There comes a time in everyone's life where they learn that fairy tales were not the kindly parables they learned as children. Eventually, they learn that Grimms' Fairy Tales are, in fact, violent and twisted sermons meant to scare children onto the straight and narrow. So it's nice to see a filmmaker like Emilie Blichfeldt reclaim some of the poor characters in Cinderella. In The Ugly Stepsister, the step-siblings are far from wicked and more interested in taking the necessary steps to survive their place in life. That, plus a little disfigurement; Grimm would have approved of the body horror on display.
Despite her modest upbringing, Elvira (Lea Myren) still dreams of falling in love with a handsome prince. So when her mother’s attempt at remarriage ends in tragedy, Elvira is given the task of wooing the local oligarchs and marrying rich. There’s only one problem: there’s nothing courtly or refined about Elvira, which means she and her mother (Ane Dahl Torp) must carve away at each of her imperfections in time for the royal ball. To make matters worse, Elvira is frustrated at every turn by Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Næss), her beautiful stepsister who might have designs of her own for the prince. A modern retelling of the Cinderella fairy tale, The Ugly Stepsister is an empathetic approach to body horror and beauty.
In this short excerpt from the episode, Matthew Monagle explains why this movie does such a remarkable job of balancing hopefulness with body horror:
There are certain films that still celebrate, or feel that it’s inevitable, that their characters will be trapped in the hell that either has been created for them or that they’ve created for themselves. The Ugly Stepsister is very much a movie where a character realizes that they can get off that train. And that is so nice to see, that’s so fucking refreshing to see, that a character can opt out of a spiritual and emotional and physical death spiral.
The Ugly Stepsister episode of the Certified Forgotten podcast is now available to stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, or the podcast platform of your choice.
