Trendy audiences affiliate fairy tales with whimsy, attraction, and the concept of residing fortunately ever after. Nonetheless, the sanitized variations which have been intently tied with common tradition are a far cry from their supply materials. Essentially the most well-known fairy tales, these written by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, are removed from charming and kooky and are saturated with violence, dying, and wrongdoers being punished in horrific methods.
The spirit of the Brothers Grimm, as they’re referred to, is alive and nicely in The Ugly Stepsister. A retelling of their story, Cinderella, The Ugly Stepsister, merges whimsy and transgression and makes use of physique horror to handle matters reminiscent of physique dysmorphia within the pursuit of the right look.
A Traditional Story with a New Perspective
The story of Cinderella is firmly ingrained within the cultural zeitgeist. The narrative that many audiences are conversant in focuses on the younger maiden residing together with her merciless stepmother and stepsisters, who topic her to harsh remedy. With assist, she inexplicably turns into the “belle of the ball” and lives fortunately ever after with a good-looking prince. Cinderella is seen by many as a “rags-to-riches” story, with somebody present process a horrible ordeal solely to be rewarded for his or her torment.
The Ugly Stepsister breaks away from regular views and reduces Cinderella to a supporting character, specializing in Elvira (Lea Myren), one of many stepsisters. Removed from present within the fairy-tale world we’ve grown accustomed to, lots of the characters we meet are contemptuous, vile, and are made to elicit disgust and repulsion from the viewers. Shifting the narrative on Elvira permits the movie to interact in tonal shifts that juxtapose the idyllic fantasy life and the cruel actuality during which the stepsister exists.
Associated
Disney’s Cinderella Lastly Licensed Contemporary on Rotten Tomatoes Many years After Launch
The unique 1950 Disney movie Cinderella will get a whopping 98% Licensed Contemporary score from Rotten Tomatoes.
Elvira is portrayed as unpleasing to the attention, a minimum of by the sweetness requirements throughout the movie, and naive, coming below the cruel management of her mom (Ane Dahl Torp), who intends to marry her off for financial functions. Elvira desires of a greater life, escaping to the world of poetry, which gives the one respite from her state of affairs. Elvira’s fantasies, offered with comfortable focus cinematography, depict a dream world the place all the things is stuffed with attraction and whimsy. These desires are a stark distinction with the contemptuous nature of many characters who inhabit her world.
Transformation and Transgression
A persistent theme in lots of fairy tales and movies is transformation, such because the ugly duckling evolving into a good looking swan. The transformation that Elvira undergoes in The Ugly Stepsister is abrasive and transgressive, and in addition gives social commentary on physique dysmorphia. To turn into the “belle of the ball” and win over the prince, Elvira undergoes a metamorphosis that’s actually stunning to the senses, but garners additional empathy from the viewers. Within the discourses about physique horror, there’s typically a query of intention. When is one thing essential to the plot, and when does it teeter on senselessness for the sake of displaying extremity? In The Ugly Stepsister, physique horror illustrates a bodily transformation and a personality arc.
The transformation Elvira undergoes entails a number of beauty procedures, a lot of that are painful physique modifications to supply the right specimen. The sequences elicit an emotional response, as Elvira’s vulnerability and naivety in pleasing her mom have been firmly established. The cruel remedies go a protracted method to replicate the trendy obsession with magnificence and the lengths many have gone to realize the right look. Elvira’s ingestion of a tapeworm egg to drop pounds, a observe that really existed in Victorian England, serves as a catalyst for each bodily and private degeneration.
Associated
The Substance Is Extraordinarily Gory for Significant Causes
One of many 12 months’s finest movies is without doubt one of the goriest films in current reminiscence. We would not have it another means.
Elvira’s fast weight reduction coincides with the remainder of her physique breaking down and rotting, inside and outside. The once-empathetic character is overcome with desperation and the necessity to challenge the picture of good magnificence. Lashing out in hostility at Cinderella and mutilating her personal toes to suit into the glass slipper from the ball are each straight lifted from the supply materials written by the Brothers Grimm. The sequence of self-mutilation, whereas being devoted to the unique story, is additional emblematic of the obsession with changing into the right specimen. The obsession with attaining preferrred magnificence and self-harm that comes in consequence are each matters which are intently tied to physique dysmorphia.
The Ugly Stepsister is devoted to folklore written centuries in the past whereas additionally reflecting a facet of contemporary society. Using physique horror within the movie has a goal, and it achieves its supposed end result by offering social commentary on the excessive requirements of magnificence that society locations on people.
The place Can I Watch ‘The Ugly Stepsister’?
A special model of Cinderella that goes in opposition to viewers expectations, The Ugly Stepsister, is without doubt one of the few diversifications that honors its supply materials. You’ll be able to stream The Ugly Stepsister on Shudder and AMC+.
The Ugly Stepsister
4.5
/5
- Launch Date
-
April 18, 2025
- Runtime
-
105 minutes
- Director
-
Emilie Kristine Blichfeldt
- Writers
-
Emilie Kristine Blichfeldt
- Producers
-
Christian Torpe, Jesper Morthorst
-
Lea Mathilde Skar-Myren
Elvira
-
Thea Sofie Loch Næss
Agnes
