Doppelgänger

This movie holds your interest and keeps you wondering, up until an ending which will make cry out "Oh boy!". It's so gruesome and far-fetched and off-base that it's positively ludicrous. On the plus side, Drew Barrymore burns up the screen with a much steamier performance than the one she gave in "Poison Ivy", and the "good guys" are unusually likable (in an unforced way) for a horror film. (**)

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.

During the opening credits, we see an aroused Drew Barrymore squirming around with an unidentified man. She appears to be enjoying a very pleasant sexual experience, but is later haunted by this memory. Next, Drew Barrymore visits an unidentified woman and stabs her after bleeding from the nose and showing webbed fingers. The story really gets started when Barrymore (as Holly Gooding) arrives in Los Angeles to answer a "roommate wanted" ad placed by cute young writer George Newbern (as Patrick Highsmith). He wears a hat to bed, but Mr. Newbern is not balding...

Also in town is a Barrymore twin she calls her "Doppelganger"...

Newbern first sees the second Barrymore at a café with ex-girlfriend Leslie Hope (as Elizabeth). Then, she disappears. Dennis Christopher has fun as a mad doctor with Hell to pay and Sally Kellerman is a reformed nun. Newbern doesn't know what to think, and neither will you. There is a lesson here - if a beautiful young woman arrives to be your roommate, there will be a catch. Cheers to Avi Nesher and the crew for finding and re-decorating what looks like my old Los Angeles apartment. The curtains, tea kettle and dish drainer went with the place. The TV never worked.

***** Doppelganger (4/24/93) Avi Nesher ~ Drew Barrymore, George Newbern, Leslie Hope, Dennis Christopher

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).

I got the DVD very cheap and I'm a total Drewbie, and thats probably the only constellation where this movie could ever interest anyone.

An early Drew movie, she's looking great, and she gets a quite lot of really cute scenes of her, like a shower scene, a sexy dance scene, quite a number of sexy outfits etc. She does never show the friendly charm we know from her more recent movies.

The movie itself is pretty average or sub-average, and much more looking like being made for the TV than one for the cinema. There is no real horror or tension built up and the dialogs are often cheesy.

The most interesting part is probably the end because I honestly don't understand it. But maybe there is nothing to understand about it anyway. But at least you don't get the end you would be expecting, and it also comes much sooner than one would have expected.

Overall I think this movie is exclusively for Drewbies.