Monday Movie Night at Hot Wax: The Ugly Stepsister (2025) and Gretel and Hansel (2020)

Name: Monday Movie Night at Hot Wax: The Ugly Stepsister (2025) and Gretel and Hansel (2020)
Start: 2025-09-15T20:00:00-04:00
End: 2025-09-16T01:00:00-04:00
Location: Hot Wax Coffee Shop And Tap House

Schedule

Mon, 15 Sep, 2025 at 08:00 pm to Tue, 16 Sep, 2025 at 01:00 am

UTC-04:00

Location

Hot Wax Coffee Shop And Tap House | Tampa, FL

This Monday, September 15th, step into a dark fairytale with this grisly edition of Sacrilegious Cinema: Menagerie of Madness at Hot Wax Coffee Shop in Ybor City. This week, we reach into the vault to unleash a petrifying pair of legends in the likes of The Brother’s Grimm. These retellings of the familiar folktales honor the morbid origins, deviating from the sanitized Disney iterations the masses have grown accustomed to, imbuing the narrative with additionally grotesque substance, fashioning the fables into feministic coming of age fever dreams.
At 8PM, set foot into 19th-century Norway, where young Elvira (Lea Myren) has her sights on the seemingly sensitive Prince Julian, spending her days enamored by his poetry as she plays out her wildest fantasies as his paramour. But when the kingdom announces a royal ball to seek out Prince Charming’s virginal bride, the insecure Elvira is pit against her breath-taking stepsister, Agnes, in a battle to win his heart. Deemed unappealing by those around her, Elvira’s greed-hungry mother implements a series of treatments to improve her daughter’s appearance to secure the Prince’s affections, thus launching a string of horrific procedures in hopes of turning an ‘ugly duckling’ into a swan, addressing the old adage, ‘Beauty is pain’, to its most abhorrent extent in Elvira’s terrifying transformation.
Emilie Blichfeldt’s directorial debut THE UGLY STEPSISTER (2025) adapts Charles Perrault’s Cinderella (1697), incorporating the more gruesome details of the Brothers Grimm version, and focusing on the elder stepsister’s perspective, churning out a psychological body horror where women are commoditized and aesthetics are currency to comfort- emerging as the only means of financial mobility. This stylish sibling to The Substance (2024) dissects themes of self-worth in relation to the rigid beauty standards, body dysmorphia, envy and perfection, hailing sisterhood as the one tangible salvation in a patriarchal society, where looks are the sole manner of elevating a woman’s status corresponding to their value. This portrayal not only critiques the societal beauty standards, but also exposes the intergenerational trauma fueled by propaganda and inherited self-doubt. This rendition of Cinderella resides in shades of gray, depicting our princess as flawed, and exposing the gentle prince’s facade as a boorish chauvinist, while the female characters typically written off as villains are multi-faceted, suffering their own fate as victims all in the name of beauty. The Ugly Stepsister manifests as exquisitely revolting in its macabre metaphors and twist of dramatic irony against dreary albeit decadent sets immersing audiences in a sublime nightmare- wherein this representation delves into decay disguised by decorum. Tour the depths of Elvira’s despair as she descends into madness and mutilation, starving for a chance for her happily ever after as we survey the lengths she will go to be selected by a stranger as their chosen one. 👠🪓🪱🥚
Then, at 10PM, we venture into the shadowy forest of medieval Germany, stumbling upon siblings GRETEL AND HANSEL (2020) after they’ve been abandoned by their family due to the lack of resources required to survive, ultimately leaving them to fend for themselves, lost deep within the merciless woods. Upon their wandering, Gretel and Hansel come across a remote home enticing their entry, where they meet an old witch willing to take them in exchange for labor- but the longer they stay with the woman, the more obvious her wicked intentions become.
A reimagining of the famous Hansel and Gretel (1812) fairytale ripped from the pages of Brothers Grimm, director and horror royalty Osgood Perkins (son of iconic Psycho actor Anthony Perkins) switches the order of the title, shifting the focus onto Gretel and her struggles instead of the twosome. Rooted in realism, the tale of Hansel and Gretel reflects the plight resulting from The Great Famine in 14th century Europe, ushering in desperate measures with many resorting to infanticide and even cannibalism in order to survive, where child abandonment became common practice, and the fear of witchcraft ran rampant, linking it back to the aforementioned depravities.
Beyond the poignant storytelling, Gretel and Hansel extend audiences a visual feast juxtaposed with a brooding, minimalistic score. This variation on tale propels a woeful voyage into womanhood and gender disparity, harboring a perversion of Biblical motifs rife with sin, unveiling that with fortune, there is always a price to pay. This display of corruption of childhood innocence is led by Sophia Lillis (IT, 2017) as the titular Gretel, forging a fierce adversary for Alice Krige’s (Sleepwalkers, 1992) fearsome witch. From the creator of the Satanic tainted Longlegs (2024) and The Blackcoat’s Daughter (2017), Perkins puts forth another formidable film in his roster. 🍬🍭🪾🧹🍞
Join us for a return to cautionary tales woven from the fabric of societal anxieties and pressures- and sport your favorite fairytale in your attire for 15% off bar tab.
FREE popcorn included with a
mandatory purchase- no cover charge with a 1 drink (or snack) minimum from the bar. Remember to try our themed drinks for this week’s dark fairytale double feature. 🧚‍♀️ 📖
(Movie nights offer psychological insight accompanied by behind the scenes information and observations by your horror hostess). 🍿🎞️🎥