The Twin is a horror movie that’s currently on Shudder and out on Blu-Ray. It’s about the Rachel (Theresa Palmer) whose son Nathan (Tristan Ruggeri) has died in a tragic accident, but his twin, Elliot, has survived. She ends up moving from New York to Finland with Elliot and her husband, Anthony (Steven Cree).
Elliot starts talking to an invisible person, who you of course assume is his dead twin. His parents become concerned about him, worrying that Nathan is being channeled through him or has taken him over somehow. As the story goes along, the truth comes out.
It’s probably about a half-hour too long, which tends to be the case with a lot of Shudder films. It’s a very derivative horror movie, and reminds me a little too much of the work of Ari Aster (Hereditary), who is one of the few horror filmmakers who can go long. One of the most derivative bits is a scene involving a cult in the town where they end up, which is a wholesale rip from Aster’s Midsommar.
The Twin is one of those films that wants to be “elevated horror,” with heavy themes of grief and trauma. Filmmaker and co-scriptwriter Taneli Mustonen isn’t a stylist enough director to pull that off. You see the twist coming, but they do add another one to it that’s a bit better. But unfortunately, it still drags along, and you wish they’d pick up the pace.
The cinematography is OK, but at times it has too much of the look of a TV film because of being shot digitally. There are some interesting matte paintings (done with CGI). It was not shot in Mustonen’s home country of Finland, but in Estonia. He also must be a huge fan of the TV show A Discovery of Witches since 3 of the cast are actors from that series including Theresa Palmer.
It’s perfectly fine, but doesn’t take itself up to the level of being something to go back to. So if you think you’ve seen everything on Shudder, it’s an OK choice. The extras on the disc include a 8 minute making-of featurette.
★★½
Ian Schultz
psychotroniccinema.com 
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