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Cinderella-Inspired Body Horror Movie The Ugly Stepsister Is Now Available to Stream
Prepare your stomach for The Ugly Stepsister, a body horror Cinderella story now available to watch at home.
It's an ongoing trend to make horror movies out of stories that previously received the Disney treatment. While most in this space primarily serve as shock horror, playing on the nostalgia you feel for characters you loved as a child, The Ugly Stepsister is a surprisingly meaningful commentary on its source material. The Norwegian body horror movie takes inspiration from Cinderella, which seems a more natural fit for the genre than, say, Winnie the Pooh.
Still, the movie is appropriately disgusting, with Variety reporting a vomit incident at the movie’s Sundance premiere. It currently holds a 95% score on Rotten Tomatoes, with critic Katie Rife’s review for IGN saying: "A strong stomach is non-negotiable... as The Ugly Stepsister takes the concept of suffering for beauty to graphic, nauseating extremes."
If you want to see whether your stomach can handle it, I’m happy to let you know that you can now watch The Ugly Stepsister at home.
How to Watch The Ugly Stepsister Online
The Ugly Stepsister is now streaming on Shudder, a horror-focused streaming service that starts at $7.50/month and offers a 7-day free trial. The Shudder library is also included in AMC+ memberships. If you’re not interested in another subscription, the body horror movie is available to rent or buy from digital marketplaces like Prime Video.
The transition to streaming comes less than a month after the movie arrived in U.S. theaters, but almost five months after the movie’s initial premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. The Ugly Stepsister also premiered in Norway a month before reaching North American audiences. All to say, for an independent horror movie, The Ugly Stepsister actually had a decent theatrical run.
What’s The Ugly Stepsister About?
The Ugly Stepsister (Den stygge stesøsteren in the original Norwegian) is inspired by Cinderella – the Brothers Grimm story, not the Disney movie. Per IGN's review, "The Ugly Stepsister depicts crude and agonizing cosmetic-surgery procedures that – believe it or not – are not that far off from historical reality." The blend of body horror and beauty standards has also drawn some comparisons to last year's The Substance. Here’s The Ugly Stepsister's official synopsis:
The Ugly Stepsister Cast and Characters
The Ugly Stepsister is writer-director Emilie Blichfeldt’s first feature film. The movie stars the following actors:
- Lea Myren as Elvira
- Thea Sofie Loch Næss as Agnes
- Ane Dahl Torp as Rebekka, the stepmother
- Flo Fagerli as Alma
- Isac Calmroth as Prince Julian
- Malte Gårdinger as Isak
- Ralph Carlsson as Otto
- Isac Aspberg as The Feinschmecker
- Albin Weidenbladh as The Omnivorous
- Oksana Czerkasyna as Cook
- Katarzyna Herman as Madame Vanja
- Adam Lundgren as Dr. Esthétique
- Willy Ramnek Petri as Frederik von Bluckfish
- Cecilia Forss as Sophie von Kronenberg
Blythe (she/her) is an SEO Coordinator at IGN who spends way too much time in character customization screens and tracking down collectibles.
