Twins of Evil is a 1971 Hammer Horror film directed by John Hough.
The setting is vague but appears to be the later 16th century in Austria. Gustav Weil (Peter Cushing) is a Puritan (in Austria?) who leads around "the Brotherhood", a squad of fundamentalists that spend their leisure time burning witches. He is opposed in this by only two people. One is Anton Hoffer, brother to Ingrid Hoffer the headmistress of the local girls' school. Anton is a decent and gentlemanly fellow who disapproves of Gustav's habit of murdering young women.
The other person against Gustav is Count Karnstein, 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 Karnstein, 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 Frieda Gellhorn (played by Real Life 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 Frieda, the fiery, pleasure-seeking Evil Twin, chafes under the stern hand of her Puritan uncle. She makes her way to Castle Karnstein and hooks up with the count.
Part of the "Karnstein Trilogy", three Hammer films about the evil Karnstein vampires, following The Vampire Lovers and Lust for a Vampire. Continuity between the three films is pretty shaky: Peter Cushing appears in all three, but as three different characters.
Tropes:
- Ambiguous Time Period: The Brotherhood's Puritan-styled clothing, Count Karnstein's elegant frockcoats and the high-fashion of the Twins on arrival all suggest the mid-1700s, possibly even the start of the century.
- Bait the Dog: During his first conflict with Gustav, Count Karnstein calls out the witch hunters for their delusional puritanism and torment of the innocent. But then we catch up with him at his castle...
- Black-and-Grey Morality: A very dark grey. The film's core conflict is between an utterly depraved vampire lord who holds with Satan, and a brotherhood of Knight Templar witch hunters who regularly burn innocents on their crusade against evil. Were their puritanical leader not a nuanced character and their enemies not actual evil monsters, they'd be the villains of the piece.
- Blatant Lies: Frieda, 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.
- Blood Magic: The blood of the woman that Count Karnstein 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).
- Burn the Witch!: Gustav and the Brotherhood roam around burning young women at the stake, apparently on no basis other than that they are young and pretty.
- Captain Obvious: When the twins first arrive at the village and see Castle Karnstein, Maria says "Whoever owns that must be rich!"
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: This Count Karnstein, younger and less sophisticated than his predecessors, isn't even a vampire at the film's outset.
- Coordinated Clothes: The twins always wear matching outfits, and they even go to bed in matching nighties.
- The Dragon: Joachim, Count Karnstein's mute manservant. The witch hunters presume he's a vampire and slay him in fitting fashion, but we never seen him bear his fangs and he takes more cues from The Renfield.
- Establishing Character Moment: 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. Frieda protests they wore black for a full two months while Maria quietly apologizes and says they never meant any offense. Shortly afterwards Frieda shoots Gustav a Death Glare as he leaves while Maria lowers her head.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Frieda exhibits almost nothing but selfishness throughout the story, but at one point, when Maria asks her not to go out at night, Frieda says she has to. It is clearly implied that she means that if she stays she might be tempted to drink Maria's blood, meaning that deep down she still doesn't want to hurt her sister.
- Evil Twin: Frieda, who seeks pleasure and excitement, willingly becomes a vampire, and really enjoys using her powers to kill people.
- Face Death with Dignity: Gustav crosses himself before he dies.
- Fanservice Extra: 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 Karnstein, who wants to summon Satan for real, dismisses Dietrich and then murders the poor young woman.
- Fish out of Water: The twins. They come from Venice, and they wear cleavage-revealing dresses with bright colors and nice hats. Gustav's wife Katy has to explain that people in their village don't dress that way.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Maria is the good girl who says they should obey Gustav's strict rules and avoid making trouble. Frieda 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 Evil Twin.
- The Fundamentalist: Gustav would be a New England Puritan except for the fact that he doesn't live in New England.
- Human Sacrifice: Count Karnstein 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.
- Hypnotic Eyes: Count Karnstein deploys his hypnotic vampire eyes to put the jailer into a trance, allowing him to switch out Maria for the imprisoned Frieda.
- Identical Twin Mistake: Count Karnstein deliberately invokes this when he liberates Frieda 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.
- Karma Houdini: While Gustav is killed at the climax, the rest of his men, who have gleefully participated in the murder of several young women over the course of the story, receive no punishment that we can see.
- Lesbian Vampire: 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 Frieda for dinner, and Frieda bites her on the breast. Also, the twins share a bed.
- Match Cut: From the flames rising up as the Brotherhood burns a "witch", to the flames in the Hoffer fireplace as Anton fumes about the crimes of the Brotherhood.
- Missing Reflection: Frieda 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.)
- My God, What Have I Done?: Gustav begins to realize that he is a cowardly hypocrite when his wife points out that he's been eager to burn defenseless girls, but hesitates to go after a powerful—but indisputably evil—nobleman—and that his own mistreatment of his niece has driven her to join said nobleman and lose her soul.
- My Master, Right or Wrong: Joachim, Karnstein's mute servant. He does terrible things because Karnstein asks him to and is willing to do whatever is necessary to protect him.
- Off with Her Head!: Frieda, courtesy of Gustav.
- Our Vampires Are Different:
- Like Bram Stoker's original Dracula but unlike most vampires since 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.
- 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 Frieda bites them.
- This would suggest that Frieda, 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 Frieda are turned.
- Conceivably the misdirection about how and to who it is passed on is an example of Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane mythmaking to ensure that subsequent Karnsteins don't cause the population of hungry bloodsuckers to explode and thus risk The Masquerade that has protected them for centuries.
- Polar Opposite Twins: Maria is good and sweet and innocent. Frieda is horny and rebellious and jumps at the chance to become a vampire.
- The Power of Blood: The blood of the woman Count Karnstein sacrifices on his altar revives Countess Mircella.
- Redemption Equals Death: Gustav, who realigns his moral compass somewhat before the climactic Witch Hunt, dies in battle with the evil count.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Frieda is the fiery Red to Maria's more submissive Blue. This extends to the climax where Frieda wears a bright red and black dress while Maria wears a more worn out blue dress.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Karnstein uses his connections with the Emperor to intimidate the Brotherhood into leaving him alone. After some encouragement from Anton, they say "Screw the connections" and storm his castle.
- Sexy Silhouette: Frieda'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.
- Spear Carrier: 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 Frieda into his vampire lover.
- The Speechless: Count Karnstein's servant Joachim, who is mute and has to communicate with gestures and grunts to tell his master that a Torches and Pitchforks mob is approaching.
- Staking the Loved One: Gustav steels himself to do this to Frieda.
- Sudden Principled Stand: Gustav's wife Katy, who has meekly said nothing while he leads the Brotherhood, stands up to him and tells him he'll have to Go Through Me when he decides that he's going to beat the devil out of the (entirely innocent) Maria. Fortunately, it leads to a Heel Realization moment on his part.
- Title Drop: The discovery that his niece Frieda is a vampire leads Gustav to moan that "The devil has given me twins of evil!"
- Torches and Pitchforks: The Brotherhood attacks Count Karnstein's castle, wielding torches and pitchforks, and more usefully, the axes and spears that they need to behead or stake the vampires.
- Twin Telepathy: Maria feels it when Frieda is bitten by Count Karnstein, and she feels it again when Frieda is beheaded.
- Twin Threesome Fantasy: Alluded to only once, when Count Karnstein, who is looking for something different, spies the Gellhorn sisters and says that "twins" would be "something different."
- Vapor Wear: Frieda and Maria don't wear anything under their flimsy nightgowns.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Before the Twins even arrive in Karnstein or the Count accidentally raises Mircalla from the grave, at least three local men have been found dead at the hands of a vampire. This is the reason the Brotherhood are in such a heightened state of (sadly ignorant) murderous fury in the first place. We never find out who this vampire is, any more than we find out what happens to Mircalla after she turns the Count into a vampire.
- Witch Hunt: How the Brotherhood operates, to the sorrow of many innocent young girls and "mad old men." They pilot a rather more justified one against Castle Karnstein at the climax.
- The X of Y: Twins of Evil
