This past year has been a smashing hit for horror movies so far. There was “Companine” back in January, “Heart Eyes” in February, “The Woman In The Yard” from March.
April was an interesting month for horror. We got “Hell Of a Summer,” written and directed by Finn Wolfhard and Billy Bryk as their directorial debut. It wasn’t the best but wasn’t the worst.
Next was “Drop,” written by Jillian Jacobs and Chris Roach, directed by Christopher Landon. I have loved all of Christopher Landon’s films and “Drop” was no exception.
However, we are not talking about those movies. Out of all the horror movies I have seen, I want to talk about a film that was absolutely an incredible work of art. What is the movie? Let me introduce you to “The Ugly Stepsister,” written and directed by Emilie Blichfeldt and her directorial debut.
I have not seen a lot of Disney Original classics growing up. When I heard of “The Ugly Stepsister” I was originally going to watch “Cinderella” but thankfully I didn’t. This movie was pure body horror. I watched a lot of horror movies before, but this movie really got under my skin.
Elvira, our main protagonist, goes through some of the craziest body horror I have seen, from getting a nose job, to getting new eyelashes sewed on. It even goes as far as to have a tapeworm inside of her just so she could lose weight faster. She went through so much pain so she could be beautiful and marry her one true love. Every scene with her getting to be more beautiful was truly hard to watch but at the same time very sad. When we first saw her at the beginning of the film, she was already beautiful to begin with.
As I was watching the film this felt like another body horror movie I have seen, “The Substance.” Both films capture what anyone would go through just to be beautiful or young again. Both of these movies would make a good double feature.
This film was made a work of art with the directing, acting, writing, set design and costuming.
I loved the way it was set in 18th century Europe in every detail in production: the caps, cloaks, hair styles and accessories all made it look authentic. Everything about the film was gloriously done well and right.
Go see “The Ugly Stepsister” now in theaters before it’s gone. This film needs to be seen on the big screen. I hope this movie wins the 2026 Oscars. Speaking of 2026, I wonder what body horror movie we will get next and where it’s located.