The Ugly Stepsistergets its first trailer, previewing the twisted new take onCinderellawith 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 Stepsisterreviewshave been generally glowing from critics.
Ahead of the film’s theatrical release on April 18,Shuddernow releases the full trailer forThe 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 Title’s Success?
ThoughThe Ugly Stepsister’s setting sets it apart, the trailer is clearly trying to capture some of what madeThe Substancesuch a buzzy title 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 forThe Substancewere generally glowing from critics, andit managed to gross a worldwide total of $77 million, in addition to scoring five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.
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So far,The Ugly Stepsisteris beatingThe Substanceon Rotten Tomatoes, boasting a critics' score of 97% over the latter’s 89%. The former’s score, however, stems from only 39 reviews, whileThe 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 Stepsisterprobably won’t end up being quite as big with North American audiencesdue to the relative unknowns in the cast and the fact that it is presented in Norwegian, not English.
In addition to Myren,The Ugly Stepsisteralso stars Thea Sofie Loch Næss, Ane Dahl Torp, Flo Fagerli, Isac Calmroth, Malte Gårdinger, Ralph Carlsson, Adam Lundgren, Katarzyna Herman, and Willy Ramnek Petri, among others.
Blichfeldt previously addressed the comparisons betweenThe Ugly StepsisterandThe Substancein aninterview withScreenRant, 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 likeThe Substanceand theTerrifierfilms 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 anticsin multipleTerrifierfilms have caused walk-outs and vomitingat premiere screenings, and the movies ended up benefiting from this. It’s entirely possible thatThe Ugly Stepsisterwill be met with similar reactions in theaters, catching on to become a viral success.
The Ugly Stepsisteralso 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 aboutThe Ugly Stepsister, but it’s evidently one that body horror fans should keep an eye out for.
