

I think one of the tricks is to purposefully plan time to cook that’s not right before you’re planning to eat, so it’s an activity/hobby, not a necessity. If I have to cook when I’m hungry, I’ll probably just make do instead, but if I say “ok, Saturday afternoon, I’m gonna make a pot of soup, because that’ll be delicious later,” it’s a lot less dreadful, imo.
I finally got around to watching it (sorry it took so long!). I agree with your review pretty much in full, actually, and second that it’s not for the squeamish lol.
The whole thing was beautifully shot, including the horror bits, and the story was really good at getting you to sympathize with Elvira on her downward spiral, led astray and enabled by the adults.
Spoiler thoughts
Alma is the best character, imo, although I would have liked to see her be a more constant voice of reason and/or obvious alternate role model that Elvira is blind to, rather than just the savior at the end.
Re: Agnes: Initially, it sounded like Agnes only wanted to marry the prince so she’d have the money to bury her dad, but then the after-credits shot makes it clear that she never did. So at that point, why not steal anything of value and run off after her stable boy instead (apart from the story needing to match the fairy tale)? I think I agree with you that it must have been for spite, but I found her motivations kinda blurry.