Twisted Twin is a 2020 Lifetime Movie of the Week Teen Drama Thriller film, directed by Jeff Hare and written by J. Bryan Dick.
College-bound Tess Houston (Lauren Swickard, credited as Lorynn York)explanation goes to an on-campus orientation a few weeks before classes start, only to find herself followed by a mysterious woman. Soon the mystery stalker corners her and reveals herself: she's her Separated at Birth twin Samantha "Sammy" Crain (also Swickard). Sammy, who was adopted by a wealthy couple, invites Tess to spend the night at her house and they start to bond a little. But the next day Tess learns why Sammy really wanted to get acquainted with her: she arranged the murder of her adoptive parents and set up Tess to take the blame by being mistaken for her. But when the plan hits a snag, Sammy ends up having to pretend to be Tess, while Tess's mom Patricia (Jennifer Taylor) notices some odd changes in the behavior of "Tess". Meanwhile, Tess has to prove to the police, including lead Detective Moreno (Peter Onorati), that she's not Sammy.
Twisted Twin contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents: It's gradually revealed over the course of the film that the Crains were emotionally and physically abusive toward Sammy, which was part of her motive for having them murdered.
- All Girls Like Ponies: Tess owns a horse named Pepper, who she dotes on.
- Alliterative Title: Twisted Twin, a rare three-letter alliteration.
- Big Fancy House: The Crains are very rich, and Sammy lives in one of these.
- Break the Cutie: Innocent, sweet Tess finds herself unable to convince the police that she's not Sammy, and becomes physically ill as a result, to the extent that she's hospitalized.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- Sammy finds a bottle of ketamine in a cabinet outside the stable where Tess's horse Pepper lives. She uses it to fatally drug Damon.
- Sammy then later finds an actual gun, which used to belong to Tess' grandfather and tries to shoot Patricia with it, but the gun doesn't work.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Not only does Sammy plot the murder of the Crains, then she turns around and kills her boyfriend Damon, who did the actual killings, because he didn't kill off Tess as well.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Tess favors powder blue denim, while Sammy wears black leather.
- Evil Twin: Sammy manages to convince Tess that she's nice at first, but Tess soon discovers that she's responsible for the death of her adoptive parents.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: A major differentiator in the twins is that Tess wears a ponytail, so naturally Sammy does it too when she's posing as Tess.
- How We Got Here: The movie opens with a brief scene showing Mitch and Kim Crain getting killed.
- I Just Want to Be You: This is at the heart of Sammy's Motive Rant, since she admits that she's jealous that Tess grew up in a stable, loving family, while she had the abusive Jerkass Crains as adoptive parents.
- Improbably Cool Car: Tess is blown away by the bright red Alfa Romeo that Sammy drives, not knowing that it belonged to Sammy's now-dead parents.
- Inadequate Inheritor: Mitch and Kim decide that Sammy is sponging off their wealth and tell her that they're taking her out of their will. This is the incident that leads Sammy to decide to kill them (and take their money).
- Make It Look Like an Accident: Sammy's plot is to have Damon kill Mitch, Kim and Tess killed, then to arrange it so that the cops will think Tess is Sammy and she committed a murder-suicide, while the real Sammy runs off with Damon. But the Crains' cleaning ladies discover the bodies of Mitch and Kim before Damon can kill Tess. But then, she successful pulls off this gambit on Damon himself, injecting him with ketamine, placing him in a noose, and forging a suicide note.
- Naïve Everygirl: Tess is so overjoyed to learn she has a surprise twin that she falls into Sammy's Batman Gambit almost perfectly.
- Police Are Useless: Even after they meet Sammy-posing-as-Tess, and rightfully note that she flat-out lied to them about not knowing she had a twin, the detectives drag their heels when it comes to investigating her, and it also allows Tess-who-they-think-is-Sammy to escape custody.
- "Ray of Hope" Ending: The movie ends with Tess visiting Sammy in prison on their birthday, which Sammy is apprehensive about at first, but with signs that, although Sammy is going to be in prison for a long time, she and Tess might forge a close, sisterly relationship.
- Run for the Border: Sammy's initial plan is to kill her adoptive parents, kill Tess and make the cops think she's Sammy committing a murder-suicide, then take off for Mexico with her boyfriend Damon, who'll do the actual killings. But Damon gets interrupted before he can kill Tess.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: When Tess's old boyfriend Lucas shows up wanting to make up, Sammy (pretending to be Tess) just straight-up berates him and gives him a "The Reason You Suck" Speech, which Patricia initially takes as Tess having done this, though the out of character behavior strikes her as odd.
