The Ugly Stepsister

"The Ugly Stepsister is a brilliant body horror comedy that takes a macabrely fun twist on the classic Cinderella tale from the perspective of one of the stepsisters. Elvira (Lea Myren), an unattractive young woman, dreams of marrying the prince of the kingdom, but her life takes a turn when her mother marries a widower (who has a beautiful daughter). He dies on the wedding night, and they discover he actually had no money. Facing financial difficulties, the mother decides she will do whatever it takes to marry Elvira off to the prince, but first, she must subject her to increasingly brutal and painful treatments and training in the name of beauty. Very much in the vein of The Substance, this film reflects on the misogyny underlying beauty standards, and the extremes to which many people are willing to go to achieve them, here represented in literal violence with shocking imagery. Read more in the full review of The Ugly Stepsister."