The Slipper and the Toes

The Ugly Stepsister (Emilie Blichfeldt, 2025)

The trailer for Emilie Blichfeldt's debut feature film, The Ugly Stepsister (2025), unashamedly mimics the visual style of Coralie Fargeat's The Substance (2024). Both films also happen to be grotesque stories revolving around impossible beauty standards and the extreme lengths some would go to in order to achieve perfection. Fargeat monstrously satirises these unrealistic goals in the sun-kissed world of Hollywood, whilst Blichfeldt's provides a horrifying retrospective at archaic treatments and attitudes from the past. The Ugly Stepsister is a twisted spin on the familiar tale of Cinderella; albeit, told from the perspective of the eldest stepsister, Elvira, (Lea Myren). 

Elvira, the naive elder daughter to the broke Rebekka (Ane Dahl Top), daydreams of marrying the dashing Prince Julian (Isac Calmroth) of Swedlandia. Her besotted fantasy for the prince, is a bit of an annoyance to her younger and independently thinking sister, Alma (Flo Fagerli). The trio set off in a horse drawn carriage towards new horizons. Their mother is to wed again; to the (presumably) wealthy estate owner Otto (Ralph Carlsson). Upon their arrival, they meet Otto's beautiful daughter Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Næss — what a name!). Elvira is instantly in awe of her new stepsister. Agnes incredibly beautiful; the complete opposite to Elvira. For the sake of her devotion to her father, Agnes forms a tenuous friendship with her new stepsister. Whilst mocking Elvira and throwing cake at her face, Otto suffers a fatal haemorrhage during the wedding feast. The creditors immediately arrive. It turns out the recently departed Otto was not the wealthy man Rebekka though, he was  penniless, too. Demoralised, Rebekka thinks it's too late for her to find another rich man to marry and provide the living she is accustomed to. "Do you think it's easy to find a rich man who would want me?" Rebekka asks Elvira, "A widow with saggy tits and two hopeless daughters!"

Fortunately, the King of Swedlandia is hosting a ball to find an eligible young woman for his dashing heir. Agnes and Elvira both receive invites. To Agnes's shock, Elvira being prepped for the forthcoming soiree is of more importance than her father being buried. Otto's funeral is put on ice and has to make do with rotting on a dining table (if only he literally was put on ice). And so Elvira undergoes horrific cosmetic surgery by Dr. Esthétique (Adam Lundgren). The procedures include Elvira's teeth braces ripped out with huge pliers and her nose being reshaped with a chisel and hammer. A decorative metal nose brace is used to protect it. Undoubtedly, the most extreme procedure are the extended false eyelashes being sewn onto Elvira's eyelids. The French surgeon comically whistles the nursery song Alouette, gentille alouette during this utterly graphic scene. Genuinely made me wince. Extreme Horror pass revoked!

Elvira is also sent to a finishing school for girls where the cruel dance teacher, Madame Vanja (Katazina Herman) mocks and bullies her constantly. There, the head teacher and appropriately named for this film, Miss Sophie Von Kronenberg's (Cecilia Forss) offers a radical solution to aid in Elvira losing weight before the royal ball. Von Kronenberg gives our protagonist the 18th century equivalent of Ozempic, a tapeworm egg. The decision to swallow the tapeworm egg represents a pivotal turning point for Elvira. It signifies the exact moment when she turns from being a naive and sympathetic character to a bitter and envious one. Despite this switch in personality, she is still nowhere near as reprehensible as some of the other characters in the film. Even Agnes is a less than purest snow in Blichfeldt's retelling of the classic folk tale. One night, while in the stables, Elvira witnesses Agnes having sex with her true love, the stable boy Isak (Malte Gårdinger). Much to Elvira's delight, she snitches on her goody stepsister. No longer a virgin, Agnes is withdrawn from the finishing school, and forbidden from attending the upcoming royal ball. As punishment by Rebekka, Agnes is demoted to a lowly house servant and given the nickname of Cinderella. 

Apart from Cinderella being naturally beautiful, far more graceful and sophisticated compared to Elvira, an integral difference between the two, are their motives in going to the ball. Elvira, is completely besotted with Prince Julian; in love with his poems and dreaming of being romanced by him. Cinderella, on the other hand, sees the prince as a means of escape from her forced servitude and nothing more. The first chinks in Elvira's perception of the dreamboat occur with a chance encounter she has with him in a forest. Hiding amongst a rocky enclave, she spots him urinating and complaining to his hunting buddies how painful it is; presumably because of an STD. Elvira accidentally gives herself away. "Hey, metal snout! You want some princely cock?" asks one of the prince's friends. "That thing? I don't want to fuck that!". Not exactly the eloquent and sensual wordsmith as shown in his poems.

Worms play a crucial and symbolic part in The Ugly Sister. Beneath the superficial displays of beauty, wealth and power, is a rotten interior within almost everyone. Maggots crawl from Otto's rotten carcass. In one of the best scenes from the film, Agnes is slumped next to her father's festering corpse, holding her ruined ball gown. She is visited by the ghostly apparition of her real mother; the film's fairy godmother. The maggots become silkworms and repair the ball gown. In a disorientating dance scene set to Edvar Grieg's In the Hall of the Mountain King, worms and maggots appear everywhere to a delirious Elvira; even slithering out of the mouths of party guests. Of course, it's even more emblematic with the parasitic tape worm inside Elvira. Constantly reminding her of its presence by the bellowing rumbles and groans emanating from Elvira's stomach. The dire side of being able to pig out on Danish pastries and cakes during the middle of the night, along with gorging on spaghetti while in the bath. Worms aren't the only symbolic creatures. Birds differentiate both Elvira and Cinderella. White doves for the traditional heroine, while black crows represent her step-sisters; even for Alma, sadly.

Lea Myren's lead performance is a major highlight. Without her talent, Elvira's character arc wouldn't be so intriguing and compelling to watch. Like her amazing physical transformation, Myren does a superb job in portraying a sympathetic young woman becoming a resentful villain, to finally becoming a very tragic figure. 

The Ugly Stepsister is an impressive debut for any first-time feature director. Heads above the usual Shudder releases which occasionally blip their way onto my radar. In all honesty, this indie film could have easily been an A24 release, as it's a suitably dark and twisted fantasy for the alternative film company. Marcel Zyskind's gorgeous cinematography is a perfect visual blend of fantasy and horror, while showcasing the pomp and circumstance of a lavish costume drama. Walerian Borowczyk's erotica films also seem to have inspired the overall tone and aesthetic of the film; namely his Contes immoraux (1973) anthology as well as the infamous La Bête (1975). David Cronenberg is an obvious influence; largely because of the archaic cosmetic procedures featured in the film, along with the unforgettable tapeworm sequence, but that can largely be said of all of today's body horror films. There's a touch of black comedy, too. When Elvira decides to chop off her toes so she can fit into Cinderella's slipper, her odious mother, the real villain in this twisted tale, chops off the toes from the Elvira's other foot, as she cut the wrong ones for the show.

An enjoyable, yet gross spin on the original Cinderella tale. Definitely not for the squeamish.

House of Glazer

The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, 2023/2024)

Jonathan Glazer's long awaited film, The Zone of Interest, a loose adapatation of Martin Amis's titular novel, is a powerful viewing experience. Horrific atrocities that occur in the film are largely implied, heard and viewed from afar. Therefore, much of the horror is left to our imagination. Adjacent to the unseen nighmare, we're privvy to the domestic life of  Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel), commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp, living next door to "the zone of interest" with his family.

Witnessing the commandant's family living with complete apathy right next to what can be best described as Hell is what makes this an incredibly powerful and chilling film. Höss isn't portrayed as some completely deranged pyschopath making it easy to differentiate from. He behaves like a normal individual towards his family; even feeling sad for his horse who he needs to leave behind due to work commitments. That's what makes this such a compelling experience; what appears like a normal individual being capable of committing monstrous actions. Two scenes which really highlight this is where he's having a mundane chat in bed with his wife, Hedwig, about a possible vacation in Italy, and it's immediably followed by a close shot of him overseeing prisoners being processed after their arrival at the death camp. The sounds are truly distressing and haunting. Not something that will be easy to forget any time soon.

Hedwig Höss (Sandra Hüller), the matriarch of the family, is also complicit with the horror. She takes extreme pride of her dream home. She even considers herself  "the Queen of Auschwitz", claiming that she would have to be dragged away the paradise she lives in. Her staff, work in abject fear. One of whom bearing the burden of Hedwig's annoyance is threatened with, "I could have my husband spread your ashes across the fields of Babice." Chilling. There are hints throughout the film that Hedwig came from poverty and is of a low class. Prisoners' personal belongings are amusingly said to come from "Canada" by Hedwig and her friends. Her callousness is spawned from the jealousy and resentment she harboured before fascism gave her and her family prosperity.

Smoke from steam engines carrying its human victims can be seen from the walled perimeter of the Höss's home. The dark and acrid smoke from the crematorium chimney can be observed both day and night. It's the final straw during a restless night for Hedwig's visiting mother. She realises that her former employer, Esther Silberman, might have suffered a horrific fate on the otherside of the wall. Ash is mixed with top soil by a prison labourer in the commandant's garden. The flowers looks beautiful. These sequences respectfully allow the audience to fill in the gaps.

Sound is integral to the film's disturbing atmosphere. Our eyes might not witness the horror, but our ears ghive some insight with what might be occuring offscreen. Barking guard dogs, crackfire from a gun and the screams of helpless people are very harrowing. The ghastly gutteral sound of furnaces at work is also unsettling. These are all ambient sounds in the background of the Hoss family dream home. What's more, it's the norm for the children. Claus the oldest son, a collector of gold teeth, has fun at the expense of his younger brother, Hans, by locking him in the greenhouse and mockingly making the sound of hissing gas. It's rather obvious, the children know exactly what is going on beyond the proximity of their grounds.

Micha Levi's soundtrack also plays a huge part. It's minimal, and otherwordly modern, but complimentary and never out of place. Glazer bravely begins the film by focusing on nothing but a black screen for a few minutes. Once the viewer begins to adjust to the cinematic depravation, a haunting choral and a strained string arrangment can be heard in the darkness. It's followed by chirping birds and other familar woodland sounds, before the opening shot of the Höss family enjoying a day out by a picturesque lake. 

While sound plays such a large part, visually, it's a stunning looking film. For such a horrific event in history, everything looks sharp with some superb composition. High resolution close-up shots of various flora in the garden show beauty all while you're hearing the horrors past the garden wall. Another example of the contrasts Glazer utilises in the film. Certain scenes involve a young Polish girl placing apples and various other food around a construction site in the darkness of night for the starving prisoners to eat. These moments are shot with the aid of thermal vision cameras. The effect looks ultra modern and somewhat alien for a period piece, but it works remarkably well within the context of the film. 

Always annoying when all the wannabe Eberts, all-access shills, culture journos narcissists spew massive heaps of praise towards undeserving films. Words like "classic" and "masterpiece" are often unwarranted and used far too liberall. Jonathan Glazer's The Zone of Interest exemplifies these two descriptions during a time when they had real value. This is a tough and harrowing film to watch, but a supremely powerful story in modern cinema.