nasty, almost vomit-inducing scenes. As someone who has seen it all, I have to admit that I truly did not see it all. They slowly escalate over time, getting more and more bizarre. And yet all of this is fairly grounded in reality. Not just medieval reality, but our current reality. I mean, have you ever seen how a BBL or something like that is done?
The quality of both CGI and practical effects is astonishing. So, don’t think this is some amateurish level stuff. It’s the real deal. The sexuality is also examined in vivid detail. We will even see one gloriously uncircumcised and erect penis. Just when I thought that the fairy tale genre could not offer anything new, here comes this movie and shatters that notion. And to think that Blichfeldt’s original concept was: following a woman with a talking vulva that tells her she’s lonely. Although when I think about it, that talking vulva thing doesn’t sound so bad.
Director: Emilie Blichfeldt
Writer: Emilie Blichfeldt
Cast: Lea Myren, Ane Dahl Torp, Thea Sofie Loch Næss, Flo Fagerli, Isac Calmroth, Malte Gårdinger
Fun Facts: David Cronenberg’s 1996 masterpiece Crash, one of my favorite movies, was a huge influence on Emilie Blichfeldt. She subsequently binge-watched Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci, two European horror legends to further hone her body horror style.
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IMDb Link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt29344903/
