Twins of Evil (1971) 

Increasingly liberal attitudes to violence and nudity onscreen had been obvious throughout Hammer's work in the 1960s as women got more and more seductive and the blood flowed more freely still. By the 1970s the exploitation era was in full swing and Hammer desperately tried to update their traditional gothic horror films to the new format. The answer was the Karnstein trilogy. A lesser known work from writer Sheridan Le Fanu, it tells of the seduction of young women by the vampire Carmilla and is credited with helping to inspire Bram Stoker - importantly for Hammer it provided plenty of excuses for lesbian activities and nudity with a fair helping of blood and violence. The Vampire Lovers (1970) was a relatively faithful adaptation, and Lust for a Vampire (1971) an interesting semi-sequel, although by Twins of Evil the original format was all but gone and only a brief reference to Le Fanu's characters is made.

In a small village, a band of religious men known as The Brotherhood are lead by Gustav Weil (Peter Cushing). They roam the countryside accusing women of vampirism and witchcraft and burning any number of them. Recently left orphaned, Weil's twin nieces arrive in the town and immediately create a stir with their liberal attitudes. Meanwhile, Count Karnstein is tiring of the earthly pleasures and entertainments that his servant Dietrich (Dennis Price) can provide, and sacrifices a girl to the devil - the summons up the spirit of his long dead ancestor Carmilla and she turns him into a vampire. Similarly looking for the dark side of entertainment, Frieda finds herself drawn towards Karnstein and his towering castle...

 

Twins of Evil is a rather mixed up film that, although enjoyable, seems to be pieced together from a tremendous variety of influences. The Weil character is obviously inspired by the witchfinder films that were popular in the early 1970s thanks to Witchfinder General (1968) and Mark of the Devil (1970), while Count Karnstein's desire for immortal pleasures is similar to that of the gentlemen in Hammer's Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970) and the Karnstein links themselves are inspired by the Le Fanu novel. Added to all this you have some rather funny elements of self-parody (or is it just bad writing?) as the witch hunters travel around randomly burning women at will and Count Karnstein yawns his way through a black mass, and some gaping plot holes - if Karnstein is the only vampire around, then who is biting the young men at the start of the film? - and on top of all that, a rather awkward and absurdly quick romance between the twins and their school teacher Anton, who plays the typical disbelieving hero (see Dracula has Risen from the Grave (1968)) in a terribly underwritten role, backed with some of the worst dialogue committed to celluloid. Amazingly, despite these problems, the film remains daftly enjoyable - far more so that the similarly mixed up Brides of Dracula (1960) - although despite the casting of the twin Playboy centrefolds, nudity is restricted to a disappointingly short scene.

Director John Hough was relatively new to the business when he filmed Twins of Evil and he generally lacks any flair - dialogue scenes in particular are shot in a distinctly television style with simple full face shots of the speaking actor. Surprisingly, the film does boast a couple of very nice set pieces - notably a castle courtyard towards the end of the film, bathed in coloured light with plenty of ground fog that would impress many of the top Italian horror directors. The soundtrack, from Harry Robertson, who scored many of Hammer's later productions, has a standard Hammer orchestral sound, although boasting a rather catchy theme.

All text in this review written by Timothy Young - 5th October 2006.
Text from this review not to be used without authorization.

Please contact: