The Ugly Stepsister

The Ugly Stepsister (Norwegian: *Den Stygge Stesøsteren*) is a 2025 satirical black comedy body horror film. It marks Emilie Blichfeldt’s feature film directorial debut. The international production, primarily in Norwegian, loosely adapts the Brothers Grimm’s 19th-century fairy tale “Aschenputtel” (itself a retelling of the French “Cinderella”). Unlike typical Cinderella stories, this one centers on a stepsister who undertakes a brutal quest to win a prince’s affection. The cast includes Lea Myren, Thea Sofie Loch Næss, Ane Dahl Torp, and Flo Fagerli.

The plot follows a widow, Rebekka, and her daughters Elvira and Alma. Rebekka marries an older widower, Otto, who has a beautiful daughter named Agnes. At their wedding reception, Otto dies suddenly. Agnes, initially friendly, later reveals that Otto married Rebekka for money, and Rebekka married him for the same reason—neither had any wealth. Much of Otto’s assets are seized. Royal heralds then announce a ball where Prince Julian will choose a wife. To escape poverty, Rebekka plans to marry Elvira to Julian. Though Elvira dreams of this and carries a book of the prince’s poems, Rebekka considers her too ugly to succeed. She subjects Elvira to painful, primitive cosmetic surgeries.

Elvira and Agnes attend Sophie von Kronenberg’s finishing school. In dance class, Agnes stands with the pretty girls while Elvira is placed with the uglier ones. The teacher humiliates Elvira, noting her talent is “wasted” due to her looks and that Rebekka paid for her inclusion. Elvira’s admiration for Agnes turns to resentment. Sophie gives Elvira a tapeworm egg for weight loss, calling her brave for trying to match her outside to her inside. At home, Agnes scolds Rebekka for spending money on Elvira’s treatments instead of burying Otto, whose rotting corpse is stored in a disused room. Later, Elvira swallows the tapeworm egg after revealing it to Alma, who rides off in disgust. When Elvira meets Prince Julian in the woods, he mocks her appearance, revealing himself as a shallow womanizer, but she remains smitten. Elvira then catches Agnes having sex with the stable boy Isak and tells Rebekka, who throws Isak out and makes Agnes a servant, calling her Cinderella.

As the ball approaches, Elvira grows malnourished and loses hair from the tapeworm. Alma gets her first period but hides it from her mother, fearing similar horrors.