Cinderella-inspired body horror The Ugly Stepsister could be the most unsettling movie of the year

A new trailer has been released for a Cinderella-style film but with a body horror twist, so it's not quite the fairytale we're all used to watching...

The Norwegian film The Ugly Stepsister reconceptualises the famous story from a subversive angle which (as you've guessed from the title) focuses on one of Cinderella's stepsisters.

"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," the plot synopsis reads, as it provides commentary on the extreme lengths taken all for the sake of achieving beauty and success.

In an interview with Variety, the film's director Emilie Blichfeldt said: "This beauty horror twist on Cinderella is inspired by the Brothers Grimm version and by my own struggles with body image."

Her goal with the project "is to provoke both empathy and discomfort and inspire my audience to reflect upon their perceptions of, and relationship to, beauty”.

This film isn't for the fainthearted as one cinemagoer at the premiere of the opening Sundance Midnight movie vomited from watching the gruesome scenes...

So far, it's received rave reviews and currently has a 98 per cent critics score on Rotten Tomatoes.

"Contrasting how her female characters feel with the expectations men put on them, Blichfeldt makes clear that impossible beauty standards are the unfairest of them all, whether in the real world or this twisted fictional kingdom," Variety's Peter Debruge.

"Instead of whimsical romance set in the Renaissance, Blichfeldt gets graphic with the medieval torture women endure in their pursuit of happily ever after. It’s elegant, stylish, and gnarly," Bloody Disgusting's Meagan Navarro.

While Screen Rant's Mae Abdulbaki: "I found it a painful yet astute exploration of manufactured beauty and its horrifying results."

The recent trailer has sparked a lot of reaction on social media, with viewers who couldn't help but compare it to the 2024 horror film The Substance.

One person wrote: "The substance-ication of modern horror is starting…"

"Sure I’ll have some substance nachos!" another person said.

A third person posted: "I literally wrote a piece in high school about what if the main characters of the fairy tales are the villains and the side characters are the victims. So excited to see this."

"IM LITERALLY SEATED IN WAYS NEVER HAVE I EVER BEEN SEATED BEFORE," a fourth person commented.

Someone else responded: "People call this a "dark twist" on Cinderella, yet in the original tale, the stepsisters did cut their feet to fit the shoes."

Elsewhere, final Destination Bloodline trailer features a terrifying death scene, and Stephen King applauds 'bats*** insane' horror film The Monkey.

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