One of the things that my sweetie-wife and I enjoy is British horror films, particularly of the Hammer variety and Shudder has a few offerings in that vein including the later period Hammer movie Twins of Evil.

Hammer horror films, iconic color movie that made stars out of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee started in 1958, though the studio had been well established before that, and pretty much ended production with To The Devil A Daughter  in 1976 so Twins of Evil  represents the dying gasps of the once great horror house.

The movie stars Mary and Madeleine Collinson as twin sister Frieda and Maria, recently orphaned and now sent from their home in Vienna to live with their stern Uncle Gustav (Peter Cushing), a devote man who  leads The Brotherhood a collection of men that hunts and burns suspected witches attempting to purge the area of a festering evil. The two sisters chafe under their unyielding uncle and each becomes enamored with local men, Maria with the rationally minded and atheistic Teacher Anton and Frieda with the decadent Count Karnstein, who, under the protection of the Emperor, publicly flaunts his wickedness.

Cushing is his usual professional and talent self, convincingly playing a man so devoted to his singular vision of virtue that he is untroubled by the frequent execution of young women without even the flimsiest evidence of witchcraft. The rest of the cast vary from competent working actors to Damien Thomas chewing the scenery as Karnstein and ended on the Collinson twins who were most likely cast by Hammer to take advantage of the status of Playboy  centerfolds.

The pacing of the movie is off, starting, despite the repeated instance of women being burned at the stake, out quite slow but once the film reaches the second half and vampirism appears in the plot the film moves quite deftly towards its somewhat uneven conclusion.

Production is overall well done with interesting set and well designed costuming but the movie does suffer from some of the worst day for night shots every committed to film. Lengthy forest sequences set in the dead of night are clearly shot in bright sunlight with the characters appearing quite ridiculous as they hold up their torches for illumination.

With some violence, an explicit beheading, and brief nudity this movie will not be to everyone’s taste but I appreciate that Shudder  presented the feature unedited. Twins of Evil  is far from Hammer’s best horror film but it also far from their worst and there are worst ways to spend 90 minutes.