81/100

”I've often thought that there should be beauty contests for the *insides* of bodies.”

David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers isn’t horrifying in the tradition way that someone might say their favorite horror movie is. There isn’t really that much horror to the overall film as a whole in general until you start to realize that deep down in the film that the relationship between Jeremy Irons’ dual performances are what truly make the film so brilliant and horrifying because of their need to be with each other and the fascinating “horror” of the body of the two.

This is all thanks to the brilliant performance from Irons, I mean there would not even really *be* a film without the subtle and equally as mesmerizing double performance from him. There was a bit before the movie rewlly started going where the difference between the two wasn’t all that clear aside from a few things but after awhile I started to notice these small little things that allowed me to be able to differentiate between the two and I’m sure that’s equally what Irons intended to do because it worked so well. Also, have to give props to Geneviève Bujold because she holds a major factor here and her performance, while nothing special, gives just enough to make it worth noting.

David Cronenberg is obviously a master at tbody horror films and it’s apparent in basically every horror film that he has ever directed; but what I think makes his directing credit so strong is that while those body horror films are fantastic, his simplicity in crafting here works equally as well. I don’t think there necessarily needs to be separate, but the way that Cronenberg does both of them so well I felt like it had to be mentioned at how truly great he is behind the directors chair; especially within the horror genre.

I think there’s a bit of a lag in the film just right before the final scenes but it’s nothing too much where it slows the film too much to feel like a drag. Genuinely think that Cronenberg may be one of the finest directors alive; especially in the genre that he does so well - horror. Really love the way that Irons was able to convey so much emotion between two different people and yet feel all the same; it’s also worth noting how fantastic the doubling actually looks for the time. Dead Ringers is genuinely one of Cronenberg’s best.

Hooptober 8: 7/31
Horror Films Ranked
David Cronenberg Marathon