Twins of Evil (1971)

August 27, 2024 8:28 AM

[TRAILER] 19th century witch hunter Gustav (Peter Cushing) leads a band of puritans through the region, burning young women suspected of witchcraft. When his identical twin nieces (Playboy Playmates Mary and Madeleine Collinson) come to visit from Venice, one of the twins takes an interest in Count Karnstein (Daniel Thomas), a local lord dabbling in Satanism... and worse. Hammer's third (and final) film in the Karnstein Trilogy, a series of lightly sexy vampire stories with lesbian themes.

Also starring Dennis Price, Isobel Black, Kathleen Byron, David Warbeck.

Directed by John Hough. Screenplay by Tudor Gates. Based on characters by J. Sheridan Le Fanu. Produced by Michael Style, Harry Fine for Hammer Films. Cinematography by Dick Bush. Edited by Spencer Reeve. Music by Harry Robertson.

80% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

Currently this is widely available streaming in the US. JustWatch listing.

posted by DirtyOldTown (3 comments total)

This is by far the most enjoyable of the trilogy, with Mary Collinson's Frieda being a diffident, evil little minx. It does have the least overt lesbian themes, though, if that was what drew you in.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:29 AM on August 27

I actually like the first film, Vampire Lovers (directed by Roy Ward Baker), a fair bit. For me the real weakest was Lust For A Vampire (which was directed by Jimmy Sangster who was always a better writer than a director). John Hough, who directed Twins of Evil, was an underrated director (he worked for Disney for a bit and gave us some low stakes kiddie genre films like the Witch Mountain movies and Watcher in the Woods) and I think he brought some interest to the material. But to be fair, that period isn't peak Hammer - they were just cranking them out (Twins and Lust both came out in 1971) and with ever increasing salaciousness. There's a few bright spots in that period but overall it is pretty clear their formula was mostly exhausted by the 70s.
posted by Ashwagandha at 12:29 PM on August 27 [2 favorites]

100% agree Lust of a Vampire is the weakest one.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 3:19 PM on August 27