This Upcoming Horror Movie Made a Viewer Puke at its Premiere
The theater janitorial staff for the Sundance Film Festival's Midnight movie this year deserves some hazard pay.
The yearly film festival in Park City, Utah premiered the yet-to-be-released The Ugly Stepsister on Jan. 23 eliciting all types of reactions—including physical.
The movie is written and directed by Emilie Blichfeldt and features Lea Myren in the lead role of Elvira.
According to IMDB, the feature "follows Elvira as she 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 perfection."
Those "extreme measures" elicited some strong reactions according to a reviewer for Variety who was at the opening. "A moviegoer leaned over into the aisle and vomited," they reported.
The write-up also detailed some of the gross-out scenes, including the eating of a tapeworm, eyelashes being sewn in, and not up-to-code rhinoplasty.
During the #Sundance premiere of “The Ugly Stepsister,” a moviegoer leaned over into the aisle and vomited.
— Variety (@Variety) January 24, 2025
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
ScreenRant also happened to have a critic who saw the movie at Sundance, who said that type of reaction is no surprise.
"The film's fairy tale setting makes its body horror moments all the more visceral and disgusting. One scene late in the film is truly sickening, so it doesn't surprise me that someone vomited during the premiere," they wrote.
The body horror genre saw quite the comeback last year with the release of the Demi Moore-starring The Substance. The movie followed Moore's character using a black market drug to try and regain her youth, to disastrous results. It became a critical and viewer hit, culminating in five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Moore.
Related: Demi Moore Gets Candid About ‘Vulnerable’ Nude Scenes in New Erotic Thriller