The Twin

Can't sleep? Watch this movie. It will knock you right out. How anyone could actually sit through this whole film is beyond me. I got to the hour mark and turned it off. This is definitely not a film I'd recommend. 4 stars.

The Twin has a handful of corny horror tropes: child loss, new home in the middle of nowhere, pregnancy exploitation, hallucinations, gaslighting, quasi-satanic rituals, folk atmosphere (or, at least, an attempt to create it), et cetera. Too many ingredients for one film, and eventually it's hard even to qualify the results. Is this a psychological drama wrapped in horror? Is this a horror wrapped in psychological drama? Is this a Finnish Midsommar? We wish we knew. Not even Lights Out's Teresa Palmer and the whole exotic setting ("wow, those Finns are so eerie but their nature is so beautiful") can make this ponderous mess work.

I hadn't heard about this 2022 horror movie "The Twin" from writers Aleksi Hyvärinen and Taneli Mustonen prior to sitting down to watch it. I stumbled upon the movie by random chance, and since it was a horror movie that I hadn't already seen, of course I opted to watch it.

The movie's synopsis was adequate, as there is something about twins in horror movies that just have some appeal as in regard of possible spooky storylines. However, the storyline told in "The Twin" was just somewhat mundane and generic. And the slow pacing of the narrative just made it a downright struggle to sit through this movie. While the movie runs at 1 hour and 49 minutes, the slow paced narrative makes it seem closer to three hours.

I found the storyline in "The Twin" to be somewhat without much of any appeal actually, and I have to admit that my interest in the movie was quickly waning as the storyline trotted on and on in an ungodly slow pace.

"The Twin" has a rather small cast ensemble, so it was up to the cast to put on extraordinary performances to carry the movie. I will say that the cast actually put on fair enough performances, but it was just a shame that they had so little to work with from the script.

For a horror movie, then director Taneli Mustonen took a swing and missed. This movie wasn't scary, especially not to a life-long horror aficionado such as myself. Sure, if you're new to the horror genre, then I will say that "The Twin" could offer something worthwhile.

If you are a horror fan, then I wouldn't recommend you waste your time, money or effort on "The Twin". There are far better and more enjoyable new horror movies out there.

My rating of "The Twin" lands on a generous three out of ten stars.

This film will feel very familiar due to an overused theme (grief). If you can somehow get around that...you may enjoy this. Beautifully filmed (CGI cemetery was weird though) and the acting was solid all around. Atmospheric, but not particularly frightening. Not a fast moving film, but no noticeable filler. I can't think of a reason not to recommend this. Might pair nicely with Wake Wood (2009) for a double feature and exercise in contrast and comparison.

"The Twin" is a movie that has a couple of great qualities: the cinematography and its setting. Fully exploited the rural locations of Finland and a house perfectly lit by the crew to make it look gloomy. The performances of the leads are decent, but the performance of Barbara Marten stands out. The big problem with the movie is its script that tries to emulate current horror movies that revolve around psychological thriller and drama embedded in an art film and fails in its entirety. In addition, there are obvious influences from classics like "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Omen" but without being able to approach their quality. "The Twin" fails as a psychological horror film and offers nothing but excellent visuals.