We often see Cinderella’s point of view. How unfair she was treated, how awful her stepmother was to her after her father died, and how miserable her life was because of her stepsisters being nasty towards her, all thanks to their mother. Made a slave in her own home. Poor Cinderella. At least she got the happy ending! A fairy godmother, a new dress, and a pumpkin that transports her to the ball, where she finds true love with the prince of the kingdom. All was right in the end for Cinderella. How wonderful!

With The Ugly Stepsister, we get a raw reimagining of events from one of the stepsisters’ points of view. Written and directed by Emilie Blichfeldt, who masterfully takes us through this version of events with a razor-sharp focus on the topic of society’s strict and outdated beauty standards, we meet Elvira (Lea Myren) amid one of her dreams, having just read from her “beloved’s” collection of poems, Prince Julian (Isac Calmroth). She, her mother, and her sister (Flo Fagerli) are in a carriage on their way to their new home, where the mother’s new husband-to-be awaits their arrival. Elvira is a cute young woman with braces that adorn her teeth and the face of a cherub with a sweet disposition (and a sweet tooth to match). Albeit, she is a teenager, so growing pains are evident, as we see she loves to snack. They arrive at the castle, greeted by Otto, the husband, and his beautiful daughter Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Naess). Elvira and Agnes seem taken with one another initially, with a smile from both of them.

Boy, does that all flip onto its head!

After Elvira’s mother, Rebekka (Ane Dahl Torp), and Agnes’s father are wed, they are eating their dinner when Otto playfully tips his plate of cake towards the mother, a tradition to mess your newly wedded partner’s face with a little cake. Instead of Otto doing so to the mom, he picks up a piece of the cake and chucks it at Elvira, and it lands squarely in her face! Everyone laughs, Elvira especially, to make things less awkward until Otto’s face is strained. A heart attack takes Otto out, and Agnes sobs profusely, but also begins to be rather mean to Elvira, who checked on her during her time of mourning. Agnes, in her mournful state, tells Elvira her father only wed Elvira’s mom for the money. Elvira tells her mom, who already has discovered this thanks to the lawyers who confiscate what little the family does have. Elvira suggests she marry, wanting to help the family. Right on time!

Cue the royal message brought to you by the prince! Looking for a bride whom he will choose at his ball. Agnes and Elvira are both given the invitations, but only Elvira’s last name is ‘Stepsister’. Quite sad and also quite shady that Agnes never told Elvira she could use her father’s last name since he did marry Elvira’s mom.

Rebekka immediately sets out to get Elvira “fixed”. She gets her braces removed, and the next scene is one of many that shows just how much a girl is willing to go through to meet the beauty standards necessary to catch a prince’s eye. One of the first procedures: nose job. This scene was difficult to take in because it is so realistic. Breaking the nose to set it and make it “better”? This is done on operating tables throughout the country, except in this film, there is NO pain relief. Elvira takes this procedure wide awake and feeling it all. Her blood-curdling screams are the evidence that beauty is pain indeed.

Elvira is still just a young woman; her body is still changing. But she is made to feel that she’s overweight, her nose not as straight and perked as it could be, her teeth a nuisance, and her child-like ways inappropriate. All of these things are painfully (and I do mean painfully) altered. When she tries her best in the finishing school, she is constantly compared to and replaced by Agnes. Agnes is clearly the one, even with her character flaws. Her outward appearance is what they all care about, and she is pushed forward repeatedly while Elvira is cast aside.

The scene where Elvira is given a locket by one of the finishing school’s instructors, Sophie von Kronenberg, was the catalyst for a change in Elvira. The locket contained an egg. A tapeworm egg. She was also given the anecdote once she achieved the weight she wanted, but the tapeworm causes Elvira to change not only in appearance, but attitude. She is no longer the sweet teenager we were introduced to; she becomes caught up in the game of being desired. Becoming cruel towards Agnes, whom she sees as her competition. Truthfully, Agnes wasn’t as kind to Elvira, however, Elvira becomes increasingly so. The pain of conforming to the beauty standards takes its toll when she finally gets to the weight they want her to be, performs the way they want her to, and looks the way they want her to, just to get into the ball to see the prince. Never mind marry, but to just get in the room!

The scenes where we witness Elvira getting these procedures done to her, Blichfeldt showcases perfectly the horrendous measures to which women go through just to conform to society’s version of beauty. Putting ourselves through hurdles, bloody and otherwise, to be seen as desirable, adored, sexy. Even if it means putting our health at great risk, which is what Elvira did, leaving the tapeworm to wreak havoc inside of her. She wanted so badly to be chosen that she harmed herself further, even after she knew who the shoe belonged to. In the end, the one person who told her the idea of listening to their mother (and largely, society) was foolish was also the person who helped her escape the hell she threw herself into.

The Ugly Stepsister is what the Brothers Grimm would’ve wanted: bloody, horrific images meant to put one in a state of unease. The use of a dreamy, soft focus filter for some of the scenes was reminiscent of films from the 70s and 80s, even the use of synth music gave a touch of camp amidst the horror. Although it has some comedic moments, it never lets you forget that this is indeed a horror. It uses body horror to deliver a hard-hitting message that is still timely, still something that we wrestle with, even with some improvements over the years. Beauty standards are always changing, but a major element remains the same: it’s unattainable. Beauty isn’t the same for everyone; we view beauty in many different ways. What may be beautiful to one isn’t the same for another. A lesson that Elvira learned all too well, and after much agony.

The Ugly Stepsister is in theaters now and will be available to stream on Shudder May 9th.