Movies
[BD Review] ‘Twins Of Evil’ Is One Of Hammer’s Best!
Like Vampire Circus, Twins of Evil came along at a time when Hammer was on the fast track to ruin. The market was oversaturated thanks to direct competitors, like Amicus and Tigon, among others, and the studio’s strategy of churning out nothing but cheap looking franchise films. In 1970, Hammer decided to change up their approach to vampires with The Vampire Lovers, the first entry in the Karnstein trilogy. The gentleman vampire and his converted minions had been done over and over again, so with Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla serving as an inspiration, the name of the game became sexy lesbian vampires.
Twins of Evil is the farthest removed from the source material out of the three films, and is also great because of that – the other films are fun, but mixing it up was a smart move. While one of its biggest draws is the sexual presence of Mary and Madeleine Collinson, sisters that were the first identical twin Playmates, there are very few references to woman-on-woman action and little nudity, effectively removing the biggest reasons for its predecessors’ cult status. Screenwriter Tudor Gates also takes a page out of the Witchfinder General handbook by having Gustav Weil (Peter Cushing) blur the line between good and evil. As leader of Karnstein’s ‘Brotherhood,’ he lives as piously as possible, hunting down suspected witches and burning them at the stake. He looks down at those who enjoy earthly (carnal) pleasures, which is why he is constantly at odds with Count Karnstein (Damien Thomas), a man interested in black magic, Satanism, and sleeping with pretty much every strumpet that passes by. This is also why he’s taken aback by his recently orphaned nieces from Venice, who come to live with him and aren’t exactly Puritans.
Twins of Evil has vampires in it, but it’s more of a folk horror film that focuses on the grey area that lies between what is distinctively black and white. The Collinson twins are surprisingly good as the dual natured sisters, establishing what is good and evil in the context of the film early on, but Cushing is who really sells the conflict of cult vs. occult. The question of whether his methods for purifying the earth of evil are morally justified or hypocritical is the cornerstone of the film. Coupled with some fun gore and hilarious innuendo (a candlestick being stroked is worth a few laughs), Twins of Evil is one of Hammer’s best.
A/V
God bless Synapse, their 1080p transfer for Twins of Evil is almost Criterion worthy. The colors are preserved wonderfully, particularly the blue hues of the forest at nightfall. Aside from some very minor speckles and scratches, the picture is flawless and vivid with no DNR or banding issues of any kind. With such a balanced transfer and grain that’s still intact, it’s hard to imagine that the film is forty years old. The DTS-HD 2.0 track captures the emptiness of Castle Karnstein and the open air of the woods, but is limited by being 2.0; in other words, it’s good but not great.
Special Features
The Flesh and The Fury: X-Posing Twins of Evil (83:24) – Like the documentary Synapse put on their Vampire Circus release, The Flesh and The Fury is a really good, in-depth documentary on Hammer vampire history. Joe Dante, Kim Newman, and Tim Lucas – among others – chat about the more outwardly erotic direction Hammer went in after the British censors raised the X certificate age to 18. The influence of Le Fanu’s Carmilla – which predates Dracula by a quarter of a century – helped shift their focus from sequelizing their movies from the 50’s to creating the Karnstein trilogy and giving their vampires a new angle. The feature-length documentary, which is only three minutes shy of its subject’s running time, details the development of the film, including its original direction, the discovery of its two leading ladies, and spotlights on the other actors individually.
The Props That Hammer Built: The Kinsey Collection (23:28) – Hammer historian Wayne Kinsey shows off his impressive prop collection and gives some insight into their place in the studio’s history. He has a really impressive assortment of miniatures, concept art, and fake body parts (especially since most of the props were sadly thrown away before Hammer’s relevance was truly established), but the most unique thing he has is a bat puppet, which was created for an alternate ending to The Brides of Dracula.
Deleted Scene (1:09) – A sequence where Anton’s (David Warbeck) class of young girls sing along to his new composition. In the theatrical version, Gustav bursts into the house right as they’re getting started; the scene’s absence suits the flow of the film much better.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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