The 2025 Sundance Festival has officially started and one of the films featured this year is already making audiences nauseous.
According to several reports from people who were present during the world premiere of The Ugly Stepsister, one viewer leaned over and vomited on the floor, per Variety. The outlet even shared a (non-graphic) photo on X showing a "caution: wet floor" sign in the spot where the person presumably lost their dinner.
During the #Sundance premiere of “The Ugly Stepsister,” a moviegoer leaned over into the aisle and vomited.
— Variety (@Variety) January 24, 2025
Emilie Blichfeldt’s body horror film has several scenes of crude cosmetic surgery, including its protagonist eating a tapeworm, sewing in eyelashes and enduring a… pic.twitter.com/iNfvbxjvDp
The Norwegian horror movie premiered as Sundance's opening Midnight movie. A twisted Cinderella reimagining, the film centers on a woman named Elvira who is determined to "earn the prince's affection at any cost," even if that means undergoing experimental beauty treatments and mutilating herself in the process. Funnily enough, this is in line with the Brothers Grimm version of the old folk tale, where Cinderella's stepsisters cut off their toes in an attempt to fit into the iconic glass slipper.
But The Ugly Stepsister from director Emilie Blichfeldt takes the idea much further. Variety says the movie is not for the squeamish and includes sickening scenes involving Elvira eating a tapeworm, sewing eyelashes into her lids, and undergoing dangerous cosmetic surgery procedures, such as a "barbaric rhinoplasty."
The Sundance description teases that The Ugly Stepsister replaces "fairy tale silkworms" with tapeworms, so I'm assuming that particular scene will end up being one of the grossest in the movie. At the behest of her power-hungry mother, Elvira will do whatever it takes to become beautiful and obtain her happily ever after.
A photo shared from the film shows Elvira sporting an archaic mask to support her nose post-procedure, and another depicts a doctor and nurse seemingly preparing to perform one of these cosmetic surgeries on a patient.
Early reviews of The Ugly Stepsister have been very positive, with critics praising the gruesomeness and its commentary on societal beauty standards. There has been a female body horror recent trend in the horror genre as of late, with films like The Substance, The Ugly Stepsister, and Grafted all taking shots at the cultural pressures women have faced for generations.
Blichfeldt's film premiered at Sundance and will debut in Norway on March 7, 2025. Shudder has already acquired the rights to the film, so we can expect it to begin streaming on the horror-centric platform sometime later this year.
Stay tuned to 1428 Elm for more news and updates on this movie and all things horror.