Moan. Horrified giggles. The rustling of several jackets that are kept almost at the same time in front of the face so that they just don’t have to see what is going on for a beauty cure. This describes the expected background noise in the audience of the Norwegian horror comedy The Ugly Stepsister.
In it, the Grimm’s fairy tale by Cinderella is told with a twist that would make Maleficent and Elphaba proud of Wicked. However, this happens with the help of the physical disintestrates of a The Substance. After his Sundance premiere, in which a person supposedly had to be handed overthe audience may face the ugly stepsister at the Berlinale.
A fairy tale bösewichtin becomes a heroine in the Ugly Stepsister
Every child knows the story: The father of Cinderella Aka Cinderella marries a widow with two daughters who turn out together as a beastly trio of first quality. Because the girl is so kind, in contrast to them, thanks to magical intervention on a ball, it can turn the prince’s head and disappear around midnight. Only one shoe remains.
There is also one in The Ugly Stepsister Cinderellabut that must work in the household because the stable boy in the hay was in place. The main character is not the blonde perfection in person called Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Næss), but the chubby and large -eyed Elvira (Lea Myren), who moves into the estate with her gentleman mother and little sister. A film that finally brings a positive stepmothers agenda to the people is not.
Elvira is a lovely, shy girl with braces, but her mother wants to marry her to get money. So she subjects Elvira to an agonizing makeover in which her nose is broken and eyelashes are sewn into her eyelid with the needle. What we can observe everything en détail. Elvira helps hard to A tapeworm egg swallows for the loss of weight loss. Because she also dreams of a sunnier life with fairytale prince Julian (ISAC Calmroth).
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The horror fairy tale impresses with drastic effects and a bizarre atmosphere
The honor of a fairy tale basin in 2025 no longer tears anyone from the stool. The same applies to the realization that Beauty ideals put a cruel pressure on young women. In this respect, The Ugly Stepsister does not reinvent the horror bike. On the other hand, the film attracts with a beguiling anachronistic atmosphere of zooms and synths. So he lives him Charm of a fairytale film from the 70s rediscovered Inne – which was forbidden because he has disturbed children.
What is lacking in originality or really subversive ideas is made up for by the drastic horror effects. Elvira actress Lea Myren cannot be praised enough. The contrast between the disgusting agony and their heartfeest naivety drives The Ugly Stepsister. Above all, in the network with the Norwegian director Emilie Blichfeldt, she succeeds in not having the ordeal deployed to an end in itself. Elvira is doing terrible things in the film, but thanks to the grotesque ideas and the thoroughly black humor always mingles with pity.
The Ugly Stepsister was shown in the Panorama section at the Berlinale. The film will come to German cinemas on June 5, 2025.