Editor’s Note: Freeline Media’s movie critic, Mike Fried, takes a look at a new horror flick playing on Hulu inspired by a classic fairy tale, and it’s one that gets …. ugly. Is that good or bad?
By MIKE FRIED
THE UGLY STEPSISTER
*** 1/2
“One Shoe to Rule Them All.”
The earliest variant of the Cinderella story is from sometime between 7 BC and 23 AD. I prefer the version put forth by Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm because of its darkness.
Obviously, writer-director Emilie Blichfeldt must favor the Grimm version as well because this Norwegian film is anything but sweet.
A widow, Rebekka, marries a man, Otto, hoping that the blending of their families will increase their individual wealth. Rebekka is the mother of two plain daughters, Elvira and Alma. Otto is the father of Agnes, a beautiful young woman. When Otto dies unexpectedly, they find out that neither family has wealth. When they learn that Prince Julian is holding a Royal Ball to find a wife, Rebekka decides to have Elvira and Agnes vie for Prince Julian’s hand.
But that’s where the similarity to the Disney and other popular versions ends. Elvira has a primitive nose job and eats a tapeworm egg in order to lose weight. And when she encounters Prince Julian in the woods, she is disappointed when he says he’d never have sex with her. But still her daydreams persist. When Agnes is found having sex with a stable boy, that boy is fired and Agnes is made into a servant called Cinderella.
What Blichfeldt has created is a humorous black comedy of manners and infuses it with body horror elements. She was obviously influenced by David Cronenberg. A surgeon who performs primitive cosmetic work touts his work as “Beauty is Pain.”
This movie is not for the gore-averse. When Elvira gets eyelash enhancements, Blichfeldt shows us the procedure up close and with a little too much graphic detail … but it’s suffused with humor. The sound of Elvira’s stomach gurgling from hunger and the tapeworm (so she could fit into her ball gown) had me giggling throughout the film.
Blichfeldt has turned a beloved fairy tale into a wondrous nightmare. And yet, the technical expertise employed in this film has nabbed the movie an Oscar Nomination for Best Makeup and Hairstyling. There’s a terrifically funny running gag regarding dead Otto that undoubtedly was the reason for the nomination. But wait, there’s more!!!
Lea Myren is absolutely captivating as Elvira. She inhabits the film entirely, commanding every scene she appears in. But matching her is Thea Sofie Loch Næss who plays the titular character, Agnes/Cinderella. Ane Dahl Torp, who plays the evil stepmother, is equally terrific as she has shown in the movies The Wave and The Quake. And in a smaller but pivotal role, Flo Fagerli is terrific as Elvira’s younger sister Alma.
And as it draws to its conclusion, it is clear that Blichfeldt is using the fairy tale motif as a metaphor for the demanding and unfair pressure that society puts on women to look their very best and the lengths women will go to fit today’s definitions of “beauty.”
It’s not a great film, but it is a really good fun horror version of an old tyme classic — and what’s better than that?
WATCH IT (and the post credit scene)!
Michael Fried has no formal training in movies, except having watched over 26,000+ movies — if not more — in his 60-plus years on this planet, starting with Goldfinger as his first cinema experience. He knows what he likes and he knows what he doesn’t like, and it’s quite often different from the conventional wisdom. He knows that the best franchise is Godzilla and he loves action movies and comedies. He has not been nominated for any awards except some boring insurance awards which has no applicability to movies (with the possible exceptions of Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity and John Cassavettes’ Big Trouble). He is part of a team that won the 1980 SUNY Albany Trivia content by correctly guessing the question, “Who played the president of Klopstockia in Million Dollar Legs?” So he has that going for him, which is nice.
Contact Mike at moviemike3@yahoo.com and mike.fried@yahoo.com.
