A powerful and disturbing psychological horror film from prolific director David Cronenberg. Unlike Cronenberg's earlier, more straightforward visceral offerings - such as THE FLY and SCANNERS (incidentally, the star of SCANNERS, Stephen Lack, makes an unwelcome cameo appearance), DEAD RINGERS plays it slowly, taking time to create realistic characters (thanks to some superb acting on behalf of the leads) and building up a horrifying story. This film really makes an impression on you and is chilling to the extreme. Jeremy Irons gives what I believe to be one of his finest performances in the dual roles of the twin brothers, conveying sadness, disgust, and insanity like no other. That he also convinces you that he's two separate people is a mark of class.
Rather than in-your-face gore and stark terror (of which you might have come to expect from Cronenberg's earlier '80s offerings), there is an unsettling and disturbing story built up here of the two twins, and Jeremy Irons is simply magnificent in his role. Why he didn't win any awards for it I will never know. The viewer really feels for the two doomed brothers and there are lots and lots of disturbing, mind-rending scenes included in the film, most of them involving the perversely shaped instruments that Irons has constructed in a fit of madness - yet another mark of Cronenberg's twisted "body horror".
It's a difficult for me to review because in order to understand it, you have to see it. I can't really describe the impact it has because of the psychological nature of the thing; it's all very well reviewing cheap made-for-video trash but actual classics like this are a much harder nut to crack. All I can say is that it's an excellent film and provokes many disturbing images in your mind. It's not an easy film to watch either, there were moments where I felt like turning the video off due to the horror on show and the fact that the bastard Cronenberg makes us CARE for the people as he tortures them inside and out. There is little more that I can say, apart from if you want real, numbing horror then seek out this film as opposed to the latest Freddy or Jason offering which were doing the rounds at the time this was made. You'll never forget DEAD RINGERS, and in spite of sounding melodramatic, it may will haunt you and give you sleepless nights (it disturbed me, that's for sure)!
