"TWINS OF EVIL" (1971)

Starring

Peter Cushing

Dennis Price

Mary and Madelaine Collinson

Directed by John Hough

83 minutes

A little while ago I purchased a Carlton DVD Horror film box set from Play.com. Ever since I got into the Hammer/Amicus style of horror earlier this year, I’d been umming and ahhing over this particular set of six for ages, as several of them seemed intriguing simply due to the actors involved. By far the most interesting was this, "Twins of Evil", due to the high billing of both Peter Cushing and Dennis Price, the latter of whom I’d known for his frequent appearances in top notch comedy features of the 50s and 60s, as well as starring in "Kind Hearts and Coronets". I’ve become a fan of Price’s work in general since then, but a few months back only knew him for comedy. But anyway, £25 for six films didn’t seem bad, so I bought and received the set with some trepidation. Out of the six, which also included "The Uncanny", "Vampire Circus", "Hands of the Ripper", "The Monster", and "Countess Dracula" (all of which will soon see reviews in this section), "Twins" was the one I viewed first.

When I first saw it, "Twins of Evil" was rather impressive, with the best musical score I’d yet heard for a Hammer horror and some rather wonderful performances. I’ve watched it again since then, and, though it’s not quite as spectacular as I first decided it to be, it still stands up terribly well.

"Twins" is at first sight a rather dark and bleak film – after all, a lot of it concerns itself with innocent maidens being burnt as demons at the hands of fanatical puritans. About three get burnt within the first forty-five minutes alone, and, though the law of diminishing returns rears its head and gives us a nod, such scenes are still quite chilling. The film also has some genuine shocks - for instance, I had no idea that (bleep) would get (bleep) in the (bleep) towards the finale. No, really, I didn't. It's quite a thing for a Hammer horror to actually have some plot twists you didn't see a mile away (cue "The Mummy" - "I never noticed it before, darling, but you look exactly like this thousand year old Egyptian queen." "Gosh.") And the traditional plot twist concerning identical twins or doubles (which usually culminates in typical "I can’t tell them apart!" histrionics) does happen, but not in the way you’d expect it. Masterful.

However, at the end of the day, there’s still some camp in evidence. The Count, as the main vampire, has reams of terrible dialogue to spout, with nuggets of useful info like "Only the good and the innocent die!" Hammer staples such as hilarious-looking fangs and tomato ketchup blood are in evidence, and there’s the occasional spot of overacting, even from Peter Cushing himself. We’ve also got ourselves some sacrificial rituals, some vague eroticism (Count Kurnstein calls up the vampiric spirit of one of his ancestors and, erm, makes love to her, which she responds to by biting him – you found yourself a good’un there, son; that’ll teach you to commit incest with the dead, by golly), and even a brief bit of potential lesbianism. Apparently this is the third in a Kurnstein trilogy of films, the other two being "The Vampire Lovers" and "Lust for a Vampire". From the sounds of it, "Twins" gets off lightly in the sleaze department.

The plot itself seems to be taking a while to get going - there isn't any real vampire action for about 40 minutes or so, despite a dead body or two being found out in the woods - but it's all jolly good viewing, especially for those of you interested in the whole witch-hunt type thing. Peter Cushing, playing the Godfearing leader of his puritan hoards, rides around on horseback accompanied by his Brotherhood and some dramatic music and hunts down innocent saucy wenches in the wood so that he can burn them on crucifixes, claiming that he is expelling the Devil and saving their souls. Most actors would have bungled this up entirely, playing Gustav as the ranting nutter he appears at first glance to be, but Cushing actually makes him believable – Gustav does think himself to be a good man, and really has faith in his actions. Towards the end, when receiving advice on how to deal with the vampires he’s soon to face, he whispers "And... will this really send their souls up to heaven?" (or words to that effect), with genuine compassion and concern in his voice. Scenes like this are counterbalanced with others in which he’s actually rather frightening, and, despite the potentially clichéd characterisation he’s forced to endure, it's a fantastic performance.

The rest of the cast all make the best of things as well, with the possible exception of the twins themselves, who are both a bit flat (emotionally, not physically, I add at a pedestrian pace). However, the biggest disappointed concerns Dennis Price (pictured). Despite having second billing, he has all of four scenes, and has no bearing on the plot whatsoever. This disappointed me tremendously on first viewing, though following this I did some research into his life and career and found out that his was a most tragic one indeed. I’ll probably go in-depth on him elsewhere later on, but for now let’s just say that some think that he was on the road to becoming one of the best actors we ever had in the 40s - and then things went wrong. By the late 50s, following an attempted suicide, he’d abandoned all hope of doing serious dramatic roles and concentrated on comedy, which gave him a form of longevity. However, by the 70s he’d become a tax exile, wracked by alcoholism, and was reduced to cameo roles, mainly in low budget horrors, and was even forced to appear in a couple of Jess Franco productions just to get by. Eventually, things got too much for him and he succeeded in killing himself in 1973 – only two years after this film was released, in fact. Despite the toll events were taking on his life, Price continued to give wonderful performances with even the remotest material, as can be seen here. His character of Dietrich (what a fantastic name) would have been put about twelfth in the cast list if it’d been played by anybody else, so little has he to actually do, but Price actually flexes his acting muscles and gives him a naïve, nervous quality that makes him compelling to watch. Price is a wonderful "face" actor, and at his best when allowed to convey his character’s emotions and insecurities through his expressions. As a final matter of interest, I learnt recently that a book about him had been proposed a while back, but was facing difficulties. Upon finding the email address of the author, Eilliot J Huntley, I sent off an email asking if the book was going ahead, and received a reply earlier today! Apparently the book is going very well, with the many problems facing it slowly being overcome (mainly concerning a lack of materials and many of Price’s films being unavailable). So I’ll be looking forward to this publication, yes indeedy.

There's actually precious little violence in the film up until the final stages when a fight scene against Kurnstein’s mute manservant (played by Toberman from "Tomb of the Cybermen") contains some rather graphic stabbings and cleavings, followed closely afterwards by axes and lances being chucked about all over the place. However, the violence, having been used sparingly up till this point, didn’t seem gratuitous and gave the ending a bit of the required oomph. And sex / nudity is relegated to some heaving bosoms and a few saucy glances for the most part, though loveable Anton the school teacher gets an eyeful of the evil twin's breasts in a seduction scene. And very nice they were too. Which is a lot coming from a cringing Englishman.

The musical score is terribly overblown and seems to suit a Western more than a horror flick, but, well, it sounds rather top notch and dramatic all the same. With almost every factor of the production coming up trumps, especially Peter Cushing giving one of his best performances, this is a rather special little Hammer horror, let down only by some rather dull acting courtesy of the twins, and the lack of Dennis Price. Still, for what it is, it’s awfully entertaining.