The Twin is a film that offers many horror devices and tropes. Some of which are unsettling and startling, others are likely to leave the viewer asking what was the point of that? Taneli Mustonen’s blend of Midsommar and Rosemary’s Baby is reminiscent of various more accomplished horror films, and while the film indicates a genuine attempt to establish its own identity, the overall result falls apart under the weight of its own developments and contradictions.
The opening is promising, with parents Rachel (Teresa Palmer) and Anthony (Steven Cree) losing their son Nathan (Tristan Ruggeri) in a car crash. The crash is shocking and visceral, and the subsequent slow-motion scene of Rachel receiving the news in a hospital bed, with Steven, doctors and a priest around her, is genuinely distressing. There are a couple of distressing moments later, with the most effective aspect of the film being Rachel’s grief and her troubled relationship with Nathan’s twin Elliot (also Ruggeri). The power of grief, damaged mental health and melancholia are powerful devices for horror, provided you focus on it. Unfortunately, The Twin crams in various other devices that leave the result unfocused and messy.
This mess is clear early on, as we see the family at Nathan’s grave in a composite shot with the New York skyline. The awkward compositing feels fake, at odds with the subsequent naturalism of the Finnish countryside where most of the film takes place. This is the film’s main selling point – it’s Finnish horror! Except it isn’t really, because the sinister locals, pine forest and large wooden buildings could just as easily be upstate New York or some other remote part of the USA. The sense of Rachel and Steven being outsiders is never strongly developed, leaving a sense of so what? The aforementioned location and locals form the folk horror element, as these city people attempt to adjust to their new environment. The local harbinger, Helen (Barbara Marten), gives Rachel some cryptic information and later some contrived exposition of the most irritating type because it begs the question WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE? But with a title like The Twin and one remaining twin after a tragic accident, it’s clear that there’s some creepy kid action coming. Thus, the paedophobia surfaces as Elliot appears and disappears, starts behaving strangely and even tempts his mother into a bizarre ritual that is the film’s high point, including an excellent jump scare.
The Twin highlights the tricky balance of placing the horrific within a mundane situation, and also what happens when a straightforward premise is overcomplicated.
As Rachel, Teresa Palmer is fine, but it becomes increasingly frustrating that she is fulfilling the role of a bereaved mother who will not believe there is something wrong with her child. Palmer never gets to go fully berserk, like Toni Collette in Hereditary or Essie Davis in The Babadook, which is a shame because the close-ups of her nearly frantic face become repetitive rather than moving. The standard Gothic trope of the man knowing ‘better’ than the woman occurs throughout, raising questions of gaslighting or the possibility of genuine delusion. When an explanation comes, it does so in a way that largely dissipates the tension that had been built, and the subsequent events feel like a failed attempt to reinject some dramatic stakes. Abrupt edits as well as an unclear period further distance the viewer from the action: vinyl records, a typewriter, photographic film and a lack of mobile phones indicate this is not contemporary, and the New York composite shot features the World Trade Center Twin Towers, for some reason. Nightmare sequences suggest that this could be an unreliable world we are seeing, whether that be for psychological or supernatural reasons, but this mishmash of elements ultimately makes the film unengaging. Supertext at one point makes it clear that WE ARE IN FINLAND, but this seemingly objective reality is contradicted by an emphasis on subjective reality, causing the film’s logic to collapse.
The Twin highlights the tricky balance of placing the horrific within a mundane situation, and also what happens when a straightforward premise is overcomplicated. Mustonen’s steady direction allows for careful hints and some subtle delivery of dread, which helps to create the necessary atmosphere. The large houses make for effective settings, with ample shadows and spaces for a prowling camera that does lead to some creepy set pieces. The film is at its best when it focuses on Rachel’s grief and uncertainty, and more of this uncertainty rather than apparent clarifications of something fantastical could have given the film a more tragic and melancholy effect. Unfortunately, Mustonen and co-writer Aleksi Hyvärinen overcomplicate the story with too many red herrings including an underdeveloped cult, architecture that goes in circles literally, thematically and narratively, reveals and twists that come so fast you start predicting what the next one will be. And you’re probably right. Any of the ideas in The Twin could have made for an effective chiller. As it is, we are left with some creepy moments but an ultimately muddled whole.
This Blu-Ray release comes with a making-of documentary that provides insights into the film’s production.
THE TWIN IS OUT NOW ON ACORN DVD & BLU-RAY
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THE TWIN
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