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PhiloIn a fairy-tale kingdom where beauty is a brutal business, Elvira battles to compete with her incredibly beautiful stepsister, and she will go to any length to catch the prince’s eye.
The Ugly Stepsister (2025) is a fearless, grotesque, and deeply unsettling reinvention of a classic fairy tale. Through body horror and dark satire, it exposes the violence hidden beneath society’s obsession with beauty — and refuses to offer easy answers or comfort.
Critics reviews. The ugly stepsister. Emilie Blichfeldt Norway, 2025.The Ugly Stepsister retells a classic fairy tale from the point of view of the villain, combining a lavishly detailed period setting with explicit, unblinking scenes of historically accurate torture. Its point of view is specific to its teenage protagonist, which limits its emotional range. But it’s effective as a grotesque spectacle.
