I’m gonna start this post with a warning that if body horror isn’t your thing, do NOT watch this trailer for The Ugly Stepsister, a darkly twisted take on the Cinderella story that IFC Films is releasing in theaters next month before it makes its way to Shudder.
Here’s the logline for this Substance-esque tale:
Determined to outshine her beautiful stepsister, Elvira resorts to extreme measures to win the prince’s heart in this dark re-imagining of the Cinderella fairy tale.
Those extreme measures are, you guessed it, gruesome surgeries, including chopping off the end of her foot to have it fit into the legendary slipper and having a “surgeon” break her nose with an ice pick. The trailer also teases other bloody slicing and dicing scenes, and it’s clear that more than a few moments in the film involve maiming of one kind or another.
The Ugly Stepsister premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where it received great reviews, most of which mention the satirical movie’s gross-out factor.
The Norwegian film comes from writer-director Emilie Blichfeldt, who makes her feature debut here. It stars Lea Myren, Thea Sofie Loch Næss, and Ane Dahl Torp, and it is set to premiere in theaters on April 18, 2025, before it eventually finds its way to AMC+/Shudder.
Check out the trailer below to see if you can stomach the film.
