The Ugly Stepsister
gets its first trailer, previewing the twisted new take on Cinderella with a glowing score on Rotten Tomatoes. Directed by Emilie Blichfeldt, the upcoming body horror film follows Lea Myren’s Elvira, a young woman who begins to take drastic measures to alter her appearance as she competes against her beautiful stepsister in a realm where looks are everything. Despite making an audience member vomit at its Sundance premiere earlier this year due to a few extremely graphic scenes, The Ugly Stepsister reviews have been generally glowing from critics.
Ahead of the film’s theatrical release on April 18, Shudder now releases the full trailer for The Ugly Stepsister, providing a new look at some of the movie’s stomach-turning body horror sequences. The trailer features a new look at the movie’s depiction of a brutal rhinoplasty procedure, as well as another sequence in which a character has new eyelashes sewn in. Check out the trailer below:
What The Ugly Stepsister’s Trailer Means For The Movie
Will It Repeat One 2024 тιтle’s Success?
Though The Ugly Stepsister‘s setting sets it apart, the trailer is clearly trying to capture some of what made The Substance such a buzzy тιтle last year. That film, which stars Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, features some graphic body horror sequences, but still managed to reach mainstream horror audiences. Reviews for The Substance were generally glowing from critics, and it managed to gross a worldwide total of $77 million, in addition to scoring five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.
So far, The Ugly Stepsister is beating The Substance on Rotten Tomatoes, boasting a critics’ score of 97% over the latter’s 89%. The former’s score, however, stems from only 39 reviews, while The Substance‘s score comes from 363 reviews, meaning there is likely still a lot of fluctuation to come from the Shudder film. Though both films may feature similarly graphic amounts of body horror, The Ugly Stepsister probably won’t end up being quite as big with North American audiences due to the relative unknowns in the cast and the fact that it is presented in Norwegian, not English.
It’s not clear what The Ugly Stepsister’s budget is, but it’s likely less than the modest $18 million that The Substance was made for.
Blichfeldt previously addressed the comparisons between The Ugly Stepsister and The Substance in an interview with ScreenRant, sharing positive words about the 2024 horror hit:
I think, although we’re battling the same theme as The Substance, and with some of the same, let’s say, formalistic tools of cinema-making, and the genre with the body horror, they are two very different movies, but I think it’s amazing that The Substance is trailblazing for us. There’s such a buzz for The Substance, which makes people so interested in our movie, because they’re like, “Oh my God, we understand the thing with feminism and body horror,” or beauty horror, as I like to call it.
Our Take On The Ugly Stepsister’s Trailer
The Movie Could Be The Next Viral 2025 Horror Hit
Extremely graphic body horror is generally appealing to a fairly niche audience, but movies like The Substance and the Terrifier films have certainly proven that if there’s a viral element to the film, it can catch on and benefit from word-of-mouth. In fact, Art the Clown’s antics in multiple Terrifier films have caused walk-outs and vomiting at premiere screenings, and the movies ended up benefiting from this. It’s entirely possible that The Ugly Stepsister will be met with similar reactions in theaters, catching on to become a viral success.
The Ugly Stepsister also marks Blichfeldt’s debut as a director, and it’s entirely possible that it will end up opening more doors for her, including projects with bigger budgets. Many questions remain about The Ugly Stepsister, but it’s evidently one that body horror fans should keep an eye out for.
Source: Shudder
