Welcome back to White Rose of Avalon, my Darlings.   Today’s blog post is a spoiler-filled review of the brand new Norwegian horror film The Ugly Stepsister.   I chose to include spoilers because in order to fully unpack how incredibly done the film is, I need to talk about plot points and how they used the iconic Grimm version of the fairytale so well!

Okay, so now that I have warned you about spoilers, let’s get into the discussion.   The film begins with our introduction to Elvira, our titular character, as she, her mother, and her younger sister, Alma, are on their way to meet their mother’s new husband.   You see, this version shows that the Wicked Stepmother did not marry Cinderella’s (in this film her real name is Agnes) father until both she and Elvira were in their late teenage years.    Once we are introduced to the new family, we get a scene showing the Wedding and one of Elvira and Agnes talking.   Agnes introduced Elvira to the stable boy, Isak, and they discussed the fact that Elvira is always reading a prized copy of a poetry collection written by Prince Julian.   Elvira outright states that she wants to marry the Prince, earning a judgmental stare from Agnes.   There are even multiple dream sequences with Elvira imagining the Prince falling in love with her and reciting his poetry to her.

It is right after this that Agnes’ father dies at the dinner table, leaving Agnes distraught and Elvira to attempt to care for her.   This is when Elvira learns that Agnes’ father was penniless, just as they are, and this means that they cannot even pay for a funeral.    This leaves the rotting body of Agnes’ father in a locked room for months!   Yes, when they term this a body horror, they are not kidding, on many counts.

It is at this point that Elvira’s mother bemoans that she will have trouble finding another husband, and Elvira mentions that she is of marriageable age.   This is when we see just why Elvira escaped into fantasy so often, her mother is very cold and cruel to her, often telling her she is not beautiful, that she is ugly and fat (neither of which is true, but we will get there).   It is only after the Prince’s upcoming Ball to find a wife (where all noble Virgins are invited) is announced (and Agnes and Elvira are invited), that we see the plan form.   The Ball is months away and takes much preparation on the part of the Noble families, including sending their daughters to Finishing School!  

Elvira’s mother calls in a doctor to remove Elvira’s unsightly braces (and her teeth are now perfect) and perform a crude nose job on her, which leaves her wearing a metal nose brace on her face until it heals.   This becomes an object of scorn, with the Finishing School dance teacher mocking her, admitting that although she is a talented dancer, she will only be dancing for the Prince because Elvira’s mother paid her!   However, the other teacher at the Finishing School sees determination in Elvira and encourages her to continue to make herself beautiful through hard work, even gifting her a Tapeworm egg.

This is where things really take off.   Elvira admits to her plan by telling her sister Alma about the Tapeworm egg and the antidote, so that she can lose weight quickly.   Alma reprimands her for going with their mother’s crazy plans, but Elvira assures her that she wants to do this to marry the Prince.    After Alma rides off, Elvira encounters the Prince and his friends in the Woods, where they suggest he have sex with her (the Prince said he would never, as she still has her metal nose brace on), and Elvira takes the Tapeworm egg.   When she makes her way back to her home, she catches Agnes sleeping with Isak, the stable boy!

This is why Agnes becomes a servant and begins to be called Cinderella.   In this version, she is not the innocent, but rather a bratty and entitled young woman who wants to marry the Prince while also having her fun with the stable boy.    After Agnes is punished, Elvira is doted on.   Her nose is fully healed, and her mother sends her to have her eyelashes done.   She literally has her eyelashes sewn on, and we get to see the carnage as this occurs!   I found this scene to be a clever nod to the Grimm version, where the story ends with both Ugly Stepsisters having their eyes pecked out by birds.   But, even as we experience all of this from Elvira’s perspective, and see how much she persevered in the hopes of finding love, we also see how it ravages her body.

Her stomach is forever grumbling, and her hair has begun to fall out!   She even has to wear a wig to the Ball, but she is now the lead dancer because of her beautiful transformation and her talent (not to mention Agnes no longer being allowed to attend).   At the Ball, Elvira even catches the eye of the Prince, who has no idea they met before, and she is his first dance.   Sadly, that is interrupted by Agnes arriving (having had her mother’s ghost come to her and the silkworms growing on her father’s rotting body mend her gown)!   So, yes, even though Elvira is the kind-hearted one who worked so hard in this version, Cinderella still wins.

After this, Elvira knows the Tapeworm needs to come out of her body, but her mother forced her to dance with the other eligible bachelors.   I just have to note this, as Elvira steps out of the carriage once she has left the Ball, we get a tiny nod to the Charles Perrault version of the story, with a Pumpkin being seen on the ground.   When she gets back inside the home, Elvira attacks Agnes with a Butcher Knife, but does not kill her, as she has succeeded in stealing the other slipper.   Then we get to the scene teased in the poster, and the one any Grimm fans, like myself, were waiting for.   The scene of Elvira using the Butcher Knife to cut off her own toes is absolutely brutal!   We even see her use the slipper to measure just how much of her foot needs to be cut off.   Alma and her mother find her, and her mother drugs Elvira for the pain, but precedes to finish cutting off her toes (they were still not completely cut off) and cutting off the toes of her other foot (as that is the slipper the Prince has and will be fitting onto the foot of his future Bride).   So, yes, she loses all of her toes and wakes up in excruciating pain to hear the Prince coming to the home!

She has a terrible time of it, falling down the stairs, breaking her teeth and her nose, undoing all of the hard work to make her ‘beautiful’, and all for naught, as Agnes still meets the Prince and is declared his Bride.   Then we have a final scene of abject body horror, with Alma removing the Tapeworm from Elvira.   This is the major gross-out scene of the film, and truly shows the horrific pain we, as women, put ourselves through in order to fit someone else’s standards of beauty!   However, we get a reprieve, as the film ends happily with Elvira and Alma leaving their mother to find a better life for themselves.

Wow, what a film!   I was so moved by the utter beauty of the film, with a very lovely color palette.    It is folk horror at its best, focusing on the folktale (this time the fairytale Cinderella) and using that as a platform to explore important subjects.   It makes you think about eating disorders, body dysmorphia, unrealistic beauty standards, and why we do not appreciate inner beauty (which Elvira certainly had, as early on she had her heart in the right place, being a hopeless romantic with tons of empathy for those around her).   The film explores how the way our parents treat us and the internal dialogue of our insecurities can drive us to take our once perfectly lovely bodies and destroy them in the name of becoming ‘beautiful!’

I am so glad I got to see this film, as I was moved to tears by its message.   It is a ten out of ten film for me!   I hope you have enjoyed this review.   Did you enjoy The Ugly Stepsister?   Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is the film poster.   I found the poster on https://www.imdb.com/title/tt29344903/.

LINK TO AVALONIAN ROSE FAERY MYSTERIES PATREON: patreon.com/AvalonianRoseFaeryMysteries 

Further Watching/Reading

• The Ugly Stepsister (2025)
• Cinderella by the Grimm Brothers
• Cinderella by Charles Perrault