Movie review – “Twins of Evil” (1971) **1/2

The last of Hammer’s unofficial “Karnstein vampire trilogy”, this is mainly notably for it’s hot twins, the Collinson sisters. Written by Tudor Gates and directed by John Hough, it gets off to a great start with puritan Peter Cushing leading a good old fashioned witch burning. So the “goodie” Cushing, is actually a vile baddy himself who kills innocent women, which makes for moralistically intriguing shenanigans. And over all it’s a pretty decent late period Hammer film.

Cushing’s main target is the nasty lecherous Count Karnstein (Damien Thomas – so-so), protected by the Emperor. Unlike the innocent girls in the village, Karnstein actually is a devil worshipper - he kills a girl and calls to Satan; a vampire woman appears (Katyah Wyeth, not really up to it but this role needed to be bigger) and converts Karnstein to a vampire (albeit one who can still walk around during the day). Cushing’s twin nieces turn up – one is naughty, another one nice. Handsome liberal Anton wants the naughty twin, who wants Karnstein, who wants the nice twin.

Full of cute touches: Karnstein has a black servant and makes a dinner toast “to Satan”; Karnstein makes love to the female vampire who rubs a candlestick while doing it; Anton says Cushing is a bit misguided but still “a good man” (the guy burns women at the stake!); a topless Collinson attacks Anton; Cushing gets an axe in the back and Karnstein is impaled; Karnstein throws his head back and laughs maniacally several times.

Although the Karnstein films were famous for their lesbian sequences there’s no twin-on-twin action; indeed, there’s not much lesbian stuff here (the females are disappointingly straight - maybe this would have been more popular if Karnstein had been a woman. Indeed, that would have fitted in better with the film's theme of Puritan hatred of women). Production values are high, with lots of extras and scenes set in a busy town square. The finale has the feel of a Universal 30s-40s film, with our male hero leading a mob with burning torches. There’s also a late 40s British film touch with a cast including Dennis Price and Kathleen Byron.