Director of the popular horror movie Lake Bodom, Taneli Mustonen’s dark and eerie tale The Twin was everything I thought it would be. Fortunately, it also came with some excellent writing from Aleksi Hyvärinen and Taneli Mustonen who together forged some generic details into a surprisingly effective film.

The Twin opens with a car crash shortly following with some overwrought silent scenes of Rachel (Teresa Palmer) being held down in a hospital bed screaming. We learn Rachel and her husband Steven lost their son Nathan in the accident that day. Rachel isn’t doing too well since then and together with Elliott, they relocate to a small village in Scandinavia.

The Twin is a difficult film to talk about without spoiling so I’ll start with the beautiful aesthetic. Large open spaces are often lightened or darkened to be perfectly attuned to the emotional turmoil in the scene. The village itself adopts a persona enunciating the personal prison Rachel finds herself in since her son Nathan’s death.

Labeled as a horror movie, The Twin is more of a psychological thriller. Though there are hints of supernatural themes and black magic, the traditional rules of horror are not applied here. Rachels’ surviving son, Elliot forms a sad and lonely entity. Often coloring in or playing with toys the boy seeks ways to include the memory of his brother in everyday life. The locals within the neighboring town are strange, have strange customs, and also seem to be extremely wary of the newcomers in town. Rachel’s husband Steven has less trouble adapting. He also seems to be less enthusiastic about his remaining son Elliot.

Plot Twist

For most, many will feel like The Twin is a predictable storyline. And in the final quarter, there is a lot that feels extremely generic and wildly common. But as I said earlier, there is enough substance to get this feature film over the line as soon as it comes full circle. For those wanting a more explanatory spoiler ending for The Twin, Mother of Movies has detailed a summary in a drop-down section at the end. For everyone else, trust the process and the filmmakers in this instance. There are plenty of films that paint a similar picture to this, but not many pull it off. Hats off to the cast for the ability to be convincing and emotive enough to think The Twin’s ending might have been headed elsewhere. That’s good enough for me.

The Twin is rated

3.5 creepy townsfolk in the village out of 5

Mother of Movies score

Full Movie Trailer for The Twin

The cast for The Twin 2022 includes Rachel (Teresa Palmer, A Discovery of Witches, Warm Bodies, Lights Out.) Anthony (Steven
Cree, A Discovery of Witches, Outlander.) Tristan Ruggeri and Barbara Marten also star.

Explanation of the Ending for The Twin

Ending of The Twin got you all confused? Fear not, Mother of Movies has the final scenes of The Twin movie explained below.

Spoiler and Explanation for the Ending of The Twin movie

What Happened to Rachel in The Twin?

Rachel was driving when her son Nathan was killed in the car crash scene at the beginning of the film. Her husband Steven had been drinking but it was Rachel’s anger about this fact that caused the accident. Following the event, we see Rachel and Steven at Nathan’s funeral. Although Elliot is seen to be standing beside them silently. Looking back at the film after knowing Elliot is made up, the filmmakers did an excellent job of creating a realistic figment of Rachel’s imagination.

Is Elliot Dead or Alive?

After the death of her only son, Rachel coped by imagining she had a new son, Elliot. Somewhere along the way, the story was integrated into being the surviving son of a set of twins. This can be attributed to her having been confined in a mental institution which Steven explains he played into simply because it made her happy and functional to a point. At one point though, we do see Steven grieving for Nathan and never acknowledging Elliot. This gave an overall impression that he was simply not a good father or was having trouble maintaining a relationship with a child that looked like his dead son.

Rachel imagined the cult and its presence when Helen (Barbara Marten) started to tell about the villages’ unique history. Everything that happened can be blamed on Rachel having another psychotic break which eventually comes to a head when Steven tries to convince her of the truth. He tells her that Elliot isn’t real and we only know he is telling the truth in the final scene when he is again alive in the presence of Rachel who now has her family back together, albeit in her mind.

Where to Watch “The Twin” 2022

You can watch this solid psychological horror movie on the Shudder platform. The film was produced by Don Films and was filmed in Tallinn, Estonia (Finland.)

The Twin movie 2022 movie Where To Watch: