ShudderA new movie that gives the Cinderella story a twisted spin and is reminiscent of The Substance releases in cinemas today, having already made one viewer vomit when it premiered.
The Substance was one of the most acclaimed and talked about horror movies of 2024, giving Demi Moore the role of a lifetime as an ageing celebrity dealing with unfair beauty standards, in a story that involves some truly Cronenbergian gore.
The Ugly Stepsister has been compared to The Substance for good reason, as the film also deals in deranged beautification, while at the same time featuring even more extreme body horror. It’s also one of the most original and entertaining horror movies of 2025.
Reports from the Sundance Film Festival suggest that one of the more outrageous scenes had someone vomiting onto the aisle during the its premiere. So, here’s what to expect from this sick fairytale, meaning SPOILERS ahead…
The Ugly Stepsister is a screwed up Cinderella story
Written and directed by Norwegian filmmaker Emilie Blichfeldt, The Ugly Stepsister is an inspired take on the Cinderella story, viewing a warped version of events from the viewpoint of one of the title characters.
Elvira (Lea Myren) is the ugly stepsister in question, whose mother Rebekka (Ane Dahl Torp) marries an older man called Otto, mainly because he has money. But it turns out Otto married Rebekka because he thinks that she has money. So when he croaks it after their wedding, Rebekka, her daughters, and their beautiful new stepsister are close to becoming destitute.
Elvira is a dreamer who loves fairytales, and fantasizes about marrying the handsome Prince Julian. So when he organizes a ball for rich barons and merchants, Elvira sees it as a chance to bag Julian, while Rebekka views it as an opportunity to marry her off to someone – anyone – with a bit of money.
But those around her don’t believe Elvira to be conventionally attractive, so Rebekka sets out to right that wrong, which is when the body horror begins…
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The shocking Ugly Stepsister scenes making people sick
ShudderIt starts with the squeezing of a spot, with pus filling the screen, and paving the way for what’s to come, most of it at the hands of a surgeon who calls himself Dr. Esthétique.
He first removes her braces, extracting them with a big pair of pliers in the most painful way imaginable.
Then he fixes Elvira’s nose, so her face can be free “after a lifetime of shade in that bump.” But he does this by hitting her nose with a hammer to break it, then hitting it again, resulting in Elvira having to wear a protective face-mask for a big chunk of the film.
When that’s fixed, he decide to “tame the rose” by extending her eyelashes. So Esthétique takes a needle, and sows in and out of the skin around Elvira’s eyelashes and lids, in a sequence that’s borderline unwatchable.
Elvira becomes her own worst enemy
ShudderElvira is made to feel unattractive and overweight by the people that surround her, and when she’s sent to a posh finishing school, the teachers and students treat her much the same way. This means Elvira feels like a monster, so she tragically sets about fixing herself, first by swallowing a tapeworm egg.
The idea is that the tapeworm will be born inside her, then consume whatever she eats until she’s ready to cure it with an antidote. But predictably, the worm makes her sick, with her hair falling out, and Elvira throwing up tapeworm eggs.
But that isn’t the worst thing that the character does to herself, with the ultimate self-sabotage moment also probably the scene that made that viewer vomit. And it ties back to the Cinderella story, as Elvira’s beautiful stepsister dances with the Prince then runs away, leaving her shoe at his castle. As in the fairytale, the Prince states that the foot that the slipper fits belongs to the woman that he loves.
ShudderThe shoe doesn’t fit Elvira, however, so she grabs a meat clever and goes at her foot, hacking off her toes. Rebekka walks in on this, and Elvira says to her mother, “I’m going to fit the shoe… you have to help me.” Rebekka duly does, clocking that her daughter has slashed the wrong foot, and helping to hack off the toes on the other.
It’s a truly shocking scene that’s frequently difficult to watch. But it’s also a powerful metaphor for how this society conflates beauty with pain; a disturbing message that rings true today.
Mercifully, from here-on-in, Elvira starts to heal both mentally and physically, with the film ending on an unexpectedly optimistic note. Though The Ugly Stepsister isn’t done yet, as Blichfeldt has one more rotten trick up her sleeve, which involves the pesky worm that still resides in Elvira’s stomach…
The Ugly Stepsister is in cinemas now, while for more gory stuff, check out our list of the best horror movies of all-time and the best scary 1980s movies.