Rebekka (Ane Dahl Torp) has married Otto (Ralph Carlsson) mainly for his money - but upon his untimely death, the has to find out there actually isn't that much money to be had ... in fact so little she needs another source of income - like her daughter Elvira (Len Myren). You see, as long as she marries rich, and preferably Prince Julian (Isac 'Calmroth), who's not only wealthy but also pretty handsome, their financial troubles are over. Problem is, Elvira, while by no means ugly, is rather unremarkably looking, so not likely to catch the prince's eye. So all sorts of measures are taken to beautify her, from braces to breaking her nose in order to re-shape it into a prettier form to sewed on fake eyelashes. At first, all of this is excrutiating to Elvira, but eventually she gets obsessed with her own beauty, to a degree where she swallows a tapeworm to lose weight, and even spilling the beans about her pretty stepsister Agnes's (Thea Sofie Loch Ness) affair with the stable boy (Malte Gårdinger) to eliminate the competition. Everything seems to pay out though when at his ball, Prince Julian chooses her to be his dance partner - that is, until a certain masked beauty arrives ...

Now this is quite a fascinating movie, basically Cinderella re-told from her stepsister's perspective - but not as a fairy tale but as a very dark satire with elements of body horror ... which fits the source material much better than first thought. The result then is something really disturbing, but disturbing in a good way, thanks to a directorial effort that doesn't shy away from things without ever going for just the gross-out effect, and a strong ensemble cast that manage to make their characters relatabler despite their often despicable motives. And all of this adds up to a great piece of cinematic weirdness, that, I won't lie, is probably not for everyone but at the same time is almost certain to make every horror fan happy.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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