History Film / TwinsOfEvil

Meanwhile, it turns out that Gustav Weil has identical twin nieces, Maria and Freida Gellhorn (played by RealLife twins Mary and Madeleine Collinson). The gorgeous twins, newly orphaned after their parents (somehow) died, have come to live with Gustav. Maria, the innocent good twin, falls for handsome Anton. However Freida, the fiery, pleasure-seeking EvilTwin, chafes under the stern hand of her Puritan uncle. She makes her way to Castle Karnstein and hooks up with the count.

* BlatantLies: Freida, having been caught in the act of drinking a man's blood by Gustav's circle, claims she and the man were attacked by a vampire. There's blood dripping from her mouth as she says this.

* EvilTwin: Freida, who seeks pleasure and excitement, willingly becomes a vampire, and really enjoys using her powers to kill people.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Delayed in the case of the twins to show how difficult it is to tell them apart until you get to know them. The differences become apparent in their reaction to their uncle's disapproval of their outfits. Freida protests they wore black for a full two months while Maria quietly apologizes and says they never meant any offense. Shortly afterwards Freida shoots Gustav a [[DeathGlare Death Glare]] as he leaves while Maria lowers her head.

* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: Maria is the good girl who says they should obey Gustav's strict rules and avoid making trouble. Freida is rebellious and actively looks for trouble, going to Count Karnstein's castle against her sister's advice. After she goes there, she graduates from Foolish Sibling to EvilTwin.

* HypnoticEyes: Count Karnstein deploys his hypnotic vampire eyes to put the jailer into a trance, allowing him to switch out Maria for the imprisoned Freida.
* IdenticalTwinMistake: Count Karnstein deliberately invokes this when he liberates Freida from jail and puts Maria there in her place. Strangely, Maria doesn't say who she is even after the Brotherhood has tied her to a stake. It takes Anton, showing up at the last minute, to reveal the switcheroo and save Maria's life.

* LesbianVampire: Lesbian vampires were basically the whole point of the Karnstein trilogy, but in this third film it's only hinted at after being much more explicit in the first two. Count Karnstein gives a buxom young lady to Freida for dinner, and Freida bites her on the breast. Also, the twins [[IncestSubtext share a bed]].

* MissingReflection: Freida is shocked when she stands in front of a mirror with Karnstein and sees only herself. (Naturally, this practical effect was simple to achieve given that the stars of the movie were twins.)

* OffWithHerHead: Freida, courtesy of Gustav.

** Likewise these vampires only become so because they have dedicated themselves to Satan. Gertrude and Dietreich both serve Karnstein but because they are not as far gone as him, they die when Freida bites them.
** This would suggest that Freida, a teenage girl who only wants to get out of this tiny village and away from a cruel uncle is much more evil than a middle-aged pimp and procurer who serves an avowedly cruel and contemptible aristocrat, for money. That's a very 'debatable' moral compass there; one closer to that of the fanatical Brotherhood than is comfortable.
** The canon of vampire strengths and weaknesses passed on to Count Karnstein by his Undead relative may be, to put it kindly, a load of old tosh. Far from the Karnstein strain of vampirism being transmissible only to those with Satan in their hearts, it would appear from what we see on screen to be more along the lines of an unusually rapid mutagenic infection easily passed on with a bite. Everyone shown to become a vampire receives a single short nip, while all of the ones who don't transform only miss out because they're sucked dry before the transformation can take hold. Unlike the strain of vampires shown in Hammer's Dracula films, who transform after death into an Undead state, Karnstein strain vampires are still alive, only mutated. They - can - become Undead, as we see with Mircalla being resurrected from the grave by the blood of a sacrificed girl, but that's not how the Count and Freida are turned.

* PolarOppositeTwins: Maria is good and sweet and innocent. Freida is horny and rebellious and jumps at the chance to become a vampire.

* RedOniBlueOni: Freida is the fiery Red to Maria's more submissive Blue. This extends to the climax where Freida wears [[RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver a bright red and black dress]] while Maria wears a more worn out blue dress.

* SexySilhouette: Freida's nude shadow is shown on the wall as she shucks off her dress in order to put on Maria's nightie and impersonate her.
* SpearCarrier: Despite having been the main character of the previous two films in the Karnstein Trilogy, this film somehow manages to turn Countess Mircalla (now played by Katja Wyeth) into this. She rises from her tomb, explains vampiredom, and turns the Count into a vampire before disappearing from the movie, as the Count makes Freida into his vampire lover.

* TitleDrop: The discovery that his niece Freida is a vampire leads Gustav to moan that "The devil has given me twins of evil!"

* TwinTelepathy: Maria feels it when Freida is bitten by Count Karnstein, and she feels it again when Freida is beheaded.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: We're clearly supposed to see the Maria and Freida dynamic as the good and virtuous innocent heroine vs the bad and cruelly reckless strumpet, but with modern eyes that's a hard ask. Freida isn't 'bad', she's just a fiery, independent girl with a keen eye for what men want from someone with her looks and no illusions about how the world really works. Anton, the supposed hero, even states it in the script. Maria is boring, but Freida has character. She does bully Maria, but consider how incredibly frustrated she must be with her. She has an identical twin who could be her partner in outsmarting the world and breaking free of the restrictions imposed on them both, but instead little miss goody two-shoes is a whimpering, cowardly snitch who Freida can only keep from running off to tattle on her through threats of violence. She's not even that reckless. Given the time period and her social standing then using her looks and charm to become the Count's mistress was exactly how an ambitious young woman (especially one raised in Venice) was supposed to move up and out. What was she supposed to do? Stay in tiny little Karnstein and end up married to a dull farmer or one of her uncle's creepy Brotherhood fanatics? Ten kids around her ankles and no dreams? It's clear that she sees the Count as way out of Karnstein and a stepping stone to life at the Imperial Court, it was hardly her fault that the Count turned out to be a cowardly moron with a secret. And once she becomes a vampire, all bets are off, since it's been shown in the earlier Karnstein films that the thirst for blood and the influence of one's Maker can turn even the sweetest flower into a predatory beast. It's worth remembering though that vampire Freida stays in the same room as her plumply delicious sister for about a week after her turning and deliberately doesn't lay a fang on her.

** The canon of vampire strengths and weaknesses passed on to Count Karnstein by his Undead relative may be, to put it kindly, a load of old tosh. Far from the Karnstein strain of vampirism being transmissible only to those with Satan in their hearts, it would appear to be more along the lines of an unusually rapid mutagenic infection easily passed on with a single bite, as long as the victim isn't quickly drained to death. Every single person shown to become a vampire receives a single short nip, while all of the ones who don't transform miss out because they're sucked dry before the transformation can take hold. Far from being Undead as with the Dracula strain, Karnstein strain vampires are still alive, only mutated. Conceivably the misdirection about how and to who it is passed on is an example of MaybeMagicMaybeMundane mythmaking to ensure that subsequent Karnsteins don't cause the population of hungry bloodsuckers to explode and thus risk TheMasquerade that has protected them for centuries.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: We're clearly supposed to see the Maria and Freida dynamic as the good and virtuous innocent heroine vs the bad and cruelly reckless strumpet, but with modern eyes that's a hard ask. Freida isn't 'bad', she's just a fiery, independent girl with a keen eye for what men want from someone with her looks and no illusions about how the world really works. Anton, the supposed hero, even states it in the script. Maria is boring, but Freida has character. She does bully Maria, but consider how incredibly frustrated she must be with her. She has an identical twin who could be her partner in outsmarting the world and breaking free of the restrictions imposed on them both, but instead little miss goody two-shoes is a whimpering, cowardly snitch who Freida can only keep from running off to tattle on her through threats of violence. She's not even that reckless. Given the time period and her social standing then using her looks and charm to become the Count's mistress was exactly how an ambitious young woman (especially one raised in Venice) was supposed to move up and out. What was she supposed to do? Stay in tiny little Karnstein and end up married to a dull farmer or one of her uncle's creepy Brotherhood fanatics? Ten kids around her ankles and no dreams? It's clear she sees the Count as way out of Karnstein and a stepping stone to life at the Imperial Court, it was hardly her fault that the Count turned out to be a cowardly moron with a secret. And once she becomes a vampire, all bets are off, since it's been shown in the earlier Karnstein films that the thirst for blood and the influence of one's Maker can turn even the sweetest flower into a predatory beast. It's worth remembering though that vampire Freida stays in the same room as her plumply delicious sister for about a week after her turning and deliberately doesn't lay a fang on her.

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Countess Mircalla (Katja Wyeth) rises from her tomb, explains vampiredom, and turns the Count into a vampire. Then she disappears from the movie, as the Count makes Freida into his vampire lover.

* OurVampiresAreDifferent: Like Bram Stoker's original Dracula but unlike most vampires since ''Film/{{Nosferatu}}'', these vampires have no problem walking around in sunlight. Also unlike most vampires, burning them has no effect; burning destroys a vampire's body but the vampire's soul can take over another body. Only beheading or a stake through the heart will do.

* FishOutOfWater: The twins. They come from Venice, and they wear cleavage-revealing dresses with bright colors and {{Nice Hat}}s. Gustav's wife Katy has to explain that people in their village don't dress that way.

* ThePowerOfBlood: The blood of the woman Count Karstein sacrifices on his altar revives Countess Mircella.

* FanserviceExtra: Becomes Fan Disservice Extra. Count Karnstein's sidekick Dietrich arranges for a sexy girl, covered only in a sheet, to be put on the count's altar for a silly black mass ritual. Count Karstein, who wants to summon Satan for real, dismisses Dietrich and then murders the poor young woman.

The other person against Gustav is Count Karstein, the local lord. He happens to be even ''more'' evil than Gustav, being a depraved Satanist who is into the habit of sacrificing young women in black magic rituals. The blood from one of his unfortunate victims seeps down into the grave of Countess Mircalla Karstein, a vampire. She promptly makes the Count into a vampire as well.

Meanwhile, it turns out that Gustav Weil has identical twin nieces, Maria and Freida Gellhorn (played by RealLife twins Mary and Madeleine Collinson). The gorgeous twins, newly orphaned after their parents (somehow) died, have come to live with Gustav. Maria, the innocent good twin, falls for handsome Anton. However Freida, the fiery, pleasure-seeking EvilTwin, chafes under the stern hand of her Puritan uncle. She makes her way to Castle Karstein and hooks up with the count.

Part of the "Karstein Trilogy", three Hammer films about the evil Karstein vampires, following ''Film/TheVampireLovers'' and ''Lust for a Vampire''. Continuity between the three films is pretty shaky: Peter Cushing appears in all three, but as three different characters.

* BloodMagic: The blood of the woman that Count Karstein sacrifices trickles down into Countess Mircalla's tomb, and either makes her a vampire, or revives her back into vampiredom (it's a little vague).

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Delayed in the case of the twins to show how difficult it is to tell them apart until you get to know them. The differences become apparent in their reaction to their uncle's disapproval of their outfits. Freida protests they wore black for a full two months while Maria quietly apologises and says they never meant any offense. Shortly afterwards Freida shoots Gustav a [[DeathGlare Death Glare]] as he leaves while Maria lowers her head.

* FanserviceExtra: Becomes Fan Disservice Extra. Count Karstein's sidekick Dietrich arranges for a sexy girl, covered only in a sheet, to be put on the count's altar for a silly black mass ritual. Count Karstein, who wants to summon Satan for real, dismisses Dietrich and then murders the poor young woman.

* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: Maria is the good girl who says they should obey Gustav's strict rules and avoid making trouble. Freida is rebellious and actively looks for trouble, going to Count Karstein's castle against her sister's advice. After she goes there she graduates from Foolish Sibling to EvilTwin.

* HumanSacrifice: Count Karstein sacrifices a woman on an altar in an attempt to summon Satan. Lucifer doesn't seem to be interested but the woman's blood revives Countess Mircella the vampire.
* HypnoticEyes: Count Karstein deploys his hypnotic vampire eyes to put the jailer into a trance, allowing him to switch out Maria for the imprisoned Freida.
* IdenticalTwinMistake: Count Karstein deliberately invokes this when he liberates Freida from jail and puts Maria there in her place. Strangely, Maria doesn't say who she is even after the Brotherhood has tied her to a stake. It takes Anton, showing up at the last minute, to reveal the switcheroo and save Maria's life.
* LesbianVampire: Lesbian vampires were basically the whole point of the Karstein trilogy, but in this third film it's only hinted at after being much more explicit in the first two. Count Karstein gives a buxom young lady to Freida for dinner, and Freida bites her on the breast. Also, the twins [[IncestSubtext share a bed]].

* TheSpeechless: Count Karstein's servant Joachim, who is mute and has to communicate with gestures and grunts to tell his master that a TorchesAndPitchforks mob is approaching.

* TorchesAndPitchforks: The Brotherhood attacks Count Karstein's castle, wielding torches and pitchforks, and more usefully, the axes and spears that they need to behead or stake the vampires.
* TwinTelepathy: Maria feels it when Freida is bitten by Count Karstein, and she feels it again when Freida is beheaded.
* TwinThreesomeFantasy: Alluded to only once, when Count Karstein, who is looking for something different, spies the Gellhorn sisters and says that "''twins''" would be "something different."

* TheXOfY: ''Twins of Evil''

''Twins of Evil'' is a 1971 Creator/HammerHorror film directed by John Hough.