Twin plot summary
Twins , a new psychological horror film on Shudder, tells the story of Rachel, Anthony and their young son Elliot, who move to a small Finnish town to start over after Elliot’s twin brother Nathan is killed in a car accident. Unfortunately, life is not getting any easier for this sad family. As soon as they arrive at their new home, strange things begin to happen, and more tragedies are likely to happen for Rachel and co.
Is he coping with family problems?
Anthony holds everything together, but Rachel is very fragile. It’s clear that all is not right in her mind as she has dark dreams about Nathan and his funeral.
Still, it’s Elliot who struggles the most as he worries that his parents have stopped loving him after the tragedy. He also begins to exhibit very strange behaviors that can be attributed to his grief. She wants Rachel to move her second bed into her room so that it can be used by Nathan, for example. He also starts talking to his dead brother while playing.
Anthony thinks moving to the city is a good thing for all of them and hopes it will be a place of healing. Unfortunately, once they arrive, life takes a turn for the worse.
Is the family enjoying their new city?
Anthony is settling in well, which is not surprising since this is where he was brought up. Rachel spends less time doing things. When the family attends a party, she meets some of her neighbors and they welcome her. The only person who is kind to her is Helen, an older woman who tells Rachel that she is also an outsider.
Unfortunately, Helen has other things to say to Rachel, none of which bode well. After having dreams about Elliot, Helen warns Rachel about the terrible effect her son and the town can have on her. Helen could easily be dismissed as a nut, but before long Rachel begins to believe what she’s saying.
What’s going on with Elliot?
It’s hard to say, but after making a wish on a wish stone, its behavior begins to go downhill. He becomes outwardly hostile towards his mother, draws pictures of his family that burned to death, and begins to believe that it is Nathan, not Elliot.
Rachel takes Elliot to the doctor, but to no avail. She tells Rachel that Elliot is mirroring her fears, but she knows there’s more to it than that. Things take a turn for the worse when she nearly chokes on a drink that has something Elliot put in it.
Has Elliot been captured by Nathan?
Not because of Helen. He suggests that an incubus has possessed Elliot, not his dead brother. It’s interesting enough, but when Helen tells Rachel about the town and its pagan nature, it becomes clear that the townspeople are just as much a threat to Elliot as the incubus.
Helen is definitely the knight of the town, isn’t she?
It’s hard to tell at this point, but a lot of weird things are starting to happen. Not only does Elliot’s behavior start to deteriorate, but after Rachel takes photos of him, his picture disappears. Later, her husband tells her that she is very sick and that the strange things she thinks are happening are just in her head.
Later, Elliot disappears from the house and her husband arrives with other townspeople. They gather around Rachel and try to inject her with some strange liquid. He passes out, but when he wakes up, everything is back to normal. Elliot and Anthony play in the kitchen and are friendly with him. Was he dreaming? He couldn’t see because his body was still in pain from the needle.
He runs to Helen and asks her for help. Again, the snow is fraught with disaster. He tells Rachel that Anthony sacrificed Nathan to the devil and that the car accident was part of some diabolical plan. Not content with taking Nathan, the devil now wants Elliot, and according to Helen, is already a part of his consciousness.
Is Helen telling the truth?
As difficult as it may seem, Helen is telling the truth. Shortly after Rachel visits him, Elliot is kidnapped, placed in a coffin, and killed by one of the white-robed townspeople. Rachel witnesses all of this before she overcomes the chanting people around her. They mix it with Elliot’s blood and feed him some of it. Her belly then begins to grow as if a child has taken root inside her.
Thankfully, it’s all a dream – hey – but the next day, reality starts to creep in. Rachel wakes up, only to find her bedroom door barricaded. She runs off, looks for Elliot, and finds him locked in a coffin. He frees her and they run into the woods behind their property only to be confronted by Anthony and the other townspeople. Do they want to sacrifice Elliot?
It turns out Elliot didn’t even exist. According to Anthony, Rachel invented it after Nathan’s death, so it only existed in her imagination. Therefore, there was no incubus possession and no attempts at sacrifice by the townspeople.
When Rachel is suddenly alone with her husband, with neither Elliot nor anyone else in sight, it becomes clear that everything she has been living is an illusion. Helen probably didn’t exist either, or if she did, she was probably the town witch in the first place!
Is Rachel getting better?
Unfortunately no. After seeing her smash her husband’s head in with a rock, we get a glimpse of her future. Before getting into the car, we see Rachel standing by Nathan and Anthony’s grave. She seems sane, but clearly not when her husband shows up next to her and Nathan and Elliot appear in the back seat. It’s clear that his dreams are getting worse!
Thankfully, Helen doesn’t come up with another story of demons and victims to explain what happened!