The Ugly Stepsister: A Masterful Disney Horror Remake Nominated For An Oscar

The trend of Disney horror remakes hasn’t had the best results, but there’s an Oscar-nominated movie that is a masterpiece in this weirdly specific trend. Disney has many movies considered classics and ranking among the best movies of all time, and most of them are animated movies. Out of these, Disney stands out for its fairy tale movies.

Many of those stories are now in the public domain, and some artists have seized the opportunity to tell their own interpretations of these classic tales. Many of them have gone on a horror route, such as Bambi: The Reckoning, Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare, and Pinocchio Unstrung, though most of them haven’t succeeded, mostly due to poor writing.

However, there's one Disney horror remake that actually succeeded, so much so that it's nominated for an Oscar, marking a huge step for horror movies at these awards and teaching others how to make a horror remake of a Disney classic.

The Ugly Stepsister Is A Brilliant Take On The Tale Of Cinderella

Cinderella got a horror remake in 2024 with Cinderella’s Revenge, but there was another one in 2025 that caught the attention of critics and viewers: The Ugly Stepsister. Directed by Emilie Blichfeldt, The Ugly Stepsister is based on the Brothers Grimm’s version of the tale of Cinderella, but with the twist of focusing on one of the title character’s stepsisters.

The Ugly Stepsister, then, is the story of Elvira (Lea Myren), whose mother, Rebekka (Ane Dahl Torp), marries widower Otto (Ralph Carlsson). Rebekka, Elvira, and Elvira’s sister Alma (Flo Fagerli) move in with Otto and his daughter, Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Næss), who looks down on Rebekka and her daughters.

When it’s announced that all noble young women are invited to a ball where Prince Julian will choose a wife, Elvira is excited about it as she has dreamed of marrying the prince. However, considered too “ugly” to succeed, Rebekka subjects Elvira to painful and primitive plastic surgery, more so as Agnes also plans to attend.

The Ugly Stepsister is a twisted take on the tale of Cinderella, mixing body and psychological horror with drama, while following a lead character you won’t be sure if to feel bad for her or not. Through Elvira’s painful journey, The Ugly Stepsister also gives some backstory to Cinderella and how she went from respected to a servant, as well as her motivations to go after the prince.

The Ugly Stepsister took a well-known fairy tale, kept its basic elements and premise, but gave it a clever twist by focusing on one of the villains, questioning if Cinderella was truly as good as everyone claimed, and firing shots at beauty standards.

What Other Disney Horror Remakes Can Learn From The Ugly Stepsister

Most Disney horror remakes have failed because they don’t offer anything new and focus too much on shocking their audience. Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare, for example, sees a criminal named Peter Pan kidnapping children to take them to “Neverland”, but his motives are never explained, and Bambi: Reckoning is a bloodfest with no actual story.

As mentioned above, The Ugly Stepsister takes the premise of the original tale but with a different protagonist, which adds freshness to it without leaving the original story behind, while also adding to the tale in an organic way. The gore in The Ugly Stepsister is also part of the story, but the real horrors come from inside Elvira, while other Disney horror remakes completely forget about character depth.

The Ugly Stepsister's Oscar Nomination Is A Huge Step For Horror

The Ugly Stepsister was a critical success, with a 96% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes and various nominations for different awards. Among those is a nomination for Best Makeup and Hairstyling at the 2026 Academy Awards, which is a huge step for horror at the Oscars as these awards tend to look down on the horror genre.

The 2026 Oscars are actually great for horror, as there’s not only The Ugly Stepsister’s nomination, but also those of Weapons and Sinners, two of the biggest horror movies of 2025. Whether The Ugly Stepsister will be the beginning of a much better wave of Disney horror remakes or not is to be seen, but hopefully, future projects will learn from it.