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DVD Review: TWINS OF EVIL (BLU-RAY/DVD COMBO)

Studio: Synapse
Year: 1971
Cast: Mary Collinson, Madeleine Collinson, Peter Cushing, Kathleen Byron, Damien Thomas, David Warbeck, Dennis Price, Roy Stewart, Katya Wyeth, Luan Peters, Isobel Black
Director: John Hough
Release Date: July 10, 2012
Rating: R for (violence, brief nudity)
Run Time: 01h:27m:16s
Genre(s): horror

"This place has been accursed with the evil of some who abide here!" - Gustav Weil (Peter Cushing)

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Any horror fan worth their salt should go a little nutty for a Hammer film with Peter Cushing and twin Playboy centerfolds in the lead roles. This may not be the celebrated Hammer's finest work, but Cushing chews it up beautifully, the Collinson girls are eye-pealing and the new Synapse 1080p transfer is quite nice.

Movie Grade: B

DVD Grade: A-

The title might be a little deceptive - there's really only one "evil" twin here, despite Peter Cushing's lamentation - but this 1971 entry is the final peg in Hammer's so-called Karnstein trilogy, alongside The Vampire Lovers (1970) and Lust For A Vampire (1971). It's really more of a prequel, with material borrowing again from Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's 1872 Gothic novel Carmilla for inspiration, but none of that real-life history matters all that much from a standalone perspective. Twins Of Evil, directed by John Hough (The Legend Of Hell House, Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry, The Watcher In The Woods) can be enjoyed solely on its own merits, much of which sits firmly on the always compelling Cushing, who froths wildly as the puritanical judge/jury/executioner Gustav Weil in the village of Karnstein. As the leader of Karnstein's "Brotherhood" Cushing's Weil takes great pleasure in burning suspected witches at the stake, most of whom are standard issue Hammer beauties.

Things get darkly complicated when Gustav's blossoming twin twenty-year-old big city nieces Maria and Freida (Mary and Madeleine Collinson) arrive in the tiny burg of Karnstein to live with the Weils after the death of their parents. The identical twins - Maria is a bit meek, Freida is a bit wild - both have trouble fitting in for their own reasons, and when hunky Count Karnstein (Damien Thomas) catches the eye of one of the girls the expected genre nastiness ensues. It seems the Count dabbles in the Dark Arts - he even offers up a toast to Satan during dinner parties - and it isn't long before fangs are chomping on necks, bosoms are heaving and crosses are burning flesh. The screenplay was written by Tudor Gates, who penned the other Karnstein titles, and though the vampire presence here never quite fits within the context as well as it could have there is always the pure joy of seeing Cushing own every scene he appears in, even when it's opposite the coquettish beauty of the Collinson twins.

While this is Cushing's film to own - and he does - Mary and Madeleine Collinson fare better in their performances than I think film geek history gives them credit for. Not so much from an acting perspective, but simply as watchable leads that can carry their part of the film. Sure, their voices were dubbed to clean up their Maltese accents, but each of them display enough wide-eyed wonder (no matter how unpleasant the subject matter) and sex appeal to go around (sheer nighties, CHECK!). I also found their habit of looking wordlessly and/or questioningly at one another when things got precarious to speak louder than some of their dialogue. Perhaps that was intentional due to their talents, but it worked for me. Hammer could have easily done the split-screen thing and doubled a non-twin actress (something they considered early on) but by using the Collinson girls Twins Of Evil seems immediately more genuine (for a vampire film, that is) and moments like those quick little looks at each other would not have been there.

Twins Of Evil runs a lean 87 minutes, and in that time rarely manages to wander off task, even though the machinations of the plot are not especially unpredictable. Some of the line reads go a little over the top at times (Damien Thomas really needed to work on his maniacal laugh) but familiar secondary characters like Dennis Price (Vampiros Lesbos, Son Of Dracula) bring some style to scenes that could have gone south otherwise. The film's final act includes a few requisite moments of inspired gore so that things end with an appropriate bang, even though the Hammer nudity quotient is relatively mild for a film touting twin Playboy centerfolds as main characters.

IMAGE/AUDIO
The AVC-encoded 1.66:1 1080p transfer from Synapse is retains plenty of the original film grain but delivers a degree of clarity and detail that made me feel like I was seeing this for the first time. The new transfer is damn near pristine, with no evidence of nicks, dirt or debris; fleshtones and colors look generally quite spot-on throughout. Perhaps not the most initially striking Blu-Ray transfer of the year but one look at the age-related issues on the included theatrical trailer shows just how impressive this restoration really is.

The lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono track on the BD is properly minimalist, with no artificial surround cues added. Overall presentation retains the vintage-era flatness (thunder/lightning sounds especially thin) but voice quality is resonant and clear, including the dubbed voices of the Collinson twins. The big surprise for me was the way the robust Harry Robertson score stood out prominently, reminding how this has always been one of my favorite underrated Hammer scores. There's even better news for fans of Robertson's score, because Synapse has included a DTS-HD MA Music & Effects track. To say this please my inner geek would be an understatement.

The SD disc contains only audio option, in Dolby Digital 2.0 English mono.

EXTRAS
Special features - most of which are only found on the BD - begin with the all-encompassing The Flesh and The Fury: X-Posing Twins of Evil (01h:24m:36s). The brand new feature-length doc, which runs nearly as long as Twins Of Evil itself, features a solid lineup of Hammer experts, including usual suspects like Wayne Kinsey, Tim Lucas, Ted Newsom, Kim Newman and Joe Dante. This provides not just an historical overview of Hammer, but a detailed discussion of how Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's 1872 Gothic novel Carmilla served as the inspiration not just for Twins Of Evil, but for the whole of Hammer's Karnstein trilogy. As an added plus there are brief interviews with John Hough and Damien Thomas, as well.

Next up is The Props That Hammer Built (23m:28s), in which Wayne Kinsey proudly shows off his remarkable collection of Hammer memorabilia from a number of classic films, including Kiss of the Vampire, Bride of Dracula and The Gorgon. Kinsey doesn't just display it, he offers up the rich history behind. Also included is a Motion Stills Gallery (14m:01s), the U.S.theatrical trailer (02m:30s), the original U.S. Double Feature trailer (02m:39s) when it was paired with Hands of the Ripper, a set of TV spots (01m:10s) and a single deleted scene (01m:09s). The cut scene is a weirdly odd one, featuring a song sung by a couple of the girls in the "school" while all-around good guy Anton (David Warbeck) bangs away on the harpsichord.

As I mentioned this Blu-Ray/DVD combo pack from Synapse shakes things up a little, and it should be noted that the SD disc only contains the film, the U.S. theatrical trailer and the documentary The Flesh and The Fury.

Posted by: Rich Rosell - July 21, 2012, 10:37 am - DVD Review
Keywords: peter cushing, hammer films, vampires, mary collinson, madeleine collinson