Doppelgänger

The stage curtains open ...

"Doppelganger" isn't the best psychological horror movie I've ever seen, but there is something about it that peaked my morbid curiosity to continue watching it right up to the very end. And then, even when you think you've got it all figured out, you don't - they give you one more eye-popping final scene that you won't soon forget.

The movie starts off setting the mood right away. A woman is attacked mercilously and murdered by a knife wielding woman who very much resembles our main character, Holly Gooding (played by Drew Barrymore). Then we cut to the immediate future where Holly is looking for a place to live and meets her new roommate, Patrick (played by George Newburn) when she responds to his ad in the paper. As he gets to know her, he learns the dark secrets behind her family and that she believes she is being followed by her doppleganger, who is performing horrendous deeds. When her own institutionized brother's life is threatened, she decides to take maters into her own hands. Things aren't all as they seem - or are they?

Drew Barrymore never looked better and sold her character, though she's had better turns in other movies. George Newburn filled his role and did his job. I thought that the best performance came from Leslie Hope, who played Patrick's very candid, high-strung friend, Elizabeth. I loved her in this movie. The soundtrack is a product of its time with a sensuous dance scene involving Drew swaying hypnotically to the rhythmic beat, running her hands up and down her body.

"Doppelganger" isn't a bad movie. The one thing that I really liked about it, is that it doesn't sell out with some B. S. ending. At first, I thought it was going to, but then the real fun starts to happen - and I liked it. It pretty much covers all the bases when it comes to horror. It is a guilty pleasure and worth the watch at a solid 6 stars out of 10.

Drew Barrymore is an actress that has gone through bad periods, not only in her career, but in her personal life too. After being a prodigy child actress she descended into obscurity with mediocre films of low quality. While she has recovered from that dark past, this movie stays as a reminder of Drew Barrymore's worst days.

The movie starts with an interesting premise, very reminiscent to Brian De Palma's "Raising Cain"; with a plot dealing with multiple personality disorder that sets the story for a horror/thriller. Barrymore stars as Holly Gooding, a young woman who is trying to make a new life in California after a traumatic event of her past in which apparently her other personality killed her mother.

Suddenly, her past returns to haunt her as her evil personality is back in her life willing to ruin her new found peace and her new found love. In the middle of the chaos his new boyfriend, Patrick Highsmith (George Newbern), will try to help Holly to face the demons of her past.

Unlike De Palma's underrated thriller, "Doppelganger" is for the most part a mediocre film that not only never fulfills it's purpose, it also concludes in one of the worst endings of movie history. While Barrymore is definitely not at her best, she manages to keep her dignity with an above average performance. The rest of the cast however range from mediocre to painfully bad over-the-top performances, although Leslie Hope manages to be among the best of them.

The script is full of clichés and De Palma's influence is quite obvious. While the movie tries to be original by making literary references in almost every line, the dialogs are dull and the wooden acting certainly doesn't do any good. It has a fair share of nudity and for strange reasons, and excessive use of special effects.

The make-up effects are done by the outstanding KNB and are really among the few good things in the movie. However, the bizarre over-use of the effects in the totally out of context ending decreases the impact of KNB's work and makes cheesy what in a different movie would be amazing.

The fact that this is a B-Movie is no excuse for it's low quality, as with a better and more coherent script this could had been an interesting movie. Sadly, all we have here is a mediocre film that gets worse every second. Worthy for Barrymore's beauty. 3/10

Such a strange, strange film, but sadly not in a good way. "Doppelganger" is an odd, sensual supernatural horror feature, which is well produced and slickly catered for (it's irresistibly slick). It's a great opening… strikingly seductive but brutal where it has Barrymore's real life mother portraying in her mother on screen. There's obviously money behind it, especially during the climax scenes with a special effects / make-up FX extravaganza. It's a WTF moment. While it might look good, there's no denying how ridiculously silly the story becomes (like some sort of parody) and the acting (mainly the support; Leslie Hope and Dennis Christopher) is overdone. Drew Barrymore is the star, but looks all out of place in the role and George Newbern as her lead comes off bemused more often. The concept isn't bad, but the hollow plot lacks cohesion and involvement in what turns out to be nothing more than unintentionally hilarious in its b-grade shadings and a disappointing smokescreen by the end.

The good? Acting by the "Nice Guy" writer, Newbern, is great. Drew Barrymore's sultry little dances and always seductive scenes. Plot twist will probably surprise you. The bad? Early in Drew's career...look to Ever After and Wedding Singer if you want better acting. Special Effects are stuff I could do with enough silly-putty and Jell-O mix. The ugly? A lot of the plot isn't needed. Could have been wrapped up in a TV show slot, and it indeed felt rushed at the end with a "bad-guy explains his whole evil plot" sequence.

It's good for a laugh, and good to waste some time, but don't be too critical of it. It's more of a confusing B-Movie trying to be a REAL movie than anything.

I think that this movie was good. Drew Barrymore did an excellent job. Although this wasn't the traditional horror flick, it was a movie worth watching, (even more than once).