Emilie Blichfeldt’s directorial debut, The Ugly Stepsister, is provocative and powerful. Most of the world is familiar with Cinderella’s story, either the Brothers Grimm version or the more popular Disney version. The director, in an interview, pointed out that while in Grimm’s version, the stepsisters were beautiful on the outside but ugly on the inside, Disney drew a connection between inner and outer beauty, where one who is beautiful will inherently be kind, while if one is ‘ugly,’ they are bound to be a terrible person. Emilie Blichfeldt humanizes the characters, where everyone is, in one way or another, a victim of their circumstances. As a body horror, The Ugly Stepsister is chilling and sickening. Blichfeldt’s treatment of the subject and her attention to detail are surely deserving of appreciation.
Spoiler Alert
What measures did Elvira take to secure her place at the ball?
Elvira daydreamed about marrying Prince Julian—he was the man of her dreams, a perfect blend of attractive and cultured. She was certain that she would marry him someday, but there was a slight crack in her dream when her mother told her that she was too ‘ugly’ to be married off into the royal family. Her mother, Rebekka, married an old man in the hopes of inheriting his wealth, but he passed away on the night of their wedding, and she soon discovered that he didn’t have much to his name. He’d married Rebekka thinking that he could financially depend on her, but alas, they both couldn’t have been more wrong. Now that they were broke, the only option Rebekka had was to marry her daughter to a wealthy suitor, but Elvira was not conventionally beautiful like her stepdaughter, Agnes. Rebekka made an appointment with Dr. Esthetique, a plastic surgeon who believed ‘beauty is pain.’ Elvira had her braces removed, and her mother chose a nose shape from the doctor’s brochure for her daughter. The doctor used his sharp tools to carve out the perfect nose for the young girl. Elvira’s ‘imperfections’ had to be chiselled and corrected before the royal ball, where the prince would choose his bride-to-be. She also joined the best finishing school in the kingdom, and she was determined to make it to the list of a select few who would get the opportunity to perform at the prince’s ball. She smiled and danced to the best of her ability, but Elvira soon figured out the instructor was not pleased with her performance. Agnes was the focus of everyone’s attention. It was almost as if she was competing for a prize that already belonged to someone else. Just when Elvira started to feel disheartened, her mother stepped in. Rebekka claimed not to have enough money to host a funeral for her husband, and while his body decayed a little every day, she spent whatever she had left to ensure that Elvira was one of the most prominent and eligible ‘virgin girls’ at the ball. Elvira later underwent a treatment to get long eyelashes; it was excruciatingly painful, but hey, beauty is pain, or so we’re told even today.
How did Elvira’s relationship with Cinderella worsen?
Elvira was in awe of Agnes when she saw her for the first time. I believe it was the kind of admiration you have for your elder sister— someone to look up to, (in Elvira’s case) someone’s brush you hope to own someday, and someone whose validation you always seek. She felt envious of Agnes when she realized that no matter how hard she tried, when Agnes entered the room, she always had everyone’s attention. Maybe in another world, where everyone was accepted and loved for who they were, and beauty standards never existed, Elvira would have always admired Agnes. Elvira didn’t inherently despise Agnes; she was taught to harm and hate her by society. Instead of questioning the beauty standard, she was taught to adhere to it. She even ingested a tapeworm egg to maintain her weight. As a young adult, she figured that the world was ruthless and harsh if one didn’t look a certain way, and the only solution was to go through immense pain to fit into the idea of ‘beauty.’
Agnes was initially favored by the dance teacher, and she was chosen to be the main dancer, but when Rebekka discovered that Agnes had had an affair with the stable boy, she used it to shame her. It was Elvira who’d told her mother about it. She believed Agnes had it too easy, and she was ready to do whatever it took to climb the ladder. Agnes was reduced to a domestic helper, and she was not permitted to attend the royal ball. Elvira had ‘fixed’ her nose and her eyelashes, and because of the tapeworm, she managed to cut down her weight. She was ready for the ball, but on the day of her dress fitting, she realized she was going bald. Elvira had been so consumed with ‘perfecting’ her appearance that she didn’t consider the harm all of it was doing to her body and her soul. As the tapeworm grew bigger in size, Elvira’s hunger became insatiable. She devoured large platters secretly at night, but none of the nourishment from the food went to her body, and the sudden balding was a symptom of her sickness. Rebekka simply covered her head with a wig and went on with the costume fitting session as if nothing had happened. Even though Elvira had it all, she was distressed when she noticed Agnes walk out of her room with a gown in her hand. Agnes was determined to attend the ball, but Elvira refused to let her. She tore apart Agnes’ gown; she had truly become her mother’s daughter—ready to suffocate and drown another woman to emerge victorious.
Why did Elvira take a knife to her foot?
In an opulent ball gown with a corseted bodice and an elaborate blonde wig, Elvira was a sight to behold. Her long eyelashes, perfectly sculpted nose, and thin waist ticked all the boxes that defined ‘beauty.’ Elvira was convinced that she was the most attractive woman at the royal ball, and her dream of marrying the prince was about to come true. Occasionally, her unbearable hunger reminded her of the tapeworm that grew inside her, but she had better things to focus on, and she tried not to think of how miserable she truly felt. The mothers of the ‘virgin girls’ showed off their daughters in front of their potential suitors. They were reduced to tame puppies, who’d learned a trick or two to impress their would-be masters. The girls were raised to appeal to the male gaze, and they flaunted their most ‘sellable assets.’ The prince was impressed when Elvira was introduced to him. The girl he once swore to never bed had changed every aspect of her that society deemed ‘unfit’ or ‘ugly’ to appear beautiful. The prince chose to dance with Elvira, a sign that he’d made up his mind about marrying her. Just when she thought she’d done the impossible and was about to win the prize, a woman in a blue gown appeared. She had a sheer veil covering her face, but even then the prince was mesmerized by her beauty. He quickly walked to the unknown woman and asked her for a dance.
Agnes’ late mother had fulfilled her dream of attending the ball, but the catch was that she’d have to return home by midnight. Elvira felt defeated. She ran to a room and threw up what seemed to be tapeworm eggs. She’d sacrificed her well-being to be with the prince, yet a woman came out of nowhere and snatched from her the possibility of a ‘happily ever after.’ Rebekka was disappointed in her daughter; while the prince was no longer interested in Elvira, her mother thought she must try her best to win the hearts of one of the other suitors who’d lined up to dance with her. Elvira tried to distract herself from her misery, but she couldn’t come to terms with the reality. She had endured unimaginable pain for this one day, yet she thought she was a failure. Elvira had recognized Agnes during the dance, and when she returned home, she attacked Agnes. Before she hurried home at midnight, Agnes had accidentally left behind her slipper, and the prince was determined to use it to find the love of his life. With a sharp cleaver in hand, Elvira threatened Agnes to give her her slipper. Agnes tried to resist, but Elvira’s fury was impossible to contain.
Once Elvira got the slipper, she went to her room to try it on. She felt defeated again when it didn’t fit her. Elvira had become hysterical— she was taught that if she sacrificed her joy and accepted pain to become a ‘beautiful’ woman, she could get what she desired. But when things didn’t pan out the way she’d hoped for, she didn’t know what to do. In a desperate attempt, she ended up chopping off her fingers with the cleaver to fit into the slipper. Elvira screamed in agony, and Rebekka and Alma rushed to her room. Alma loved her sister, and she felt helpless seeing her in such a bloody state, but Rebekka was unbothered. She fed Elvira a sedative and used the cleaver to chop off the fingers of her other foot. Maybe she related to Elvira’s desperation, and she knew that the only thing that could bring joy to her daughter was fitting into the slippers. She perhaps knew that she was responsible for pushing her daughter to the edge, and maybe Rebekka too wanted to feed into her daughter’s delusional ideas because somewhere deep down she wanted to cling to the idea that Elvira would be married off and they would be saved from the piling debts.
How did Alma save Elvira?
Alma was the only one who saw the sadness in her sister’s eyes. The next morning, after the slipper fit Agnes perfectly, and the prince had declared that he would marry her, Alma begged Elvira to throw up the tapeworm. She was the only one who knew about it, and she could see how it was killing her. Elvira was bruised and defeated by then. She could no longer walk—she crawled her way to the front door and chipped her front tooth in the process, only to hear about Agnes happily ever after. Elvira gulped down the antidote, and she threw up the long, long tapeworm that had been living inside her. The parasite can be compared to the negativity that had been growing inside her. It was almost as if the people around her were feeding off her misery and had turned her into a project that needed to be perfected. They had planted the seed of self-doubt in her, and it grew into an all-consuming being that robbed her off the power of logical thinking.
In The Ugly Stepsister’s ending, Elvira finally felt free. She was far from the ideal beauty standard, but the joy of finally being herself was unmatched. Elvira realized that even on her worst day, her sister would not judge her and instead shower her with love. The validation she’d been craving all along was impossible to attain. Alma and Elvira left the house; their mother was busy charming a young, wealthy man she’d crossed paths with at the ball. She didn’t care about her daughters and perhaps would be relieved to learn that she no longer had to provide for them. Alma and Elvira were on their own—they’d managed to break free from the shackles designed by society to tie down women. After seeing the changes her sister had gone through, Alma was terrified of becoming a candidate in the marriage market. She hid her period stain, hoping that her mother would never find out she’d started bleeding. Watching Elvira succumb to societal pressure, Alma started to question the idea of beauty itself. In this Cinderella story, the ‘ugly stepsister’ escaped from the impossible loop of feeling helpless, seeking procedural changes, and experiencing fleeting joy only to feel depressive and imperfect all over again.
