Trigger Warning: Be advised that The Ugly Stepsister includes significant elements of body torture and body-related horror.

Emilie Blichfeldt’s The Ugly Stepsister, having its east coast premiere during the Boston Underground Film Festival 2025, is the most graphically disturbing version of Grimm’s classic Cinderella to grace the silver screen thus far, and is certainly not one for the squeamish. While the movie, also written by Blichfeldt, never explicitly says it’s Cinderella (nor are any of the characters named anything from the Grimm fairy tale directly), it’s the same basic story with some twists and turns that certainly cannot prepare the audience no matter what they were expecting.

L-R: Ane Dahl Torp as Rebekka and Lea Myren as Elvira in Emilie Blichfeldt’s THE UGLY STEPSISTER. Photo Credit: Marcel Zyskind. Photo courtesy of Shudder.

Emilie Blichfeldt’s first time writing and directing a feature is sure to be one of this year’s best horror movies, and being a quarter of the way through the year, thus far, it is hard to see anything being talked about so far to take this mantle. It is surreal, brilliant, and masterfully crafted and is going to surely send a chill down audiences’ spines.  Atop the impeccable direction and writing, the entire cast is top-notch, but the standouts of Myren (Kids in Crime) and Loch Næss (La Palma) are the superglue that hold The Ugly Stepsister together and make it an undeniable execution of taking something familiar and breathing life into it in a newly horrifying and traumatizing way. Everyone involved in The Ugly Stepsister from in front of and behind the camera brings 200%, and the end result captures their passion and dedication. It’s truly one of the most graphic and wince-inducing movies of the year. Imagine Cinderella meets Suspiria (2018) meets Cronenberg (Videodrome) with a dash of del Toro (Crimson Peak).

A full review of The Ugly Stepsister will be available closer to the wide release.

Screening during Boston Underground Film Festival 2025.
In theaters April 18^th, 2025.

For more information, head to the official BUFF The Ugly Stepsister webpage.

Final Score: 4.5 out of 5.

Categories: In Theaters, Reviews

Tags: Ane Dahl Torp, Boston Underground Film Festival, Boston Underground Film Festival 2025, comedy, Den stygge stesøsteren, EC1 Łódź, Emilie Blichfeldt, film festival, foreign film, horror, IFC Films, Lava Films, Lea Myren, Mediefondet Zefyr, Mer Film, MOTOR, Norway, Norwegian, Scanbox Entertainment Production, Shudder, The Ugly Stepsister, Thea Sofie Loch Næss, Zentropa International Sweden