THE TWIN (aka THE FETCH, 2024)

New streaming on Shudder from Vertical Entertainment!
Directed by J.C. Doler.
Written by Paul Petersen, J.C. Doler.
Check out the trailer here!!

After surviving a troubled childhood, Nicholas (Logan Donovan) believes he has the perfect life with a beautiful wife Charlie (Aleksa Palladino) and a healthy son Jacob (Tripp Toupal). But the loss of his son triggers a downward spiral of mental illness in Nicholas, resulting in the creation of a dark doppelganger also known as a fetch, as explained in the beginning scrawl. Soon, his no-good wife leaves him under the care of smug counselor Dr. Beaumont (Robert Longstreet) who tries to provide Nicholas with the tools to confront this darker side and beat it for good.

THE TWIN is a joyless little semi-paranormal thriller that is heavy on the hopelessness and melodrama. Not only do we get an abused child in the opener, but we also get a dead kid and a suicide attempt, all within the first twenty minutes. That’s a hell of a lot to deal with and the breezy way this film glosses over what leads to Nicholas meeting his doppelganger to get to the paranormal stuff not only downplays these serious life events but also paints Nicholas as a character that is almost too damaged to root for. Sure, I feel bad for the guy, but the way Nicholas simply sits there and lets himself fall into this hole of depression certainly isn’t my idea of entertainment. This film, on a much less elevated level than HEREDITERY and MIDSOMMER, definitely falls into a category I have come to call grief porn—where a movie simply piles on the real-life horrors and then peppers in some supernatural elements to give the CG people something to do.

I go to movies to escape real life horrors and while I can understand that this movie is basically offering up a slightly supernatural take on a person suffering from debilitating depression and a possible onset of schizophrenia, the drama behind all of this definitely overshadows the horror. There’s just a whole lot of screentime dedicated to Nicholas moping around the house, grieving, breaking stuff out of frustration, and occasionally seeing shadows move or ghostly apparitions appearing and disappearing. The horrors isn’t anything we haven’t seen before in countless other supernatural horrors with white eyes, staggered movement, pale face makeup, and of course, the old neck cracking sound effect. While it is appreciated that this film continues to work with the metaphor of all of this being part of Nicholas’ mental illness, because he is also being treated for mental illness basically downplays the importance of mental illness. Understand what I’m saying? There’s a metaphor for mental illness going on, but then there is actual mental illness being treated in a semi-authentic way and that’s one too many ways to represent mental illness in my book. Either deal with it directly in a drama or make the whole damn thing supernatural. You can’t have it both ways and THE TWIN tries to.

Logan Donovan is ok as Nicholas, though the character simply has little to do but mope and act as if he is beating or being overwhelmed by this dark force. Aleksa Palladino may be a decent actress as well, but she is downright deplorable as Nicholas’ wife who decides the best thing to do after a suicide attempt is to leave Nicholas alone in his dead, abusive grandmother’s house. That asinine logic alone is enough to kill any positives I can say about this movie. Finally, HALLOWEEN KILLS’ Robert Longstreet usually gives any movie he is in a boost, but here, he plays a counselor so smug that you’d want to punch him in the face rather than connect with him.

While I’ve taken some time off from the therapeutic field, I have almost two decades of experience in the field, so I know a thing or two about a thing or two about therapy. I’m usually pretty judgmental when I see therapy shown in movies, especially horror movies, as often times, very little is done in terms of research past pop psychology. I will say that THE TWIN at least approaches therapy in a positive light, but more importantly, a realistic light. The horrors in Nicholas’ mind are addressed in a realistic way in that the film ends with there are always a possibility that these symptoms will occur again. The problem is that while these scenes between Nicholas and Dr. Beaumont may feel real, reality isn’t really that interesting. The back and forth and positive vibes Beaumont confronts Nicholas with do feel authentic, but it screeches momentum to a halt and often feels over-saccharinated due to Longstreet’s “Aww, shucks” demeanor. It works as an example of a therapy session one might show to a class of would-be therapists, but when you’re trying to tell a horror movie about an evil twin manifested by pain and suffering, it feels again like you’re trying to have it both ways (a realistic portrayal of mental illness and a monster movie) and again, that doesn’t work.

I’ve gone on too long trying to explain my stance on THE TWIN. Let’s just cut to the chase and say I was fucking bored with it and begging for it to end by the midpoint. I disliked all of the main characters and the horror, though sprinkled evenly, has nothing new to say. Add that to the fact that Shudder released another (and better) movie called THE TWIN just last year, and that makes this THE TWIN something I’d like to forget about by the time I finish typing this sentence.