Reviews
‘The Twin’ Review – Maternal Nightmare Gets Too Caught Up in Its Destination
Bloody Disgusting’s The Twin review is spoiler-free.
Gaslighting and paranoid isolation frequently come into play in horror movies centered around motherhood. Everything about The Twin‘s premise teases more of the same. Director and co-writer Taneli Mustonen (Lake Bodom) aims to subvert that formula by infusing it with folk horror and a few narrative sharp turns. But it’s so fixated on the destination that the journey getting there is a struggle.
After an idyllic drive through the countryside ends in tragedy, Rachel (Teresa Palmer) and Anthony (Steven Cree) bury their son Nathan in New York and then relocate with their surviving son Elliot (Tristan Ruggeri) to the quiet Scandinavian countryside to heal. It doesn’t take long for Elliot to begin behaving peculiarly or for Rachel to notice the locals’ ominous, ever-watchful presence. The more mistrust grows as the locals seem to close in, the more desperate Rachel becomes to unravel the truth about the sinister forces that targeted Elliot.
Mustonen, who co-wrote with Aleksi Hyvärinen, plays things close to the vest throughout. Setting the story almost entirely post-grief removes any chance of getting to know this family’s dynamic before the loss, of who they were before the crash. That’s intentional, of course, but it does make it challenging to find a foothold when Rachel begins her emotional arc already in an exaggerated state that never wavers beyond a straight line of constant duress. Whereas Rachel is the volatile, overbearing doting mother, her husband Anthony is distant and aloof, often retreating to his office for drinks while listening to Rachel’s battles with Elliot lashing out. There’s a flatness to both central characters.
Then there are the red herrings and strange visual clues. The early transition scene that sees Rachel and Anthony burying their son is set against a cityscape featuring the World Trade Center. There seems to be no actual significance to placing the narrative in this period other than to use the Twin Towers as a not-so-subtle hint in a horror movie titled The Twin. The Twin is full of enigmatic clues that don’t click into place until much later, and even then land with a thud.
!['The Twin' Trailer - Teresa Palmer Gives Birth to Evil [Video]](https://i0.wp.com/bloody-disgusting.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Screen-Shot-2022-02-17-at-10.16.50-AM.png?ssl=1)
How Mustonen layers in the folk horror raises visual interest, complete with Pagan rituals and Baphomet induced nightmares, but it’s all kept at a deliberate distance. Everything gets framed from Rachel’s perspective to maintain the mystery, drawing it out as long as possible. The third act finally brings the big picture into clear view, but the logical leaps and shortcuts it took to get there mean minimal impact. Worse, it underscores how much of what came before was unimportant filler and questions character choices and motivations.
The setting and Daniel Lindholm‘s cinematography at least capture the natural beauty of the Finnish countryside, but it’s not enough to sell the intended atmosphere. Mustonen’s attempts to subvert familiar tropes and clichés are over reliant on an ending that doesn’t entirely feel earned, wholly undermining its characters. Supporting player Barbara Marten injects a needed spark of life as ally and neighbor Helen, but even she, too, gets undercut for the sake of the payoff. In the end, The Twin is all fakeouts, devoid of scares.
The Twin premieres on Shudder, in theaters, on VOD and digital on May 6, 2022.
You know that when prolific director Doug Campbell is involved in a thriller, it’s going to be a ridiculously good time. So although The Manny, written by screenwriters Tamar Halpern and Scotty Mullen, isn’t on the same level as this year’s She’s Obsessed with My Husband, it’s still got plenty to recommend.
Lani McCall (Joanne Jansen) is a food vlogger on the rise. She’s on the cusp of signing a major network contract, thanks to love interest Zack (Brendan Morgan), but her recent divorce from unreliable husband Darren (Jamaal Grant) has left her in a precarious child care situation.
Lani tends to rely on assistant/producer Mercedes (Hailey Summer), but it’s not a sustainable situation. What she really needs is a nanny for her son, Jaylen (Ashton Ayres); ideally as soon as possible.
Enter Morgan (Michael Evans Behling), a hunky 23 year old who cooks, cleans, and dotes on Lani. He’s too good to be true, which – in Lifetime films – is code for “he’s a completely homicidal wacko.”
The joy of these thrillers isn’t piecing together who the villain is; that’s usually obvious from the opening scene (that applies here: The Manny opens with Morgan putting away notepads on his previous “families” and starting a fresh one with a picture of Lani and Jaylen on the cover).
Instead the fun comes from watching the ridiculous gaslighting the villains do before they get their inevitable comeuppance. And, in the case of The Manny, Halpern and Mullen understand that silly is often better than serious.
Which is why when Morgan begins disposing of Lani’s closest friends and confidants to secure his position in the household and her heart, his technique is hilariously unusual. For example, Lani’s sex-positive neighbor Shannon (Jenny Itwaru) is first painted as a gossip before Morgan poisons her smoothie with (get this) expired prosciutto in order to give her a stomach bug.
Morgan’s psychotic behavior quickly escalates to include identity theft, catfishing, and eventually murder, albeit even the latter action is sublimely silly. I can’t honestly say I’ve ever seen asphyxiation by Murphy bed in a thriller before, but I hope to again!
Considering Morgan ingratiates himself into Lani’s life partially via cooking, it’s amusing how many of his violent acts involve kitchen items. Mercedes is removed temporarily from the equation when she breaks a leg falling down cooking oil-greased stairs and, in the kitchen-set climax, Morgan even threatens to tip a pot of boiling water on top of Jaylen’s head.
In different hands, this could be genuinely scary, but Campbell’s directorial approach tends to lean into camp territory. Halpern and Mullen’s screenplay adopts a similar approach, peppering Zack’s dialogue with affirmations of the Manny’s model good looks, including the observation that his “lips are distracting.” Even serious moments, such as when Morgan alleviates Lani’s stress by rubbing peppermint oil on her neck, is accompanied by the double entendre “Yeah, you are pretty tight.”
Evans Behling is having a great time as the perpetrator, striking the right balance between unhinged and doe-eyed innocent. Not unlike The Stepfather films, Morgan is basically a family annihilator in search of the perfect pair, though the traumatic origin of his obsession feels slightly at odds tonally with the goofiness of the rest of the plot.
As the gaslit protagonist, Jansen is saddled with the least interesting role, though Lani’s struggle to balance her career while dating and single parenting is relatable content. Secondary characters are enjoyable enough, particularly when they are given opportunities to be suspicious of Morgan.
At its core, The Manny is a silly and entertaining entry in Lifetime’s catalogue of thrillers. Any film that ends with a battle in the woods and features a ski pole as a weapon is alright by me.
The Manny premieres on Lifetime Thursday, May 9.
Original Classic ‘The Crow’ Returning to Theaters for 30th Anniversary
Two New Images from ‘Alien: Romulus’ Spotlight the Heroes and the Giger-Faithful Monster
Party City Releasing Life-Size ‘Terrifier 2’ Art the Clown & Little Pale Girl Animatronics!
“Crystal Lake” – A24 Has NOT Pulled the Plug on Their ‘Friday the 13th’ TV Series [Exclusive]
‘It Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This’ Review – Found Footage Movie Won ‘Best Feature’ at Salem Horror Fest
You must be logged in to post a comment.