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Twins Of Evil
[Hammer]
1971; color
Directed by John Hough
Starring: Peter Cushing, Dennis Price, Mary Collinson, Madeleine Collinson, Isobel Black, Kathleen Byron & Damien Thomas
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By the time the early '70s rolled around, Hammer Studios had visited, and revisited, the lore of Dracula quite a few times; one may argue, enough times. On the other hand - if it ain't broke, don't fix it right? Seeing as how Twins Of Evil is one of six vampire related films produced by the studio in the first two years of the decade, we can assume Hammer execs subscribed to this theory in spades. Fortunately they were savvy enough to skew the story somewhat, in order to keep things fresh and interesting, while still carrying on with the tradition & style fans of the earlier Drac movies hold so dear. And so it is that this film features a swarthy castle owning Count (Damien Thomas) who spends his nights seducing the local women and holding black masses, but he's not a vampire. Well, not until like thirty minutes into the movie when he reanimates the corpse of a dead relative and she bites him, thus turning him into a vampire. Before that he's just a dude with an interest in the occult. This is of no regard to Count Karnstein's arch nemesis and leader of the town's resident angry mob Gustav Weil (played to the hilt by Peter Cushing) who hates anyone and anything even remotely associated with the dark arts. This overwhelming need to rid his borough of witches, warlocks and single gals living by themselves takes up the majority of his time and energy, that is until his identical twin nieces, Frieda and Maria (played by real life identical twins Mary & Madeleine Collinson), come to live with him and really give him something to worry about. Not only do these lovely teenaged lasses dare to walk around showing bare collar bone, one of them - Frieda - is evil! Not any more evil than your normal teenaged girl mind you, she just wants to kick up her heels, have some fun and maybe fool around a little with the local rebellious bad boy (aka the Count) but to the girls' ultra conservative uncle, an interest in anything short of nunnery makes you a total skank ass hoochie. While hoochiness might be in the eye of the beholder, vampirism is pretty cut and dry so once the Count sinks his fangs into Frieda - the mention of which I don't consider a spoiler since the movie would have no plot at all if at least one of the girls didn't get bit - Gustav's anti-blood sucker agenda goes into overdrive and he's got no choice but to search out and destroy creatures of the night one by one, relative or not, until the movie is over. A bunch of stuff happens in between including the expected deaths of many a poor townsfolk, the unexpected attempted stake burning of the good sister (they thought she was Frieda, you see) and one of filmdom's greatest beheadings but you'll have to soak in the details for yourself. Obviously, Twins Of Evil doesn't stay true to the plotline of the original Universal Dracula film, or even the first Hammer Dracula film (and, at times, it's plotline doesn't even stay true to logic) but it's still a worthy addition to their vampire cannon and definitely a fun film to watch.
—Bunny
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