Proverbs and Plastic Surgery: The Ugly Stepsister and the Lie of Perfect Beauty

It’s a weird time to be a horror fan. It seems like every week brings a new announcement of a genre film based on a classic children’s IP, and to the surprise of no one, the general consensus is that these movies are pretty bad. But as usual, there’s an exception to that general rule, and it’s a Norwegian body horror flick called The Ugly Stepsister. This film is being billed as a grim new take on “Cinderella,” and people seem to be loving it. As of this writing, it has a 95% critic rating and an 86% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so as a big horror aficionado myself, I just had to check it out. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to catch the movie during its very limited theatrical run last month, but now that it’s available on the horror streaming service Shudder, I was finally able to see for myself what all the fuss was about.

The Ugly Stepsister was written and directed by Emilie Blichfeldt, and it stars Lea Myren, Thea Sofie Loch Næss, Flo Fagerli, and Ane Dahl Torp. Unlike most tellings of the Cinderella story, this one doesn’t focus on the beleaguered future princess. Instead, as the title suggests, The Ugly Stepsister follows the classic protagonist’s stepsister, a young woman named Elvira. She dreams of one day marrying a local prince named Julian, and when the prince invites her and her stepsister (called Agnes at this point in the story) to a ball where he plans to choose his bride, it looks like her wish might actually come true. There’s just one problem. Elvira isn’t very attractive, so there's no way a shallow man like Julian would ever want to marry her.

However, that begins to change when her mother, Rebekka, subjects the poor girl to a series of primitive plastic surgeries to beautify her eyes, nose, and mouth. As all this is going on, Rebekka also learns that Agnes has been sleeping with a stable man, so she just about disowns the young woman. She begins treating her like garbage, and she even calls Agnes by her classic fairy tale name. From there, the movie more or less follows the beloved story we’ve all heard a million times before, but like the original Brothers Grimm version, it’s much more gruesome than anything Disney ever put to screen.

As you might be able to tell from that brief plot synopsis, The Ugly Stepsister is essentially a cinematic takedown of our culture’s obsession with physical beauty and the dangerous pressure this preoccupation puts on women. The film shows just how harmful (and, ultimately, empty) it can be to pursue a perfect figure and a flawlessly sculpted face, and we Catholics should be totally on board with that message. As Scripture famously says, “Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised” (Proverbs 31:30).

But a movie can’t get by on its message alone. It also has to bring its deeper themes to life with an engaging story, and on that count, The Ugly Stepsister shines. To begin, lead star Lea Myren gives a stunningly committed performance as Elvira. The character goes through a number of ups and downs in the course of her quest to catch the prince’s attention, and Myren totally nails every single one of them.

When we first meet the young woman, she has a wide-eyed wonder and naivete that’ll instantly win you over, and when Elvira begins to go through her horrific procedures, Myren doesn’t miss a beat. She makes you believe every ounce of pain and discomfort her character experiences, so you’ll have no problem understanding exactly what this movie is trying to say.

On top of featuring an excellent lead performance, The Ugly Stepsister also totally nails its fairy tale vibe. Everything you see on screen–from the sets to the costumes and even the old-timey plastic surgery–are crafted to Victorian-era perfection, and the score often has an ethereal, almost dream-like quality to it. That pitch-perfect combination transports you to a fantastical land where fairy godmothers really do exist and pumpkins really can turn into coaches, so despite taking an unconventional approach to its source material, this film still retains the sense of timeless magic and wonder that makes stories like “Cinderella” so enduringly popular.

Last but not least, we have to talk a bit about the horror. In typical body horror fashion, The Ugly Stepsister doesn’t try to scare you. Rather, its main goal is to make you squirm as the lead character undergoes a series of grotesque bodily transformations, and it gets the job done. Don't get me wrong, this movie isn’t nearly as gruesome as last year’s body horror sensation The Substance, but it has its moments.

For instance, there’s a scene where Elvira gets eyelash extensions stitched into her eyelids, and even though we’re only shown a small part of the procedure, the little bit we do see is just as hard to watch as it sounds. Similarly, one of the final shots involves Elvira’s mouth, and without giving anything away, let’s just say that it’s one of the most sneakily disgusting scenes in recent memory. Much like in The Substance, that repulsive horror serves to hammer home the film’s message about the pursuit of beauty, and as I’m sure you can tell, it’s quite effective.

All that being said, The Ugly Stepsister does have one flaw that bears mentioning. The movie features a few nude shots (both male and female) that don't seem to have any real purpose other than shock value, and that bummed me out. I’d expect more from a film that so purposely wields its horror as a tool of social criticism, so even though two or three moments by no means ruin the entire experience, they stick out all the more when surrounded by such meaningful grotesquerie.

But if I'm being honest, I can't complain too much. Despite its imperfections, the good in this movie still vastly outweighs the bad, so I'm happy to report that The Ugly Stepsister lives up to the hype. It's one of the best films of the year so far, and if you can handle squirm-inducing body horror, I think you’re going to enjoy this new take on the classic Cinderella story.