The Twin (2022) Review by Phil Newton
The Twin (2022) Review by Phil Newton
There’s an accident. Nathan is killed. Distraught parents Rachel (Teresa Palmer) and Anthony (Steven Cree) along with surviving twin Elliot (Tristan Ruggeri) attempt to cope with their loss by relocating to Finland. What seems like the perfect rural escape is not quite what it seems, as elderly neighbour Helen (Barbara Marten) is quick to point out the lack of churches – they all burnt down – and the prevalence of circular forms in the community, signifying pagan activity.
It’s soon clear that things are not well with Elliot either, who is beginning to ask lots of questions about his brother’s death. After burying some of Nathan’s things, Rachel accedes to Elliot’s request to have a second bed put into his bedroom, for Nathan to use… Next thing we know, Elliot is sleeping in Nathan’s bed, and when Rachel wakes him in the middle of the night he claims to be Nathan!
“I’m not Elliot, I’m Nathan, Elliot’s gone…”
A trip to the doctor doesn’t help, he feels Elliot’s behaviour is understandable given the circumstances and tells Rachel to calm down. Instead Rachel turns to Helen, whose role as Mrs Exposition affords us some backstory about the town, and the fate of her late husband. Helen believes the family are here at Elliot’s behest; it’s actually not Nathan who has taken over Elliot’s body, but a far greater evil which could lead to the resurrection of the Devil himself!
Whilst there’s a huge variety of titles streaming on Shudder, recent home entertainment releases seem fixated on hauntings and creepy kids. This glut of similarly themed films does The Twin no favours as there’s this nagging feeling that you’ve seen it all before. It doesn’t help that the film takes its time to get going, it really is quite soporific in its first half hour which is a shame, as things do improve once the drama kicks in. Like the recently reviewed They Live In The Grey, this is another horror film that aims to tackle the issues of grief and trauma and how we deal with the mental strain that bereavement puts upon us.
Finnish director Taneli Mustonen certainly uses the landscapes of his homeland to good effect here, and Palmer – genre veteran of such films as Warm Bodies and Lights Out – gives it her all as the concerned mother. Aside from a couple of jump scares there’s little in the way of sustained tension here, but Mustonen does deliver a last-act twist which calls into question everything we’ve just seen. If you can stick with it then there is some entertainment to be had with The Twin, but be aware there’s not a huge amount of originality on show here.
