While yesterday's film Shanks, was framed as a kind of fairytale, The Ugly Stepsister, from Norway, is a blatant reinterpretation of the Cinderella story, which, if you've read about its various iterations, is a lot bloodier than the Disney version would have us believe; making a straight up horror movie version of the story makes sense.
And The Ugly Stepsister is definitely filled with some truly horrible moments. Focused on Elvira, one of two "ugly" (they aren't) stepsisters to the orphaned and "beautiful" Agnes, the story finds her doing anything she can to catch the eye of the (quite unworthy) Prince at his upcoming ball.
No specific year is given, but it looks roughly to be the Victorian age, and the film's attention to details in the costuming and set design is really beautiful. These prettier bits reminded me a bit of Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette, with a dash of The Love Witch tossed in. And I think it's important to have some pretty things to look at because there is a lot of really stomach turning body horror throughout, along with some shocking (at least to these American eyes) graphic nudity.
What The Ugly Stepsister has to say about beauty standards and misogyny is not groundbreaking, but it is effective. Thankfully the film also has a very dark sense of humor, and Lea Myren's central performance as Elvira holds it all together. It is funny, heartbreaking, and disgusting.
I watched The Ugly Stepsister on Shudder.
No comments:
Post a Comment