- Type
- Film
- Status
- Released
- Release
- March 7, 2025 (3 months ago)
- Alias
- Den stygge stesøsteren
- Language
- Norwegian
- Origin
- Denmark · Norway · Poland
- Production companies
- Lava Films · Mer Film · MOTOR · Scanbox Entertainment Production · Zentropa International Sweden
- Runtime
- 1h 45m
The Ugly Stepsister

Where to watch (United States)
Cast
Lea Mathilde Skar-MyrenElvira
Ane Dahl TorpRebekka
Thea Sofie Loch NæssAgnes
Flo FagerliAlma
Isac CalmrothPrins Julian
Malte GårdingerIsak
Ralph CarlssonOtto
Cecilia ForssSophie von Kronenberg
Katarzyna HermanMadam Vanja
Adam LundgrenDr. Esthétique
Willy Ramnek PetriFrederik von Bluckfish
Kyrre HellumJan
Isac AspbergFinsmakeren
Albin WeidenbladhAlteteren
Oksana CzerkasynaKokk
Richard ForsgrenHovmester
Agnieszka ŻulewskaMor til Agnes
Staffan KolhammarBudbringer
Philip LenkowskyBaron Von Bluckfish
Crew
Producers
Levels
- Sex & Nudity
- 1
- 2
- 3
>- Violence
- 1
- 2
- 3
>- Profanity
- 1
- 2
- 3
>- Algohol & Drugs
- 1
- 2
- 3
>- Fright & Intensity
- 1
- 2
- 3
>
Reviews
Sundance 2025: A Gay and Trans Festival Recap Daily updates from the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.
Impressively nasty body horror puts The Ugly Stepsister through a beautification gauntlet The Ugly Stepsister inverts Cinderella into a gross-out social satire filled with body horror gags and lush décor.
Bold takes on Frankenstein and Cinderella open Sundance, while Juliette Lewis body-swaps with a chair Our first Sundance 2025 dispatch highlights By Design, The Ugly Stepsister, Dead Lover, and The Things You Kill.
The Ugly Stepsister review: A Cinderella horror story Norwegian writer-director Emilie Blichfeldt’s grotesque reworking of the Cinderella story creates a world where beauty is pain for some women, but life is ...
‘The Ugly Stepsister’ Review: Stylish Norwegian Debut Takes ‘Cinderella’ for a Body-Horror Spin In her Sundance-bowing feature, the director Emilie Blichfeldt reimagines the fairytale from the perspective of a stepsister desperate for beauty.
‘The Ugly Stepsister’ Review: Beauty Is Pain in a Squeamish Cinderella Story for the Feminist Body Horror Age Review: Emilie Blichfeldt's feminist body horror fairytale 'The Ugly Stepsister' isn't more than skin deep, but it's squeamish enough that way.
The Ugly Stepsister: This Cinderella story is gruesome, hilarious and definitely not for children Director Emilie Blichfeldt puts the grim back in the Brothers Grimm with revolting close-ups of body modifications, maggots and moulting
FilmWeek: ‘The Wedding Banquet,’ 'Sneaks,’ ‘The Ugly Stepsister,’ And More Larry Mantle and LAist film critics Amy Nicholson and Manuel Betancourt review this weekend’s latest movie releases in theaters and on streaming platforms.
The Ugly Stepsister movie review (2025) Emilie Blichfeldt flips the script with The Ugly Stepsister , focusing on the naive Elvira (Lea Myren), who is presented as a slightly gawky but generally…
'The Ugly Stepsister' review: What if 'Wicked' and 'The Substance' had a grubby baby? Imagine, if you will, if Cinderella wasn't so lovely.
What to watch: ‘Wedding Banquet’ remake manages to be sweet and funny And Jon Hamm is brilliant once again in “Your Friends and Neighbors.’
Emilie Blichfeldt's The Ugly Stepsister Is the Most Disgusting Fairy Tale Ever Told The Ugly Stepsister is an audaciously gross reimagining of a tale old as time, but one that cleverly inverts perspective and expectation.
The Ugly Stepsister movie review (2025) Blichfieldt's "burn it all down" approach creates turbulence and upset while walking over very well-trod ground.
Sundance 2025: The Ugly Stepsister, By Design On two of the crazier opening night premieres of this year's Sundance.
Movie Review: Can “The Ugly Stepsister” make that Glass Slipper fit? Yes, let’s have a “Cinderella” without the spin. Pound home the “princess” as beauty bias messaging with body horror driven by body dysphoria. And ...
‘The Ugly Stepsister’: Sundance Review The Cinderella fairytale is turned violently on its head in this gory Norwegian debut
'The Ugly Stepsister' Review: A 'Cinderella' Body-Horror Story The film's carefully calibrated camera placement, sound design, and editing rhythm align spectator and subject in mutual agony and anxiety.
A Shockingly Gory Feminist Reimagining of ‘Cinderella’? “The Ugly Stepsister” just premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Turns out beauty really is pain.
The Ugly Stepsister Review: Cinderella Gets a Gruesome, Empathetic Body Horror Twist Note: This review was originally published as part of our 2025 Sundance coverage. The Ugly Stepsister opens in theaters on April 18. If the disheartening lac...
‘The Ugly Stepsister’ Review: A Body Horror Take On Cinderella, By Way Of Coralie Fargeat's The Substance [Sundance] Emilie Blichfeldt's Sundance horror hit 'The Ugly Stepsister,' has body horror notes ala Coralie Fargeat's acclaimed 'The Substance.'
The Friend is disjointed and frustrating - a pooch drama for the doghouse The Friend (15) 123mins ★★☆☆☆ THE tale of a reluctant owner falling in love with a problematic pooch has played out many times on the big screen. T...
The Ugly Stepsister review — so gruesome I had to look away This horror based on Cinderella features a scene so graphic our critic couldn’t watch it. The rest, though, is provocative and beguiling
‘The Ugly Stepsister’ Review: Eat Your Heart Out Cinderella, This Shudder Horror Is the Bloody Belle of the Ball Sundance 2025: Emilie Blichfeldt's feature debut "The Ugly Stepsister" is a grim and gruesome affair not for the faint of heart
‘The Ugly Stepsister’ Review: Scary Scandinavian Cinderella Story Puts the ‘Boo’ in ‘Bibbidi Bobbidi’ Director Emilie Blichfeldt skewers unfair female beauty standards in a horrific spin on the fairy tale, presented here from the rival's perspective.
Cinderella Was Always a Body-Horror Story Norwegian director Emilie Blichfeldt’s The Ugly Stepsister underlines the base grotesquerie of the original fairy tale.