dworldeater Twins Of Evil, for me has just about all the key components for a classic Gothic horror classic. There are vampires, a castle, the classic Hammer sets, gorgeous Playmate twins, titties,devil worship, fanatical witchburners,a good amount of blood and gore and satanic sacrifices. Let's also not forget about Peter Cushing's cold and cruel performance as Puritan religious fanatic Guastav Weil, who with his followers terrorize all the hot single women in the area. That alone is worth a 10 star rating. The Collins twins look great and perform well here as one is good and the other is evil. Damien Thomas was great as Count Karnstein, another awesome Hammer villain. Very appropriate and under rated performance. The score is excellent as well as the camera work. Performances are solid across the board. Twins Of Evil is the 3rd and final film in Hammers Karnstein trilogy. Compared to the other two films, there is less eroticism and nudity, and no lesbian stuff. However, in every way the film is solid. Twins Of Evil is an excellent atmospheric horror classic in the Hammer tradition and one of its most well made films from Hammer from the 70's. If that sounds good to you, Twins Of Evil will not let you down.

angus-lamont Well what can I say, after reading so many positive reviews on this film, I finally sat down and watched "Twins of Evil"! Highly recommend the Network Blu Ray and probably one of the best looking films I've seen. The titular duo are great, as is Damien Thomas, who is right up there with Lee and David Peel as the evil Count Karnstein. Peter Cushing is phenomenal in this, and at first I was expecting him to be the villain, you forget he is actually on the good side. Dennis Price I thought was decent as the hero character, just glad Cushing interrupted his musical number! As someone who admires cinematography, the sets and colour palette in the film is stunning, enhanced even more by the HD transfer, particularly the scenes in Karnstein's castle! The special effects are great too, especially the reflection shots, which I guess were accomplished with a fake mirror. Great soundtrack too. Just wish the Blu Ray had more extras or a commentary, though I understand a US release does so. Safe to say it is definitely going amongst my Hammer favourites! British Horror at its finest!

Nigel P Playboy 'playmates' Mary and Madeleine Collinson play Maria and Frieda, two recently orphaned twins from Venice, who have the additional misfortune to be coming to live with their Uncle Veil, the constantly furious leader of 'The Brotherhood', a group who bastardise their interpretation of religion by sacrificing young girls whom they believe are 'servants of the devil'. One of the best lines in the film is Veil's response to his nieces not wearing black after two months of mourning. On seeing their smart clothes, he intones, finger raised to the Heavens, "WHAT kind of PLUMAGE is this??"Peter Cushing gives one of his best performances ever as Gustav Veil, a fairly complex character as written. With seldom few genuine 'good guys' on display (hero Anton (David Warbeck) is a teacher with less than professional designs on Frieda, who is, after all, one of his students) , Veil is typically written as a hypocritical, tyrannical yet ultimately fragile and humane authority figure. Cushing plays every contrast to the hilt, so that rather than hating him, the viewer is drawn into the moral dilemma of how to deal with the demonic forces he has given his life (and the life of those around him) to destroying, when such forces infest his own family. In his perverted translation of religion, he and his followers, all aroused by each other's vehement hatred of impurities, are responsible for the deaths of more innocents than the corrupt Count Karnstein – and yet when Gustav falls, as he inevitably must, he dies a (kind of) hero. Real life tragedies etched ten years of age onto Cushing's countenance (compare his appearance here to his last Hammer outing 'The Vampire Lovers') and leant him a forlorn countenance that adds to Veil's vulnerability.Damien Thomas was rumoured to be in line to play Dracula for Hammer once Christopher Lee had finally hung up his fangs – and from his performance here, it is easy to see why. The twins are also very good here, despite having little formal acting experience – subtle differences in responses separate the mischievous Frieda from the wholesome Maria very well; no mean feat considering they are dubbed throughout. Dennis Price is exceptional as the weaselly Dietrich. Often wasted at this stage of his career on cheap sex-comedies and low-budget horrors, he is exemplary here, especially when ineffectually attempting to excite Karnstein with some inept devil-worshipping entertainment.Harvey Hall, the only actor to have appeared in all of this trilogy (alongside Kirstin Lindholm who is briskly burnt at the stake), is his usual dependable self as Franz, one of The Brotherhood. Finally, Katya Wyeth plays the third incarnation of Carmilla/Mircalla, (who speaks in crisp, clipped RC English, without the European intonations of her predecessors) who – in her one scene – incestuously seduces The Count and turns him into a vampire (which begs the question, who was responsible for the vampire attacks on villagers before Karnstein's turning?). Apparently, Ingrid Pitt was offered the part, but possibly due to its brevity, turned it down.Director Tim Burton often cites Hammer films as an inspiration for the visuals of his films, especially 'Sleepy Hollow (1999)'. It is easy to imagine he refers specifically to 'Twins of Evil' as virtually every scene is reminiscent of the darkest Gothic fairy-tale, with great use of rich colours against the shadows. Apparently the budget for this wasn't much higher than the previous 'Lust' film, which is astounding, as this looks magnificent and a true credit to Director John Hough. The music also separates this from others in the trilogy. The bombastic score is exciting and plays against some of the more gruesome scenes (the elongated burnings, for example), and yet makes them more tragic and frightening than if more traditional incidentals were used. 'Twins' is as good as anything Hammer has ever produced.

Prichards12345 Hammer Films' efforts for 1970 were rather poor affairs, including the fairly average Vampire Lovers and the downright bad Lust For A Vampire. These movies featured the character of Carmilla Karnstein, the vampire created by J. Sheridan Le Fanu in his novel Carmilla. Twins of Evil, made by the same producers for Hammer the following year, is actually the final film of "The Karnstein Trilogy", and is a considerable improvement.Twins shows in part the influence of Witchfinder General (1968), and features Peter Cushing on nightly forays into the countryside to root out and burn witches, while becoming the legal guardian of the titular twins, only one of which is actually evil. It's clear he's actually persecuting innocents; while the debauched Count Karnstein (Damien Thomas) is practising Satanism with impunity. Cushing plays Gustave Weil's religious mania for all he's worth. Sadly, the actor was just returning to work after the death of his wife, and he delivers a grim, dark and utterly compelling performance. Thomas is very good too and it's a surprise Hammer didn't use him a lot more.But of course the principal focus is on the Collinson Twins, who appear on this showing to be rather better actors than either Ingrid Pitt or Yutte Stensgaard, both of whom featured in the earlier Karnstein Movies.With it's Western-style movie score, and a convincing air of Medieval superstition Twins Of Evil fairly rattles along, and is an interesting and off-beat addition to the Hammer canon.