‘The Twin’ Movie Review

In this Shudder original, after the death of their son Nathan (Tristan Ruggeri), American couple Rachel (Teresa Palmer) and Anthony (Steven Cree) move to rural Finland, Anthony's ancestral home, with their surviving son Elliott (also Ruggeri), Nathan's identical twin. But their attempt to escape is threatened when it appears that Elliott is somehow communing with Nathan.

This is another horror movie that deals with themes of grief. The horror genre has always been a great platform for dealing with dark real-life themes, and grief is a very common one. Movies like Hereditary, The Descent, The Babadook, and one of my all-time favorites, Don't Look Now, are great examples of how horror can be used effectively to explore this theme. While these are probably the best examples of this, The Twin is just kind of... eh. It exists; not too bad, but not that good. But it does have some things about it that are worth noting, as parts of it are honestly quite clever. One of the best things about it is Teresa Palmer's performance. While the grieving mother archetype is nothing new in horror, she plays it quite commendably. I'd love to see her given the chance to carry a much better horror movie, because she has made it abundantly clear that she has it in her.

The production design is actually fantastic, partly thanks to the beautiful Scandinavian countryside where the film was shot. This is Finnish director Taneli Mustonen's first film to be entirely in English, and he's a very gifted director (check out an earlier Shudder original he made called Lake Bodom), but his talents are entirely wasted here. There's also some great set design, especially in one particular instance. In their new home, the room Elliot picks to be his already has two twin beds in it. This adds further emphasis to Rachel's feeling that she can't escape Nathan's absence from her life. That puzzle piece will always be missing, and the hole it left will always be there. The little touches like these are what keep the movie from completely failing.

This film is unfortunately reminiscent of several much better films. Not only does it borrow from the films I mentioned above, but there are also elements that were clearly taken from Midsommar, The Shining, Rosemary's Baby, and one or two more that I can't mention because they relate to the films big twist (and don't worry, I'll get to that in a moment). And most of these little nods end up being completely inconsequential (again, thanks to the twist). They're visually stunning, and they kind of give the false impression that the finale will be elaborate and awesome. By god, was I wrong. It's also overstuffed with dream sequences, which is an unfortunately common trend in lots of modern horror films. Dream sequences, like jump scares, can be used effectively in moderation and with proper buildup and payoff, but The Twin offers neither.

I'm not gonna tell you what the twist is outright, but needless to say, it's not very good. It's the kind of twist that you'll either guess immediately or be completely blindsided by (sort of like The Village), but even if you didn't see it coming, that doesn't make it satisfying. It ends up raising a plethora of questions, in addition to not doing much to resolve existing ones. In fact, it actually renders an entire character completely pointless. I don't know how much more I can say without spoiling it entirely, but damn, it's just plain frustrating.

The Twin is visually striking and features an outstanding leading performance, but it consists almost entirely of non sequiturs that, while intriguing on their own, go absolutely nowhere, and the big twist at the end is far more likely to elicit groans than gasps.

SCORE: 2.5/5