The Evil Twin

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source: The Evil Twin

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Emily escapes from a bad relationship, returns to her home town. Standard fare, expect there's a handsome firefighter/single dad somewhere? Usefully, a friend lends her a house in exchange for looking after friend's antique shop. We see her proving her fitness for this job by attacking a table with harsh sandpaper. First customer in the friend's shop buys a desk for his nine-year-old daughter - without asking the price - and invites Emily to dinner. Customer's small daughter is, she and her daddy tell us, an expert on Jane Austen and has read all her books. Plot really going off-piste here. Apparently Emily has a long lost twin sister who may be a wrong 'un. The good townsfolk don't actually hold up garlic or make signs warding off the evil eye but they come close. Sinister sister looks sort-of-like Emily. OK I was half asleep but camera angles, wigs, dark glasses meant I was genuinely unsure the same actress played both roles. (Closing credits say she did) Anyway, BadSis spends all her time taking calls from equally sinister chap making threats. A guy called Trevor - or possibly Blake - is dead. Or not. And who is he anyway? I'd lost track by this point. No idea why BadSis is committing her crimes. She just stomps about trying to murder people. Sweetie, learn to knit, bake cupcakes, you'd have more fun and so would we. I left the film running but only because the TV remote was out of reach and I couldn't be @rsed to get off the sofa. Seriously, don't bother. You'll be better amused rearranging your sock drawer or weighing the cat.

Not sure what could have made it better or unique. Lifetime has a "twin movie" template. This isn't one of the better ones and the movie kind of just happens. There are better twin thrillers on the network, and one that's maybe a bit similar to this one is Killer Twin, even right down to how the evil twin is revealed in the climax. One thing that's frustrating about this movie is that we are constantly questioning which twin is which until the "Evil Twin" (name drop) does something villainous. No matter the scene. I know it's necessary, but after a couple of times, I was over it. I don't know if it's cheaper to pay one person over an actual twin set ( I would assume one actress gets paid more for basically double work), but the back and forth got old for me. It's Lifetime, sure, but earlier this year, HM used Jeremy Jordan as twins and he actually made them two different characters. Sarah Michelle Gellar played twins on Ringer. And of course, my all time favorite at this point, Tatiana Maslany played so many clones with each of them having a unique personality, that I know it can be done! For actual twins there was the Ruby series (on Lifetime), Cynthia/Brittany Daniel, and of course Mary-Kate/Ashley or Tia/Tamera. These twins you can see the difference once you look long enough and their personalities differ enough to be noticeable. Lifetime also had My Sister's Secret where the one actress seemed like two different people. Lifetime has also had a couple of twin brother flicks and same thing. I don't think simply being the non-murderous twin is a personality. IDK, I don't necessarily fault the actress, but sometimes I'd rather they just fool the characters not the audience. It gets tiresome when it drags on.

A very good coffee time thriller, about a woman who discovers that she has a twin sister, except that her twin is nasty. These recent lifetime films are all so clean and tidy with very nice houses. The twin sisters are played by one actress. I could tell who was Emily and who was the evil twin sister named Charlotte, because of the necklaces. Emily wore a single yellow gem necklace but Charlotte's necklace had many coloured stones. Its not clear what possessed Emily to seek out a twin that she knew had a bad reputation. If she kept away from Charlotte, instead of look for her, things would've been more peaceful in her new life, and people would still be alive such as the elderly neighbour.

In 2021's The Evil Twin, the twin sister characters are played by one person. Emily and Charlotte are portrayed by Canadian native Emily Piggford. It's an impressive performance and for the life of me, I still can't figure out how the filmmakers pull that stuff off. I suppose it's blocking, stand-ins, tireless rehearsals, or mysterious tricks of the cinematic trade. So yeah, "Evil Twin" is a Lifetime movie where the two sister personas are so dissimilar from each other you wouldn't even know they came from the same blood. I mean their looks are identical (obviously) but their psyches are completely unalike. Normally I'd call this premise dubious and convenient but hey, the film wouldn't exist without it. Distributed by Lifetime television and taking place in a Mayberry town where everybody knows everybody, The Evil Twin chronicles antique store worker Emily (Piggford). After being in a strained relationship with her intense boyfriend, Emily decides to move back to her hometown to start anew. There, she encounters a twin sister she has never met (Charlotte). Charlotte is ugly on the inside while being conniving and without remorse. Instead of embracing long-lost sisterhood with Emily, Charlotte decides to make things worse for her. That includes murdering people on the side, stirring the gossip turd, and even cutting her hair the same way as Emily. Can't we all just get along! All in all, The Evil Twin is a Lifetime pic that uses its veritable twin hook to really catch you off guard. It's the mano-a-mano of good vs evil. It's also a character study a la the notion of polar facing. Emily Piggford's way of deciphering the mannerisms of the two sisters is well, a big feat. Every scene has to be just right and despite "Evil Twin" being a little too coincidental for its own good, the flick doesn't cheat the audience in the way it all goes down. "Twin" win-win.

The movie wasn't that great, but I did enjoy some parts of it. That being said, I come to IMDB when I want to know things like...was that really twins or did the same girl play both Emily and Charlotte?? Your team is severely missing things...there's no one billed for Charlotte. I'm left to assume that Emily Piggford played both roles and is not, in fact, a twin in real life.