Fairy Tales Turn Fatal in ‘The Ugly Stepsister’

The world of fairy tales has always harboured a sinister streak just beneath its polished surface, but a new Norwegian horror film is about to rip the corset clean off. The Ugly Stepsister, written and directed by Emilie Blichfeldt, is poised to redefine the term “fairy tale nightmare” when it arrives in UK cinemas on 25th April, following its US release a week earlier on the 18th.

Billed as Bridgerton meets The Substance, the film has already stirred feverish buzz following a successful festival run, where critics have praised its gruesome reinvention of the Cinderella mythos. At the centre is Elvira, played by Lea Myren, a woman consumed by a desperate longing for beauty and status. But in this world, glass slippers come with razor edges, and happily ever after might just be paid for in flesh.

Set in a kingdom obsessed with appearance, Elvira finds herself living under the shadow of her radiant stepsister, Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Næss), whose natural charm and grace seem to position her as the obvious choice for the prince’s affections. But Elvira is done waiting. She wants her fairy tale ending—and she’s willing to go to grotesque lengths to claim it. In a film where body horror meets ballgowns, the price of transformation is steep, and nothing is ever as elegant as it seems.

Directed with surgical precision by Blichfeldt in her feature debut, The Ugly Stepsister has earned comparisons to The Substance for its unflinching depiction of bodily mutilation as a means to an ideal. But beneath the blood and bile lies a biting critique of a culture built on beauty hierarchies, social media envy, and the destructive myth of perfection. It’s not just the dresses that get torn apart here—it’s the dream itself.

The supporting cast includes Ane Dahl Torp (The Wave), and the production is backed by Vertigo Releasing, in partnership with IFC Films and genre platform Shudder. The film currently holds a near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes score of 98%, with Bloody Disgusting calling it “elegant, stylish, and gnarly,” and Autostraddle dubbing it “one of the best horror films of the decade so far.”

Visually decadent yet narratively brutal, The Ugly Stepsister is set to slice through the delicate embroidery of fairy tale tradition with a scalpel. The result is a film both grotesque and beautiful, one that promises to leave viewers squirming long after the final waltz.

This is no bedtime story. This is transformation at its most terrifying.

The Ugly Stepsister trailer