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Body horror is all the rage in the horror genre right now and 2025 has multiple films within the subgenre lined up, which makes sense after how successful last year's The Substance became. We've got the new film from Dave Franco and Alison Brie releasing this summer and the brutal Cinderella re-imagining The Ugly Stepsister will be out in April.

This week, horror fans were treated to several new trailers for highly-anticipated movies like the aforementioned films and the long-awaited first look at The Toxic Avenger reboot. Check them out below.

The Toxic Avenger

The 2023 black comedy film The Toxic Avenger, a reboot of the original splatter film franchise of the same name, is finally releasing in theaters later this year after an arduous hunt to find a suitable distributor due to the film's gory content.

At one point, there were fears this movie would never see the light of day...

The Ugly Stepsister takes fairy tales to a whole new level of horror. This film is set to redefine horror reimaginings of classic stories. This Norwegian horror film offers a disturbing reimagining of Cinderella, exploring the nightmarish extremes of 19th-century beauty standards. With no anesthesia and questionable results, plastic surgery in this era was truly horrifying, and this film does not shy away from its gruesome reality. Last year, we saw two horror adaptations of Cinderella—Cinderella’s Revenge and Cinderella’s Curse—both of which reimagined Cinderella as the killer. Now, it’s her stepsister’s turn to take the spotlight in this gruesome tale. A Chilling Directorial Debut Marking the feature film debut of writer-director Emilie Blichfeldt, known for her work in short films, The Ugly Stepsister is a bold and grotesque addition to the body horror genre. The film stars Lea Myren as Elvira, the titular stepsister,...

A trailer for the upcoming sinister fairy tale horror film “The Ugly Stepsister” has made its way to us as the new pic is gearing up for an exciting April 18 launch in theaters.

Lea Myren, Thea Sofie Loch Næss, and Ane Dahl Torp star in lead roles for the satirical body horror film that hails from writer/director Emilie Blichfeldt and is the feature film debut of the promising filmmaker.

Continue reading ‘The Ugly Stepsister’ Trailer: Sinister Sundance Fairy Tale Horror Pic Opens April 18 Via Shudder at The Playlist.

It has been less than a week since they announced the release date and IFC Films and Shudder have wasted no time following up that announcement with the trailer premiere for Emilie Blichfeldt's fantasy satire horror The Ugly Stepsister.    The rest is filler, get cracking on that trailer, down below.    IFC Films and Shudder are proud to present The Ugly Stepsister, a darkly entertaining fairy tale horror from writer and director Emilie Blichfeldt in her feature directorial debut. The film gathered acclaim at its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and at the Berlin International Film Festival. IFC Films and Shudder will release the film theatrically on April 18th.   A sinister twist on the classic Cinderella story, The Ugly Stepsister follows...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

"Vicious. Unrelenting. Horrifying. Intense." Shudder + IFC Films have revealed the official US trailer for a freaky new body horror from Norway titled The Ugly Stepsister, marking the feature directorial debut of genre filmmaker Emilie Blichfeldt. This first premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival a few months ago and was heralded as one of the big horror hits of the festival, stirring up audiences (and even causing one person to puke during a screening). Arriving in US theaters to watch this April - they're banking on it being a big theatrical hit just like The Substance (the trailer is very similar to that) and it might just catch on. Determined to outshine her beautiful stepsister, Elvira resorts to extreme measures to win the prince's heart in this dark re-imagining of the Cinderella fairy tale. More praise: "A biting satire and cinematically exhilarating directorial debut, The Ugly Stepsister is a timely examination...

The official trailer for the upcoming Cinderella-inspired horror comedy The Ugly Stepsisteris out! Starring Lea Myren, Thea Sofie Loch Næss, Flo Fagerli, and Ane Dahl Torp in prominent roles, the film is a dark retelling of the classic fairytale. The Ugly Stepsister follows Elivira, played by Myren as she competes with her stepsister for a prince’s attention. The trailer offers a glimpse at how far Elvira goes to outshine everyone else in a world where beauty is everything.

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.

If you are looking for a bit more bite in your fairy tale adaptations, a few weeks after Disney’s Snow White sputters to theaters, the Sundance and Berlinale selection The Ugly Stepsister is here to provide quite a jolt. Emilie Blichfeldt’s bloody, twisted new take on Cinderella will arrive in U.S. theaters on April 18 (and U.K. theaters a week later) and now the first trailer has arrived from IFC Films and Shudder.

Here’s the synopsis: “A sinister twist on the classic Cinderella story, The Ugly Stepsister follows Elvira (Lea Myren) as she prepares to earn the prince’s affection at any cost. In a kingdom where beauty is a brutal business, Elvira will compete with the beautiful and enchanting Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Næss) to become the belle of the ball.”

I said in my Sundance review, “If the disheartening lack of creativity in Disney...

A twisted take on the tale of Cinderella, the upcoming Norwegian body horror movie The Ugly Stepsister isn’t like other recent movies that have been putting a horror movie spin on family-friendly properties. The darkly entertaining fairy tale from Norwegian writer and director Emilie Blichfeldt is critically acclaimed, for starters, and it even made someone vomit already!

Fresh off the film’s premiere at Sundance, where it indeed made headlines after making one person in the audience vomit, the film is being released in theaters from IFC Films and Shudder on April 18, 2025. Watch the official trailer for The Ugly Stepsister below.

A sinister twist on the classic Cinderella story, The Ugly Stepsister follows Elvira (Lea Myren) as she prepares to earn the prince’s affection at any cost.

In a kingdom where beauty is a brutal business, Elvira will compete with the beautiful and enchanting Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Næss...

A lot of children’s stories and fairy tales are getting the horror treatment these days – but fairy tale-inspired horror comedy that we’re hearing some very positive buzz about is director Emilie Blichfeldt’s feature debut The Ugly Stepsister. In fact, after seeing the film at the Sundance Film Festival, JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray gave it an 8/10 review that you can read at This Link. We don’t know when the film is going to receive a wider release in North America (it will be in UK cinemas as of April 25), but a trailer has made its way online and can be seen in the embed above.

The Ugly Stepsister is said to be a gory, daring, and unexpected take on the world-famous tale, seen through the eyes of Cinderella’s stepsister, Elvira. The story follows Elvira as she battles to compete with her insanely beautiful stepsister in...

Paradise City Sales (rebranded from Memento International) has closed more deals for “The Ugly Stepsister,” Emilie Blichfeldt’s Cinderella-inspired horror film that premiered at Sundance and turned out to be one of the festival’s buzziest titles.

Previously acquired in a raft of territories, including North America, the U.K. and Australia/New Zealand with Shudder, “The Ugly Stepsister” was acquired for Benelux and Turkey (Mubi),

Italy (I Wonder Pictures), Greece (The Film Group), Ex- Yugoslavia (Discovery Films), Czech Republic and Slovakia (Bionaut / Zero Gravity), Ukraine (Svoekino), Bulgaria (Beta Film), South Korea (Happy Song),

Taiwan (Filmware International), Singapore (Shaw Organisation), Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos (Est N8) and Africa (What the Hero Wants). Paradise City Sales, whose team is led by Alexandre Moreau, is in negotiations to close the Middle East and India.

“The Ugly Stepsister” follows Elvira as she prepares to earn the prince’s affection at any cost.

The Cinderella-inspired horror movie The Ugly Stepsister (Den stygge stesøsteren)officially sets its 2025 release date. The film, written and directed by Emilie Blichfeldt, is a dark and twisted take on the fairy tale, following Elvira (Lea Myren), a young woman desperate to earn the prince’s affection. In the 19th-century kingdom where beauty is paramount, Elvira undergoes intense surgery to compete against the enchanting Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Næss). Featuring grotesque body horror, decomposing corpses, and a satirical critique of the beauty industry, the Norwegian-language film is reminiscent of other notable boundary-pushing horror films like The Substance.

According to Fangoria, The Ugly Stepsister has received an official release date of April 18, when it will hit theaters nationwide via IFC Films and Shudder. The indie film first made headlines after its premiere at Sundance earlier this year, where its unrelenting gore—from someone eating a live tapeworm to the primitive surgery...

IFC Films and Shudder have announced the theatrical date for Emilie Blichfeldt's feature directorial debut, The Ugly Stepsister. The dark satire and fairy tale horror flick from Norway will arrive in cinemas on April 18th.    Elvira battles against her gorgeous stepsister in a realm where beauty reigns supreme. She resorts to extreme measures to captivate the prince, amidst a ruthless competition for physical perfection.   Our own Mel caught The Ugly Stepsister at Sundance this year. He concluded his review with these words.   Reminiscent of Coralie Fargeat (Revenge) and her Oscar-nominated horror satire, The Substance, The Ugly Stepsister leans hard, possibly too hard for the easily revolted or repulsed, into Cronenbergian body horror. By turns gross, grotesque, and utterly disgusting, The Ugly Stepsister...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

There are multiple exciting horror movies still to come this March, but April is also starting to look like another fantastic month for the genre with films like Drop already receiving praise and an official theatrical release date for the fairytale body horror movie The Ugly Stepsister.

1428 Elm has learned The Ugly Stepsister will begin playing in select theaters on April 18. Marking the directorial debut of writer/director Emilie Blichfeldt, The Ugly Stepsister premiered at this year's Sundance Festival and apparently included some scenes so disturbing, someone vomited during the screening.

What made them get sick? Well, The Ugly Stepsister is a horror take on the classic tale of Cinderella. The lead character, Elvira (Lea Myren), is determined to win the prince's favor and she'll do anything to do it, including undergoing some truly brutal cosmetic procedures. Among them include a rough rhinoplasty, a scene where the protagonist eats a tapeworm,...

Fresh off the film’s premiere at Sundance, where it made headlines after making one person in the audience vomit, the Norwegian body horror movie The Ugly Stepsister now has a release date from IFC Films and Shudder. The darkly entertaining fairy tale horror film from Norwegian writer and director Emilie Blichfeldt will release in theaters on April 18, 2025.

A sinister twist on the classic Cinderella story, The Ugly Stepsister follows Elvira (Lea Myren) as she prepares to earn the prince’s affection at any cost.

In a kingdom where beauty is a brutal business, Elvira will compete with the beautiful and enchanting Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Næss) to become the belle of the ball.

The Ugly Stepsister marks the feature debut from Norwegian writer and director Emilie Blichfeldt, and stars Lea Myren and Thea Sofie Loch Næss alongside Ane Dahl Torp.

“The Ugly Stepsister turns a classic fairytale inside out...

Dag Johan Haugerud’s “Love” was one of the 17 films which had their French premiere at the inaugural edition of the festival Visions Nordiques – French Nordic Film Days.

The fest is taking place March 5-9 across several locations in Paris, including the Grand Action theater; as well as the industry programme and co-production workshop taking place at Cnc and the Institut Suedois. Tributes were hosted for Lars von Trier and Aki Kaurismäki with the screenings of “Breaking the Waves” and “Le Havre.” The film lineup comprised “Love,” which premiered at Venice (and was followed by the Berlinale Golden Bear winner “Dreams (Sex Love)); Baltasar Kormákur’s “Touch,” Eirik Svensson’s “Safe House;” Lilja Ingolfsdottir’s “Loveable;” and Frida Kempff’s “The Swedish Topedo,” among others.

The event is jointly organized by The Five Nordics, France’s National Film Board, with the support of the Nordic Council of Ministers and the Embassies of Denmark,...

The Boston Underground Film Festival returns for its 25th annual celebration of all things weird, wicked, and wonderful, running from March 19–23 at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, Ma.

The festival will host the world premieres of the new Re-Animator 4K restoration with horror legend Barbara Crampton in attendance and Alma & The Wolf with director Michael Patrick Jann (Drop Dead Gorgeous).

There are also regional premieres of The Surfer starring Nicolas Cage, Irish folk-horror Fréwaka, hallucinogenic odyssey Fucktoys, twisted Cinderella story The Ugly Stepsister, absurdist sci-fi comedy Escape from the 21st Century, and the new Texas Chain Saw Massacre documentary Chain Reactions, among others.

Whether you want premieres, genre-bending insanity, or the sheer joy of descending into the darkness with fellow weirdos, Buff 2025 promises a high-voltage lineup of films, special guests, and late-night delirium.

Feature Film Line Up

The Surfer – East Coast Premiere (Opening Night Film)

Director: Lorcan Finnegan

Australia, Ireland,...

The 13th annual Panic Fest runs from March 27 – April 6, 2025, and we’ve got the exclusive info on some exciting new additions today along with the festival’s full lineup.

Presented by IFC Films, for starters, Clown in a Cornfield and The Ugly Stepsister will close out the in-person festival on Wednesday, April 2nd.

Also joining the lineup; Roadside Attractions’ new Nicolas Cage beach thriller The Surfer; Psychosexual horror-comedy from Addison Heimann, Touch Me; Soul Reaper, an Indonesian horror that flirts with being a modern-day Dream Warriors; director Izzy Lee’s nightmare trip, House of Ashes; a twisty found footage film from director Steven Hugh Nelson, Old Wounds; and Hungarian psychological thriller Tomorrow I Die directed by Nikol Cibulya.

Panic Fest will also be bringing back well-loved events like its signature Friday Filmmaker Mixer and Saturday Night Karaoke in Rewind Video and Dive, presented by Shudder.

The hybrid festival kicks off...

Exclusive: The Sonoma International Film Festival announced the lineup for the 28th annual edition of the event, running March 19-23 in California’s bucolic wine country. Kicking off the festival will be the world premiere of Sweet Störy, a documentary that follows “a heartfelt journey to save a charming café” on a remote Swedish island.

Siff also will feature the world premieres of Roush Niaghi and Greg Morris’s Ali Eats America; Fernando Guillermo Barreda Luna’s Cafe Chairel, and Fatal Watch, directed by Mark Benjamin and Katie Carpenter. The festival will host the North American premiere of Dreams, the film directed by Dag Johan Haugerud that won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival last month.

Daisy Edgar-Jones in ‘On Swift Horses’

The Siff Centerpiece Film will be the California premiere of On Swift Horses, the drama starring Daisy Edgar-Jones and Jacob Elordi that’s based on the Shannon Pufahi novel.

Exclusive: Saudi director Haifaa Al Mansour’s thriller Unidentified has secured distribution in a raft of territories out of the European Film Market.

Paris-based Paradise City Film, which recently rebranded from Memento International, has unveiled pre-sales to France (Kmbo), Spain, Italy (Eagle Pictures), Benelux (Imagine Film), Scandinavia (Triart Film) and Greece (Cinobo).

Unidentified marks Al Mansour’s first movie in her native Saudi Arabia since the 2019 drama The Perfect Candidate and reunites her with its star Mila Al Zahrani.

The film is currently in post-production and is expected to launch as a major film festival over the summer.

The European deals follow hot-on-the heels of Sony Pictures Classics’ multi-territory acquisition of rights for North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Turkey, Australia, New Zealand, and worldwide airlines, announced ahead of the EFM.

Unidentified takes its cue from the discovery of the lifeless body of a teenage girl...

Paris-based sales outfit Memento International has rebranded as Paradise City Sales and will operate under Emilie Georges and Naima Abed’s Paris and London-based Paradise City banner moving forward.

The sales arm aims to board projects from early stages produced by Paradise City like Anthony Chen’s 2023 Sundance title Drift starring Cynthia Erivo, and Hailey Gates’ Sundance Jury Grand Prize-winning Atropia, on which Paradise City is a producer. It will continue to acquire some 10 films per year from independent producers and balance emerging talent with established filmmakers.

Paradise City Sales is at EFM with Hungarian filmmaker Lili Horvát’s English-language...

Memento Intl., the well-established Paris-based international sales company behind “Call Me by Your Name,” is rebranding as Paradise City Sales and is bringing “My Notes on Mars,” starring Greta Lee and Andrew Scott, to the EFM.

Emilie Georges, who founded Memento Intl. 20 years ago, launched the production vehicle Paradise City a few years ago with London-based Naima Abed. The pair have had great success with the pics they delivered, notably 2025 Sundance hit ”Atropia,” starring Alia Shawkat and Channing Tatum, and Anthony Chen’s 2023 drama ”Drift,” with Cynthia Erivo. “My Notes of Mars,” Hungarian director Lili Horvát’s English-language debut feature, is the latest co-production on Paradise City’s slate.

The rebranding comes at a pivotal time as Georges and Abed seek to build a closer bond between production and sales. As such, the sales outlet will now operate under the same Paradise City banner, which has offices in Paris and London,...

“Cinderella” meets Cronenberg in writer-director Emilie Blichfeldt’s The Ugly Stepsister, which locates new potency in an enduring folk tale through a simple shifting of perspective, namely to that of the titular stepsister. This Scandinavian reconfiguring of “Cinderella” isn’t interested in reclaiming or rehabilitating this archetype. Instead, Blichfeldt just wants to recognize the character in all her humanity and hubris.

Elvira (Lea Myren) is no gargoyle; she’s just gawky in the way that any teenager would be. However, her family’s finances make it such that she needs to will her fantasy of marrying a prince into reality. To increase Elvira’s marriage odds over those of her angelic, blond stepdaughter, Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Næss), the newly widowed matriarch Rebekka (Ane Dahl Torp) insists upon an overhaul of her biological daughter’s physical features.

The Ugly Stepsister locates the origins of contemporary beauty culture in centuries-old practices.

Feminist body horror is taking over indie cinema.

The female filmmakers behind this new wave of flesh and flash are finding critical and commercial success by combining the viscerally grotesque with progressive themes exploring bodily autonomy, beauty standards, and social expectations for women.

Coralie Fargeat’s indie blockbuster The Substance — which has earned $77 million worldwide and picked up 5 Oscar nominations — is the current queen of female body horror, but gross-out feminist films are everywhere. Sundance’s Midnight screenings this year included Emilie Blichfeldt’s The Ugly Stepsister — a twisted take on the Cinderella story involving bone-crunching cosmetic surgery and bodily mutilation — and Grace Glowicki’s Dead Lover, a horror comedy about a gravedigger (Glowicki) who goes to macabre lengths in an attempt to re-animate her deceased mate.

Berlin’s lineup features Johanna Moder’s Mother’s Baby, a German-language psychological horror movie about a woman unsure if the baby she’s...

The 2025 awards season may still be a few weeks from its final hurrah, but it’s already had an impact on the film industry as buyers and sellers prepare to congregate once more at the European Film Market in Berlin.

With a lineup of Oscar frontrunners that includes “The Brutalist,” “Anora,” “The Substance” and “Emilia Pérez” — coupled with some impressive box office figures that look only set to grow — this year’s race has highlighted the desire of cinemagoers for bold, director-driven, out-of-the-ordinary fare.

“When you look at ‘Emilia Pérez’ and ‘I’m Still Here’ and ‘The Substance,’ those films are unique, they told some of the best stories and bring a unique perspective on something,” said Scott Shooman, head of AMC Networks’ Film Group which encompasses IFC Films.

For Shooman, the EFM is exactly the place where international buyers respond to these types of packages — led by creatively minded directors.

Body horror continues its hot streak, as Deadline reports today that “Salem” star Janet Montgomery has been set to lead the sci-fi body horror feature Symbiosis.

Mark Heller (The Passage) directs from a screenplay by Stephen James Thompson.

In Symbiosis, “a husband-and-wife team are working over Christmas as the only two people who can save humanity from an alien parasite — tiny tapeworm creatures which have invaded the bodies of the human race. Isolated and suffocating under the weight of their circumstances, the fault lines of the married couple’s relationship are exposed.”

Just the mention of tapeworms is enough to get the gag reflex warmed up.

Janet Montgomery said of the project, “When I read Symbiosis, I knew I had to be part of this unique story. The intimate exploration of a relationship on the brink set in a dystopian world makes the role of Yulia such a fascinating and complex human story.

There’s a startlingly disturbing moment in Norwegian filmmaker Emilie Blichfeldt’s brilliantly inverted fairy/folk tale, The Ugly Stepsister (orig. Den stygge stesøsteren), where the unfortunate title character, Elvira (Lea Myren), the dutiful daughter of a penniless social climber, undergoes an 18th century version of a rhinoplasty (nasal reconstruction) without an anesthetic of any kind. As the aptly named Dr. Esthétique (Adam Lundgren), a sadistic surgeon, takes hammer and wedge to Elvira’s presumably imperfect nose, each tap echoes loudly on the soundtrack, followed by Elvira’s sharp cry of physical pain, emotional agony, and mental anguish. Following the familiar parameters of narrative cinema, the audience and Elvira, however briefly, are united in her tortured experience. Facing her mother Rebekka's (Ane Dahl Torp) impossible expectations, Elvira will go...

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“The Ugly Stepsister” — the Cinderella-inspired horror that emerged from Sundance as one of the festival’s buzziest titles — has sold worldwide for Memento International.

From director Emilie Blichfeldt and a beauty-horror reimagining of the classic fairy tale — the film already sold to Shudder for North America, the U.K. and Australia-New Zealand before it’s world premiere in Park City, while Mer Film and Scanbox will release it in Scandinavia.

The film has also now sold to Esc FIlms (France), Capelight (Germany and Austria), Beta Films (Spain), Lev Cinema (Israel), Ads (Hungary), Cay Films (Romania), Cine Canibal (Latin America), New Select (Japan), House of M (Thailand), Pt Falcon (Indonesia), Estin Film (Baltics) and Vendetta Filmes (Portugal). Negotiations are reportedly ongoing in Italy, Greece and Ukraine, among others.

“The Ugly Stepsister” follows Elvira as she prepares to earn the prince’s affection at any cost. In a kingdom where beauty is a brutal business,...

Sundance is a place for discovery, where new stars are minted because of the fresh, invigorating images they bring to the screen. It was where Steven Soderbergh helped kick off the indie film revolution in 1989 with “sex, lies, and videotape” and Quentin Tarantino launched “Reservoir Dogs” in 1992. They showed that, at Sundance, if you have something to say, you can have a seat at the table.

This year, that daring new voice belongs to Eva Victor, whose comedic character study “Sorry, Baby,” about a young professor reeling from a trauma, sold to A24 for $8 million. “Sorry, Baby” also has the distinction of placing first in many of the categories in IndieWire’s 2025 Sundance Critics Survey, including Best Performance (for Victor herself), Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best First Film, and Best Film itself.

Though “Sorry, Baby” was the undeniable favorite across the board at Sundance 2025, our critics survey shared the love...

This year’s edition of the Sundance Film Festival felt a touch bittersweet to me. You see, Sundance is on the verge of relocating, with it increasingly unlikely that it will continue in Park City past the 2026 festival edition. Having been going to Sundance since 2010 (where does the time go), I must admit I felt a little sad sitting in some of the classic Sundance spots this year, like the Holiday Village Cinemas (where all the press screenings are) and the classic Eccles theatre, as after next year that might be the end of their run as premium Sundance spots. I’ve seen so many classics in these theatres, and it will be a shame to bid adieu to Park City.

Oh well, at least we have the 2026 edition to look forward to. As it is, the 2025 edition turned out to be the best edition of the festival since it was rocked by the pandemic.

An Ozempic allegory, a feminist takedown of Disney princess stories, and Coralie Fargeat’s Cinderella will be among the interpretations thrust upon “The Ugly Stepsister.” Norwegian filmmaker Emilie Blichfeldt’s horror dramedy is largely entertaining on its own terms, even for viewers unwilling to dig deeper. Its modernist meta-textual caustic sting? You can take it or leave it. But it will richly reward those in tune with Blichfeldt’s gleeful bastardization of fairytale tropes.

Continue reading ‘The Ugly Stepsister’ Review: A Body Horror Take On Cinderella, By Way Of Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance [Sundance] at The Playlist.

Memento International has taken on international sales rights for Shatara Michelle Ford’s second feature Dreams In Nightmares, a road movie about a trio of queer Black friends on a life-changing journey that will play in Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama selection.

The film follows the three protagonists as they set off across the US on a search to find a missing fourth friend, revealing truths about themselves and contemporary American society along the way. It stars Denée Benton, Sasha Compère, Charlie Barnett, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mars Storm Rucker and Dezi Bing.

Ford produces alongside Pin-Chun Liu of US/Taiwan outfit 120E Films,...

At Sunday night’s premiere of “Together,” a body-horror film starring real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie, the Eccles Theatre erupted with shrieks, nervous laughter and cries of “Oh, shit!” Sundance audiences couldn’t get enough of the gory madness unfolding on-screen, and word quickly spread that “Together,” with its twisty look at relationships and gross-out set-pieces, had all the elements of an indie breakout. Studios and streamers, including A24 and Neon, started circling the film, trying to one-up each other in a feverish effort to land the buzzy project. The festival was already well underway, but it finally seemed like old times.

Before Covid upended things, leaving the indie film business that Sundance showcases struggling to regain its footing, the festival routinely hosted fierce bidding wars of the kind “Together” inspired. But with ticket sales in a rut, entertainment companies have been hesitant to hand out big...

Memento International has scored a wave of deals for “Gazer,” a neo-noir psychological thriller by Ryan J.Sloan which had its world premiere at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight.

Set in New Jersey, the paranoia thriller was lensed in 16mm stock, and stars Ariella Mastronianni as Frankie, a young mother with a rare degenerative brain condition called dyschronometria. Struggling to perceive time, she uses cassette tapes for guidance and is unable to find steady work with her condition. When a mysterious woman offers her a risky job, she takes it, unaware of the dark consequences that await.

“Gazer” picked up by Rialto Distribution for Australia & New Zealand, Gulf Film for the Middle East, Av-Jet International for Taiwan, Pt Falcon for Indonesia, Feather Stone for Vietnam and Skeye for Airlines. The movie was previously acquired in North America by Metrograph Pictures who will set a theatrical rollout across the U.S. and Canada on Feb.

Plot: Elvira (Lea Myren) has one all-consuming obsession: to win the affection of her kingdom’s handsome prince and live happily ever after. Yet, she lives in the shadow of her beautiful step-sister, Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Næss), who seems fated for the happy ending she’s always dreamed of. But, in a kingdom where beauty is prized above all things, Elvira will get what she wants, no matter what…

Review: The Ugly Stepsister is the gruesome, body horror Cinderella reimagining you never knew you wanted. Given the many variations on the classic tale, it’s incredible to think that we’ve never gotten a hard-r-rated flick in the vein of The Brothers Grimm’s version of the story. Let’s not forget that the take on Cinderella ends with the evil stepsisters mutilating their feet to fit into Cinderella’s slipper. Director Emilie Blichfeldt conjures up a version that...

The Ugly Stepsister, Blichtfeldt’s debut feature — which premiered at Sundance and will screen in the Panorama section at the Berlinale — reframes the classic fairy tale through the Pov of Cinderella’s sibling and her horrifying quest to achieve the beauty she sees as required for love and acceptance.

Taking equal parts inspiration from the Brothers Grimm — whose version of Cinderella includes the stepsisters mutilating their feet to fit the famed slipper and fool the prince — and from the visceral gore of David Cronenberg, Blichtfeldt’s film is a further addition to a new wave of feminist body horror and would make a nice double bill with Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance. In place of the high-tech, Ozymepic-esque injections Demi Moore subjects herself to in Fargeat’s film, we have a low-tech parasite, in the form of a tapeworm egg which the stepsister Elvira (Lea Myren) swallows to make her thin.

Emilie Blichfeldt’s “The Ugly Stepsister” launches with a hammer striking bone, departing from traditional fairy tale openings. This Cinderella narrative shatters expectations, transforming the classic story into a visceral feminist allegory infused with body horror. The film exists in a surreal Swedlandia, blending 19th-century aesthetics with anachronistic elements—harpsichords mingle with electronic sounds, while questionable medical practitioners sell tapeworms as weight loss solutions.

Blichfeldt crafts a dissonant visual landscape where decaying mansions radiate rococo extravagance, and neon-lit schools train girls to contort themselves into living sculptures. The “ugly” stepsister emerges not as a villain, but as a victim trapped within a system that equates feminine identity with self-destruction.

The film peels away fairy tale romanticism, exposing the brutal mechanisms of patriarchal control. Its most chilling aspect emerges through a stark exploration of female value measured by suffering. The prince’s ball becomes a grotesque auction where young women are evaluated like commodities,...

Everyone knows Cinderella’s story: A young woman, indentured to a cruel stepmother, gets blessed by magical forces. With the help of a fairy, some woodland creatures and a transformed pumpkin, Cinderella, as popularized by the Brothers Grimm, Perrault and Disney, woos a prince and lives happily ever after. But what of her stepsisters, the bullies who we believe deserved their comeuppance? Surely, they have their own tale?

In The Ugly Stepsister, Norwegian director Emilie Blichfeldt recasts the story of these “ugly” young women as a horrifying quest for beauty. Recall, in the Brothers Grimm story, how one of the stepsisters, in a grisly attempt to fit into the famed slipper, takes a knife to her toes. Blichfeldt indulges in this gruesome atmosphere and considers what other ways a young woman might mutilate herself for acceptance. On the heels of Coralie Fargeat’s beauty-body horror The Substance, The Ugly Stepsister...

Because I will be covering the 2025 Sundance Film Festival entirely from snowy, frozen Chicago instead of snowy, frozen Park City, my screening options are limited. Only a select few films opted in to the festival’s online offerings this year, which means The A.V. Club won’t be getting a...

On paper, according to the Brothers Grimm, Cinderella was a long-suffering girl who was terrorized by her beautiful stepsisters and stepmother, and her eventual marriage to the prince is a welcome reprieve from a life of hard work and servitude. However, through the years, thanks in large part to Disney and later interpretations of the story, Cinderella remained the delicate and dutiful daughter, but her father conveniently dies now, and her step-sisters are ugly. Modern interpretations of Cinderella turn her into a Mary Sue, a character without any real flaws and perfect in every way. In The Ugly Stepsister, director Emilie Blichfeldt shines a light not only on Cinderella's flaws but offers a powerful look at the crippling beauty standards that women are put through. While The Ugly Stepsister isn't perfect — there are a few loose ends that Blichfeldt does not tie up well — it's a horrific, grotesque, and superb...

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.

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

— Variety (@Variety) January 24, 2025

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,...

It’s always a sign of a good horror movie when it’s making audiences squirm and even vomit in their seats, and this year’s first horror movie to meet those high standards has already been unleashed upon the world. It’s titled The Ugly Stepsister, a body horror twist on the classic Cinderella fairytale that just premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last night.

According to a report from Variety that details the sights and sounds of Sundance’s opening night, “It was also clear that Sundance still favors the bold and doesn’t shy away from screening films that may illicit strong reactions. During the premiere of the opening Sundance Midnight movie The Ugly Stepsister, a moviegoer leaned over into the aisle and vomited.”

The outlet further details the vomitous content, “Emilie Blichfeldt’s body horror film includes several difficult-to-watch scenes of crude cosmetic surgery, including its protagonist eating a tapeworm,...

Cinderella's lore gets a Norwegian body-horror update in The Ugly Stepsister. Emilie Blichfeldt's not-so-storybook debut adapts fairy tale royalty like The Great's absurdist satirization but far grimmer and gorier. Fantastic style, squeamish effects, and a standout performance by Lea Myren as the "ugly" Elvira headline this repulsive yet commanding fucked-up fable. Watch out for Blichfeldt, whose first dive into feature filmmaking makes a crimson and authoritative splash.

In The Ugly Stepsister, Elvira (Myren) takes center stage. We all know Disney's version of the story: Prince Charming, a glass slipper, and happily ever afters. Here, Elvira is presented as sweet, lovesick, and doe-eyed. Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Næss) is our Cinderella fill-in, shunned by her evil stepmother, Rebekka (Ane Dahl Torp). When Prince Julian (Isac Calmroth) alerts the kingdom's virgins he's ready for marriage, Rebekka takes advantage of Elvira's fawning over Julian. Rebekka encourages her daughter through a grueling procession of body augmentations,...

If the disheartening lack of creativity in Disney’s live-action remakes leaves one thinking these timeless stories have, in fact, run their course, leave it to Norwegian director Emilie Blichfeldt to find new life (and blood) with the Cinderella tale. Her impressively mounted, darkly macabre first feature follows Elvira living in the shadow of her stepsister Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Naess) as they vie for the attention of the Prince (Isac Calmroth). A twisted body horror take on the classic tale for how it explores the costs of beauty, The Ugly Stepsister is not afraid to dive into the unflinchingly gruesome while packing an impressive sense of empathy.

Drawing from the Brothers Grimm incarnation (a darker approach complete with self-mutilation) Blichfeldt sets her debut apart from the recent cash-grab horror adaptations of Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh in both craft and pathos. Desperate for the Prince’s affection as glimpsed in fever dreams,...

If you go to enough film festivals and seek out the horror offerings therein, there’s a pretty good chance you’ll come across some rather extreme new visions. Far from the more mainstream gruesome but not too gruesome genre fare that frequently come and go in theaters without leaving much of a mark, these are the hidden horror gems that, even when a little rough around the edges, still shine bright. The best of them grab hold of you in a way few other films can, leaving you enraptured by the visceral visions being created on the screen even if you occasionally feel the urge to look away from the escalating violence unfolding before you.

At Cannes last year it was Coralie Fargeat’s smash hit “The Substance,” which wielded its bloody ideas like a sledgehammer, smashing through subtlety with chaotic energy to spare. At Sundance this year, it...

Folk tales of Cinderella have been told for centuries across the globe, but the Brothers Grimm version of the story emerged as one of the most popular for its particularly violent rendition of “The Little Ash Girl.” Norwegian writer and director Emilie Blichfeldt uses this read of the classic fairy tale figure as the foundation for The Ugly Stepsister, a gruesome and violent new spin on classic lore. Instead of whimsical romance set in the Renaissance, Blichfeldt gets graphic with the medieval torture women endure in their pursuit of happily ever after.

In Blichfeldt’s version, the little ash girl is Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Naess), a fiercely independent young woman with ambition and an astute awareness of how the world really works. Yet Agnes remains on the periphery of the story that’s framed from the perspective of her naïve new stepsister and romantic rival, Elvira (Lea Myren). Elvira...

Most fairy tales were told and retold countless times before Walt Disney ever got his hands on them, and yet, the sensibility behind such animated classics as “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” and “Sleeping Beauty” has proven so popular on such an international scale that few know these stories’ darker origins. The family-friendly studio’s more-wholesome-than-horrifying approach gives Norwegian writer-director Emilie Blichfeldt plenty of room to push back with “The Ugly Stepsister,” a deliciously extreme take on the beloved “Cinderella” legend, complete with broken noses, severed toes and other gory details befitting the Grimm bros.

Premiering in the Midnight section of the Sundance Film Festival, the graphic update swipes a different page from the Disney playbook: Instead of focusing on the familiar wench-in-waiting, Blichfeldt recenters her version on one of the tale’s iconic antagonists, finding empathy for the pig-nosed, slightly plump stepsister (played by Lea Myren) who’s...

It’s tough times out there for a feminist body horror fairy tale in a newly post-“Substance” filmmaking world. Coralie Fargeat’s gory parable of the abyss of self-loathing at the center of women’s society-stoked quest for beauty upped the stakes in terms of the genre’s potential cultural reach.

But female genre directors have been responding to impossible, often body-contorting standards of beauty for decades. Enter Norwegian filmmaker Emilie Blichfeldt, who makes her gruesome entrée into that movement with her playfully grotesque feature debut “The Ugly Stepsister.” One character’s name being Sophie von Kronenberg in this stylized gothic retelling of the Grimm Brothers’ spin on Cinderella should offer enough portent for where the film is heading in all its nose-breaking, flesh-eating, tapeworm-infested grandeur.

“The Ugly Stepsister” begins with the tragically forced communion of two families as the brace-faced, ringleted Elvira (Lea Myren) arrives via carriage at a Victorian estate in Sweden.

“Does it get more Sundance than this?” Eugene Hernandez, the festival’s director, said at the opening night premiere of “Twinless,” which was being unveiled Thursday at the Eccles, Park City’s biggest venue. But the evening didn’t go off without a hitch. Shortly after Hernandez left the stage, a sizzle reel promoting the festival’s nonprofit arm had suffered sound problems. The moment was particularly unfortunate as the audio malfunctioned as the clip was introducing festival founder Robert Redford.

The house lights came up while sound was tested for five minutes. The film was quickly restarted, but the problem persisted throughout the screening to groans of “Nooooo!” from stressed audience members. Luckily, it didn’t derail the otherwise enthusiastically received film or the dual performance from Dylan O’Brien as twin brothers. Add to that extremely chatty Sundance tech and ground staff, and it made for a disruptive kickoff.

The Sundance Film Festival 2025, beloved by independent film enthusiasts, opens the film festival circuit with thought-provoking panels, and red-carpet premieres. Despite the cancellation of other awards season events, the film festival has decided to proceed as planned in the wake of the devastating fires that have ravaged Los Angeles, causing the destruction of 15,798 structures and resulting in 28 fatalities. The extent to which the recent fires will impact the festival, renowned for its vibrant social scene and bustling calendar of events, remains to be seen.

This year’s lineup boasts diversity across various categories, featuring 57 short films and 87 feature films representing 33 countries and territories. The 2025 program is composed of 36 of 87 (41%) feature film directors who are first-time feature filmmakers. Sundance Institute supported ten of the feature films and projects selected in development through direct granting or residency labs.

Related: Sundance Film Festival 2025: All Of Deadline’s Movie Reviews

Among the buzzworthy titles premiering are Atropia,...