Twins Of Evil
Director: John Hough

Cast: Peter Cushing, Damien Thomas, Mary Collinson, Madeleine Collinson.
Review by Brian M. Sammons

Twins Of Evil is a classic Hammer film on Blu-ray. Buy it.

Hey, Shelia (the imaginary secretary that lives in my head) what’s up next for review?

What, you still here? It’s Hammer, Blu-ray, buy it! What more do you need? How about this: it’s got Peter Cushing, witch burnings, vampires, a pair of former Playboy Playmates as the titular twins, and this new disc was put up by Synapse Films who know how to do Blu-ray and DVD right. So like I said, go buy it.

Still not enough? OK, I guess you want the full treatment. So grab a crucifix and get ready to go back in time, this is Twins Of Evil.

A pair of beautiful twins in the nineteenth century are orphaned and sent to live with their bible-thumping, puritanical terror of an uncle named Gustav, who is played to creepy, crazy perfection by Peter Cushing. Gustav just loves to burn beautiful young women at the steak for witchcraft and much to his chagrin, the nearby lord in his castle is way into sex, Satanism, and getting turned into a vampire by the ghost of one of the “witches” Gustav torched some years ago. With one of the twins being a good girl and the other being a fiery free spirit, it isn’t long before one sister is seduced by the aristocratic vampire, becomes a sexy bloodsucker, which sets Gustav off on a burning frenzy to clean the village of all evil, both real and imagined.

Twins Of Evil is the third in a trilogy of movies based on the classic vampire tale Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu. The first two movies, which were also Hammer Films, were The Vampire Lovers and Lust For A Vampire and they actually take place later in time than this one, so this is a prequel of sorts. Also sadly, while the other two flicks were chock full of hot Lesbian vampire action befitting a movie take of Carmilla, there’s very little of that here. Oh well, no movie is perfect. The good news is that you don’t have to have seen the previous two films in order to enjoy this one.

Despite the lack of Lesbian action, there’s still plenty of good to be found with these Twins. First and foremost it’s a classic Hammer vampire movie made when Hammer was still delivering the goods. So for fans of gothic, period horror with a dash of sex and a splash of blood, that’s a good enough reason to own this movie. Then there’s Peter Cushing and with a very few exceptions he’s awesome in everything and this is not one of those exceptions. Last but not least, there are the Collinson twins who are always all but falling out of their flimsy nighties. Mmmm, can’t get enough of that. Add to that the wonderful sets, great looking costumes, and amazing soundtrack. Oh and it bears repeating: Peter freaking Cushing doing what he does best: wasting vampires with style. You’ve got to love that, and if you don’t, then you’ve got no business calling yourself a horror fan. Sorry, but that’s a scientific fact and you can’t argue with science.

This new Blu-ray, DVD combo pack from Synapse Films comes with some really nice extras to sink your teeth into. OK, sorry for that, I couldn’t help myself. First and foremost there is a nice big documentary about the movie called “The Flesh and the Fury: X-posing Twins of Evil” that at an hour and twenty minutes is almost as long as the feature film. And if the title of this doc sounds titillating, that’s because it’s full of naughty fleshy bits and is all about Hammer turning up the sex in their ’70s flicks and Le Fanu’s Carmilla. This documentary was very good and if you’re a fan of Hammer Films or classic vampire stories in general then it’s worth getting this Blu-ray just to watch it. There’s also a shorter featurette about the props from the film. An isolated music tack (I told you the music in this movie was awesome), still gallery, deleted scenes, trailers and TV spots round out the impressive goodies. If you take into account how good this movie looks, a trademark of Synapse Films’ Blu-rays, then you’ve simply got a great release.

Twins Of Evil is a great little vampire film with blood, boobs, and bunches of British charm. If you are a Hammerhead (and if that’s not the official title for fans of Hammer Films, it really should be) then getting this is a no brainer. If you are into gothic horror, this is also a mandatory addition to your library. If you’re into vampires, forget that sparkling, emo crap and see sexy vampires that are still scary. I can easily and highly recommend this Blu-ray to all horror fans. It’s called a classic for a reason and it earns that title easily.

About Brian M. Sammons

Brian M. Sammons has penned stories that have appeared in the anthologies: Arkham Tales, Horrors Beyond, Monstrous, Dead but Dreaming 2, Horror for the Holidays, Deepest, Darkest Eden and others. He has edited the books; Cthulhu Unbound 3, Undead & Unbound, Eldritch Chrome, Edge of Sundown, Steampunk Cthulhu, Dark Rites of Cthulhu, Atomic Age Cthulhu, World War Cthulhu and Flesh Like Smoke. He is also the managing editor of Dark Regions Press’ Weird Fiction line. For more about this guy that neighbors describe as “such a nice, quiet man” you can check out his infrequently updated webpage here: http://brian_sammons.webs.com/ and follow him on Twitter @BrianMSammons.

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