The Twins (2022)

Directed by: Taneli Mustonen | 108 minutes | horror | Actors: Teresa Palmer, Steven Cree, Barbara Marten, Tristan Ruggeri, Ergo Küppas

Some movies look like an episode of a dating show. The first meeting starts out a little awkward. Giving yourself an attitude and showing your best side to a complete stranger is quite tricky. Which beautiful feature do you want to use first and which anecdote breaks the ice? In the meantime, the doubt remains whether your match likes you, so they go a step further. The result is that that funny joke is completely out of the picture and the situation becomes even more awkward. When the nerves wear off and a real conversation starts, you notice that there are many similarities, but it just doesn’t work. There are certainly similarities in appearance and interior, but the click is missing. The match sounded better on paper! A date to forget quickly. ‘The Twin’ is the cinematic version of a date.

‘The Twin’ centers on Rachel (Teresa Palmer) and Anthony (Steven Cree). These young parents are dealt a blow when one of their children (half of twins) dies in a car accident. To cope with this loss, the couple decides to burn all the ships behind them and start a new life in Scandinavia with their son Elliot. That does not work. Especially not if Elliot starts acting strange.

Actually ‘The Twin’ doesn’t do much wrong, but what it does mainly evokes memories of much better films. The strange villagers are reminiscent of ‘Midsommar’ while the grieving couple (broken mother and rather apathetic father) hint at ‘Hereditary’. The strange child then reminds one of ‘The Omen’. It doesn’t work because the film tries very hard to evoke an oppressive atmosphere that just doesn’t get off the ground.

It never gets really scary because the film is very slow and only gets steam in the finale. Then you’ve been watching a slow drama for over an hour and a half. No matter how good the acting (Palmer is phenomenal and deserves a better movie), it doesn’t stick. ‘The Twin’ is a succession of clichés (the village idiot, pagan rituals and hidden family pasts: check, check and double check!) but it does not transcend these tired genre tricks. It doesn’t stick. Not bad, but very average.

The acting is strong, the location is beautiful and the script taps into beloved genre clichés: ‘The Twin’ is good looking and friendly. However, the attraction is not there. The thought of exes you were close with keeps jumping up and down. It might be interesting to schedule a double date with old lovers (‘Hereditary’ and ‘Midsommar’ will probably get along!) and than