The Absent (2011)
Evil Twin Slasher Film
Ingenue slasher film from Sage Bannick about a teacher finding his pupils are being killed, this eventually settles down as an old hat evil twin plot
Twins
Twins are genetically duplicate siblings. This is a real world phenomenon but fantastic cinema offers a number of variants on the theme.
The most frequent of these variants is the good twin/evil twin theme, which usually takes place in assorted psycho-thrillers involving masquerade and identity swapping/theft.
Another common theme is the belief that twins share a psychic connection or are able to intuitively communicate. Conjoined (or Siamese) twins feature in circus freakshow stories or as freakish villains.
For more detail and an overview of the genre see the Theme Essay Twins in Fantastic Cinema.
Accion Mutante (1993)
Future Mutant Terrorists/Gonzo Comedy
The directorial debut of Spain’s Alex de la Iglesia, a planetary adventure about a group of mutant terrorists that comes with a bizarrely wacky sense of humour
Almost Dead (1994)
Haunting
This a dull ghost story in which Shannen Doherty plays a parapsychological researcher who believes she is seeing the ghost of her mother everywhere
Alone (2007)
Thai Ghost Story
Thai ghost story about a woman haunted by the ghost of her dead conjoined twin sister. This produces a mix of jumps that fall between the effective and routine but falls apart in a contrived twist ending
Alone with a Stranger (2000)
Evil Twin Psycho-Thriller
Excellent psycho-thriller in which family man William R. Moses has his life taken over by an evil twin. Filled with a series of gripping unexpected twists and tensions
American Mary (2012)
Underground World of Surgical Body Modification
Canada’s twin sisters Jen and Sylvia Soska’s second film is set in the dark underground of body modification,. Like an episode of tv’s Nip/Tuck with a Suicide Girls ethos. Not perfect but an impressive maturation
Among the Living (1941)
Disturbed Twin Psycho-Thriller
A 1940s good/bad twin psycho-thriller with Albert Dekker as a psychopathic twin escaped from an asylum come back to claim the inheritance taken by his brother
Appendage (2023)
Malignant Twin
In a similar vein to James Wan’s Malignant, a film with a heroine who has a malignant twin force its way out of a wound in her side and proceed to take over her life
Baby Geniuses (1999)
Intelligent Baby Conspiracy
Film set around the premise that babies are secretly geniuses and talk in their own language. This makes a beeline for pee and poop jokes and seems to think we should applaud it for the cutsieness of seeing babies doing adult things
Basket Case 2 (1990)
Psychotic Siamese Twin/Gonzo Deformities
Frank Henenlotter takes the commercial route and makes a sequel to his no-budget cult film. A bigger budget allows the film to become a comic variant on Freaks featuring a series of way-out makeup effects
Basket Case 3 (1991)
Psychotic Siamese Twin/Gonzo Deformities
The third of Frank Henenlotter’s Basket Case films but by this point the perverse wit of the original has become replaced by a cartoonish absurdity
Basket Case (1982)
Psychotic Siamese Twin
Remarkable little no-budget film from Frank Henenlotter about the relationship between a man and the deformed, psychopathic torso of his severed Siamese twin
Bethany (2017)
Sinister Imaginary Companion
Low-budget film where a couple move into her family home and she is haunted by childhood imaginary companion that may or not be real
Big Fish (2003)
Tall Tales
Tim Burton film where Albert Finney plays a habitual teller of tall tales whose son sets out to find the truth. Burton’s characteristic quirkiness seems buried by such a blandness you suspect he has been replaced by a clone of Ron Howard
The Black Room (1935)
Evil Twin/Historical Horror
A stylishly made historical horror where Boris Karloff plays an evil heir to a European province who seeks to gain power by masquerading as his good twin brother
The Blackburn Asylum (2015)
Abandoned Mine of Escaped Asylum Inmates
Despite the title, this is a horror film that takes place in a mine (albeit one where the former inmates of an asylum lurk). This plays out fairly well by a set of familiar genre tropes and delivers a solid degree of tension
The Bride With White Hair (1993)
Hong Kong Swordsmen Fantasy
Classic Hong Kong Wu Xia film featuring much aerial swordplay and lushly dressing/lighting but also a work of wildly uneven tone
Cassandra (1987)
Clairvoyance Thriller
An Australian clairvoyance thriller that seems to have substantially drawn its influence from Eyes of Laura Mars. The film was little seen when it came out and the uninvolved direction does little to draw us into what is taking place
Chrysalis (2007)
Cyberpunk Film
French Cyberpunk film with a detective investigating the murder of an illegal immigrant girl and finding a blackmarket in stolen and transplanted memories
The City of Lost Children (1995)
Mad Scientist/Clones/Gonzo Comedy
The almost indescribable second film from Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet of Delicatessen fame, a Dicekensian street urchin fantasy that takes place in a stunningly designed almost-familiar world filled with eccentric characters
Dark Intruder (1965)
Occult Investigator
Pilot for an unsold tv series that was later released theatrically produced by Alfred Hitchcock’s company. Leslie Nielsen plays an occult detective and the film proves surprisingly well-shot and atmospheric
Dead Hooker in a Trunk (2010)
Twisted Road Movie
The debut film from the Soska Sisters – a demented road movie – is scrappy, all over the place and highly uneven but shows the two are definitely going places
Dead Ringers (1988)
Disturbed Twin Psychology
David Cronenberg’s absolute masterpiece of the perverse with Jeremy Irons giving a tour-de-force performance(s) as twin gynaecologists who descend into drug addiction, obsession and madness
Dragonheart: Battle for the Heartfire (2017)
Dragon Fantasy
The fourth film in the Dragonheart franchise. Is there truly anybody out there who was begging for this? Cheaply made in Romania where it seems to be straining to drag the original premise out for another film
Eagle Eye (2008)
Surveillance Thriller/A.I. Amok
Shia LaBeouf ends up on the run from the FBI in a conspiracy involving an A.I. A thriller about the surveillance society that, despite much sound and fury, finds almost nothing to say about its subject
Embalming (1999)
Blackmarket Organ Legging/Sinister Cult
A Japanese horror film that winds a convoluted plot involving stolen corpses, a blackmarket in organ harvesting, split personality, twins and religious cults
Equinox (1992)
Futuristic Film Noir
A follow-up to Alan Rudolph’s Trouble of Mind, a work of neo-Film Noir in a futuristic setting where Matthew Modine plays twins who are drawn into underworld dealings
Ernest Goes to Jail (1990)
Idiot Gets Magnetic Powers
The third of Jim Varney’s Ernest films where he is mistaken for a wanted criminal who is his double – only to go to the electric chair and this to cause his body to become magnetised
The Forest (2016)
Haunted Japanese Suicide Forest
Film about Japan’s legendary Suicide Forest that comes rich in a sense of original mythology. All possibilities are wrung out by incredibly tepid direction that fails to deliver anything remotely scary
Freaks (1932)
Human Deformities
Shock film in which director Tod Browning depicts the lives of the deformities at a circus, casting real-life freaks in the roles. This was banned for many years before being discovered as a cult classic
Gemini (1999)
Evil Twin
Cult Japanese director Shinya Tsukamoto returns to his favourite topic of the repressed. This emerges as his version of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in a period-set work about an upstanding doctor haunted by his twin
The Gemini Factor (1987)
Mysterious Link Between Twins
Modest and well-made British children’s tv mini-series about the mysterious psychic connection between two twins each unaware of the other’s existence
Goodnight Mommy (2014)
Boys Believe Their Mother Has Been Replaced
Effective and disturbing work about two boys who begin to think that someone else might have taken their mother’s place after she returns in bandages. The film reaches a particularly chill and nasty climax
Goodnight Mommy (2022)
Boys Believe Their Mother Has Been Replaced
The Austrian Goodnight Mommy was one of the most effective horror films of recent years. This is the toned-down English-language remake starring Naomi Watts as the mother
A Haunting at Silver Falls (2013)
Ghost Story
Another supposedly based on a true story ghost story, although the absurdity of plotting makes this a nonsense. The film quickly slides to the irredeemably banal without a single spooky moment
Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996)
Sadomasochistic Demons
Fourth of the Hellraiser films. This attempts to tell a story set in three different eras but was subject to much studio interference that waters the vision down to something forgettable
Hereafter (2010)
Perspectives on the Afterlife
Clint Eastwood tackles the afterlife in a drama following multiple storylines. A film made with earnest serious ambition but one where Eastwood finds surprisingly little to say about the issue
House of Mirrors (2012)
Amnesia Psycho-Thriller
Low-budget psycho-thriller about amnesia that tries hard in many areas but fails to generate enough contortion in terms of plot twists to make the show work
I Know Who Killed Me (2007)
Twin Psycho-Thriller
Widely ridiculed psycho-thriller starring Lindsay Lohan at the height of her tabloid headline phase and giving a zero effort performance as twins. Quite what is going on in the confused screenplay is anybody’s guess
The Initiation (1984)
Slasher Film
An entry in the slasher film fad that features a young, fresh-faced and stunning Daphne Zuniga being stalked around a mall during a sorority hazing prank
Jack’s Back (1988)
Modern-Day Jack the Ripper Copycat
This comes with a fantastic pitch – it was released on the centenary of the Jack the Ripper killings and features a Ripper copycat operating in the present. Alas, this becomes a massive wasted opportunity
Jekyll & Hyde (2021)
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Adaptation
An enterprising low-budget adaptation of the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde story, which has been filmed numerous times. This offers the most radical spin on the story of any adaptation to date
Ju-on: Girl in Black (2009)
Japanese Ghost Story
One of a duo of spinoff films made to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Ju-on/The Grudge series. Seven films in and the series is starting to resemble much of a muchness
Just Before Dawn (1981)
Backwoods Brutality
A particularly strong and underrated variant on the Backwoods Brutality film. From Jeff Lieberman, director of the cult killer worm saga Squirm and the LSD flashback psycho film Blue Sunshine
Kinds of Kindness (2024)
Black Comedy Anthology
Yorgos Lanthimos has become a critically celebrated name in recent years. Here he has made an anthology of three surreal tales that come in his customary black deadpan
The Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors (1963)
Soviet Cinema/Fantasy World Through the Mirror
A Soviet equivalent of Alice in Wonderland or even more so Alice Through the Looking Glass where a young girl ventures into a fantasy on the other side of the mirror
The Legacy of the Bones (2019)
Spanish Detective Thriller/Ritual Killings
The second of the films based on Dolores Redondo’s police procedurals, this heads into an admirably dark and perverse place with plenty of jolt twists
Let Her Out (2016)
Girl at War With Her Split Personality
From Cody Calahan who made Antisocial, a reasonable modernisation of the Jekyll and Hyde story with a girl at war for ownership of her own body with an evil alter ego
The Lost Tribe (1983)
Mysterious Disappearance
Enigmatic New Zealand-made film that takes place in an incredibly haunted landscape about the disappearance of an anthropologist searching for a lost tribe
Malignant (2021)
Dead Twin Returns as a Maniac Killer
After overseeing a growing list of worthless sequels and spinoffs, James Wan is back in the director’s chair and goes batshit crazy with this film where Annabelle Wallis is taken over by an evil twin
The Mark of Cain (1985)
Evil Twin Psycho-Thriller
An obscure Canadian-made thriller about an evil twin
Memoir of a Snail (2024)
Claymation/Eccentric Characters
The second Claymation film from Adam Elliot, who made the sublime Mary and Max, concerning the banally hilarious lives of weird, eccentric characters
Meridian (1990)
Erotic Fairytale
A much better than usual film from Charles Band, an erotic fairytale in which Sherilyn Fenn becomes involved with a circusmaster and his twin brother who turns into a werewolf
The Monkey (2025)
Cursed Toy Monkey/Stephen King Adaptation
Osgood Perkins adapts a Stephen King story about a toy monkey that causes deaths whenever it is wound, which becomes the opportunity for Perkins to go into full-on Final Destination territory with bizarre deaths
Mothra (1962)
Japanese Monster Movie
The most successful of the original monster movies Toho made after the success of Godzilla, the only one to spawn its own sequels, and one of the best kaiju eiga of the era
The Ninth Configuration (1979)
Military Asylum Black Comedy
The directorial debut of William Peter Blatty, the writer of The Exorcist, a strange and unclassifiable black comedy set in a military asylum. Imagine One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest directed by Robert Altman
The Ninth Gate (1999)
Quest for Occult Tome
Roman Polanski makes a return to Rosemary’s Baby territory in this work with Johnny Depp as a rare book collector on the trail of an occult tome. Polanski great a great sense of sinister forces surrounding Depp but the film reaches an unsatisfying ending
Nocturne (2020)
Rivalry Between Sisters at a Music School/Occult Spell
The best of the Welcome to Blumhouse films set among the rivalry of two sisters at a highly competitive music school where one gets an occult text allowing her an advantage
Nothing Underneath (1985)
Giallo Film
A superior example of the giallo film. Not quite up with the works of Dario Argento, this still has considerable stylishness, along with a plot that borrows from Eyes of Laura Mars
The Other (1972)
Diabolical Twin
Classic horror film about good and evil twins that creates a good deal of sinister effect and arrives at a much imitated twist
The Owners (2020)
Home Invasion/Sinister Occupants
Maisie Williams and an aging Sylvester McCoy in a film about house burglars who break in to a home to discover sinister things afoot
Passion of Mind (2000)
Woman's Double Life in Dreams
This has the intriguing idea of two Demi Moore’s living on either side of the world, each dreaming that they are the other but the premise pans out as no more than a routine Chick Flick
The Poltergeist of Borley Forest (2013)
Haunting
A film that sat on the shelf and was then retitled to capitalise on the release of the Poltergeist remake despite featuring no poltergeists … A routine run through the well and truly worn modern ghost story cliches with no originality and little atmosphere
The Prestige (2006)
Rival Victorian Stage Magicians
Christopher Nolan directs a beautiful period piece with Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman as rival Victorian stage magicians. The film is an elegantly crafted Hall of Mirrors and illusions, capped by sterling performances from all involved
Rebirth of Mothra (1996)
Japanese Monster Bash
One of the worst among the usually worthwhile Japanese monster movie revivals of the 1990s. Much of the film is played down at an inanely silly children’s movie level, with there only being the requisite mass destruction effects to enliven the show
Ring 0: Birthdays (2000)
Haunting/Psychic Powers/Japanese Ghost Story
The third of the Japanese Ringu/Ring films. A new director means a different approach but what also becomes apparent is that the original was never intended as a series and the attempts to further draw it out result in a confusing mishmash of ideas
Rocktober Blood (1984)
Psycho Rock Star Returns from the Dead
The first in a cluster of mostly terrible 80s films that tried to incorporate horror and rock music, this concerns a rock star sent to the electric chair after a killing spree who now appears to return from the dead
Samaritan (2022)
Retired Superhero
Sylvester Stallone is surprisingly well cast an aging superhero forced to come out of retirement
Scissors (1991)
Imprisonment Psycho-Thriller
Impressive psycho-thriller from Frank De Felitta that plays out with the silent logic of a nightmare as a young unknown Sharon Stone finds herself a prisoner in an apartment
Seconds Apart (2011)
Evil Psychic Twins
A wonderfully cool film about malevolent twins with psychic abilities. that is an astonishingly assured effort where the various set-pieces come with the confidence of a director who has been working in the genre for years
Seeing Heaven (2010)
Gay Clairvoyance Film
A gay version of Don’t Look Now – a film that takes forever to go anywhere and fails to wind its twists up to anything interesting
The Shrouds (2024)
Grave Camera Technology
At age 81, David Cronenberg is still on great form with this perversely fascinating work about the development of a technology that places cameras inside graves to observe corpses as they decay
The Shuttered Room (1967)
H.P. Lovecraft Adaptation
One of the more obscure H.P. Lovecraft adaptations based on an unfinished pastiche, not widely seen but well worth reconsideration
Sinners (2025)
Vampire Film
Ryan Coogler of Black Panther fame makes a smart and intelligent vampire film set in the American South during the 1930s. This was a considerable awards, audience and critical hit.
Sisters (2006)
Siamese Twins Psycho-Thriller
Disappointing remake of Brian De Palma’s 1973 Siamese twins psycho-thriller that changes many elements and crucially lacks De Palma’s stylistic showmanship
Slapstick of Another Kind (1982)
Alien Twin Geniuses/Kurt Vonnegut Adaptation
Another failed attempt to film the works of Kurt Vonnegut where Vonnegut’s ironic pessimism ends up as witless slapstick chaos on screen
Solstice (2008)
Haunting
Daniel Myrick, one of the co-directors of The Blair Witch Project, conducts a remake of a Danish-Swedish ghost story, relocating it to Lousiana. Myrick does nothing remarkable with the material, even at the twist ending, largely treading in the safety of antebellum cliches
Southland Tales (2006)
Near-Future L.A.
Richard Kelly of Donnie Darko fame makes a work set in a near-future L.A., a sprawling film bursting at the edges with too many characters and subplots but not uninteresting
Space Adventure Cobra (1982)
Anime Space Opera
The great Osamu Dezai makes a colourful anime that jumps aboard the Stars Wars space opera fad
The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008)
Secret World of Magical Creatures
Film version of a popular series of children’s books that has a good deal of fun bringing to life a secret world of trolls and goblins
Stay Out of the Fucking Attic (2020)
Nazi Mad Scientist
A team of house movers find they are working for infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele who has an attic full of deformed mutations
Tale of Tales (2015)
Anthology of Fairytales
A trio of tales from the world’s oldest fairytale collection – but quite different to anything you expect … While there is all the magic, ogres and princesses, this is a beautifully lush film made for adults and less about simple homilies that about fate and its cruel twists
Three … Extremes (2004)
Asian Horror Anthology
Standout horror anthology designed to highlight episodes from three Asian directors – Hong Kong’s Fruit Chan, South Korea’s Park Chan-wook and Japan’s Takashi Miike – all of whom are on top form
The Tiger’s Tail (2006)
Doppelganger Film
John Boorman makes a film where Brendan Gleeson has his life taken over by a doppelganger
Troma’s War (1988)
Troma Film
The nearest that Troma Films ever made to an epic, their biggest budgeted film ever, a satiric war film, albeit conducted with their usual cartoon splatter effects and bad taste humour
Twins (1988)
Mismatched Clone Twins Comedy
A one-note joke premised on casting Arnold Schwarzenegger and diminutive Danny DeVito as mismatched clone twins. Unexpectedly charming with Schwarzenegger and comedy director Ivan Reitman turning out what are probably their best works.
Twins of Evil (1971)
Vampire Twins/Hammer Film
The third and best of Hammer’s Karnstein trilogy, which features twin sisters Madeline and Mary Collinson as vampires. This works due to a strong hand from director John Hough and Peter Cushing on fine form as a witchfinder
Twitches (2005)
Twin Sister Witches
Inane Disney Channel film with twin sisters Tia and Tamera Mowry as sisters who didn’t know it who discover they are witches. A film that has zero interest in its fantasy elements and is entirely taken up by airhead teenage airhead natter
Twitches Too (2007)
Twin Sister Witches
Having to sit through the Mowray twins airhead natter again in a sequel to their early Disney Channel film feels the equivalent of nails being scratched on a blackboard
Two (2021)
Man and Woman Wake Up Surgically Attached
A Spanish film with a wonderfully ick and queasy premise where a man and a woman wake up in bed together to find they have been surgically attached at the waist
The Unborn (2009)
Haunting/Possession
Scriptwriter David S. Goyer takes the director’s choice to make a possession film. The one distinction here is that Goyer draws from Jewish mythology, otherwise this feels like another canned teen horror film
Under the Mountain (2009)
Twins vs Alien Nasties
Big screen version of a classic New Zealand children’s story, directed by Jonathan King with an emphasis on gooey creature effects
Village of Dreams (1996)
Mischievous Twins' Childhood/Magical Realism
Japanese Coming of Age tale about two mischief-making twin brothers growing up in the 1940s
What Happened to Monday (2017)
Overpopulated Dystopian Future
From Tommy Wirkola, director of Dead Snow and Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, a film where Noomi Rapace plays seven identical sisters hiding their existence in an overpopulated dystopian future, A film where neither the scenario nor the central characters end up convincing in any way
When the Bough Breaks (1994)
Serial Killer Thriller
Strong and absorbing serial killer thriller with Ally Walker tracking a killer who severs children’s hands
Whispers (1990)
Disturbed Twins/Dean R. Koontz Adaptation
Dean R. Koontz adaptation in which Victoria Tennant kills an attacker only for him to be found alive again and return to attack her, involving her in a complex web involving Satanism, vampirism and twins
Who Invited Them (2022)
Sinister Party Guests
A very different type of home invasion film where two mysterious and charming party guests succeed in turning the hosts against each other
The Witch Part 2: The Other One (2022)
South Korean Psychic Powers Film
The Witch: Part 1 – Subversion was an impressive South Korean psychic powers film. This is Part 2
Wonder Man (1944)
Ghost Twin Brother/Screwball Comedy
Madcap screwball comedy with Danny Kaye required to pose as his dead twin brother who is then taken over by his ghost during a trial
X (1996)
Anime Superheroics
Anime involving a superheroic battle for the fate of the world. Dazzling eye candy but too many characters and subplots make things confusing