The Ugly Stepsister: parents' guide
Best for ages 18 and up. Not formally rated.
A gory, sexually explicit Norwegian twist on Cinderella for adults only, told from the side of a stepsister whose mother pushes her through brutal beauty treatments to win a prince. Expect surgery without anesthesia, a tapeworm swallowed to lose weight, toes hacked off in close-up and a rotting corpse, alongside on-screen sex, erect penises and crude sexual talk. Body image, starvation and self-mutilation are its core subjects, so it may hit hard for anyone struggling with eating or self-image. It was released unrated in the US, in Norwegian with subtitles. The explicit sex and graphic body horror are why we suggest 18.
What's in it
Violence
StrongGraphic body horror: a tool hammered into a nose, eyelashes sewn on without anesthesia, a girl hacking at her own toes before her mother finishes the job with a cleaver, a knife attack with spurting blood and people shot with arrows. A man forcibly kisses a teenage girl.
Language
ModerateStrong language is infrequent: a few f-words, plus whore, slut, prick, cock and God as an exclamation, in subtitles.
Sex and nudity
StrongExplicit: sex and oral sex are shown, with close-ups of erect penises, female genital and breast nudity, and visible semen. Men make crude oral-sex gestures, a man forcibly kisses a teenage girl, and another man sexually harasses a woman.
Drinking, drugs and smoking
StrongBrief but shown: a doctor snorts some of the cocaine he gives a patient as a painkiller during surgery. Adults drink at dinner and a party, and a sleeping draft is used to sedate someone.
Scary or intense scenes
StrongSustained, stomach-turning horror: a huge writhing tapeworm pulled out through a mouth, a rotting body crawling with maggots and flies, ghostly visions, and a mother who drugs her daughter and mutilates her foot.
Sensitive topics
- Eating disorders
- Self-harm
- Child abuse
- Death of a parent
- Sexual assault
Worth talking about
Elvira is told again and again that she must change her body to be loved and chosen. Who benefits when people feel they don't measure up, and where do teens see that message today?
On our lists
Similar picks around 18+
Checked October 13th, 2026 against Common Sense Media, bbfc.co.uk, Wikipedia, the MPA. The age is our judgment, not an official rating, and every family draws its lines differently: read the notes, not just the number. Spotted something we missed? Tell us. How we rate.