(Small spoilers throughout the entire review)

David Cronenberg's Dead Ringers is a thriller that makes the blood chill, but in a completely different way than his previous 'The Fly'. Dead Ringers is an emotionally and psychologically devastating film focusing on the exclusiveness of twins and their (supposable) telepathic interaction skills. Master actor Jeremy Irons stars in a double-role as Beverley and Elliot Mantle. At age nine, they're intelligent kids (the part where they ask the bitchy neighbor girl to have experimental sex with the both of them is great) and they grow to be brilliant med school students. In a further life-stadium, they're brilliant gynecologists with an own clinic. Even though nobody can tell the difference between them physically, the two brothers have a very different personality. Elliot is the dominant, self-confident one while Beverley is the shy one who wouldn't even meet girls if it weren't for Elliot passing his ex-girlfriends to him. But then Beverley falls deeply in love with an actress who came to the clinic with gynecologic problems. After the painful mix-ups between the two brothers (Dead Ringers makes no problem out of exploiting the 'twin-brothers-share-the-same-girlfriends' topic) they form a steady couple, but when the actress hands over some of her showbiz's habits like drugs and kinky sex to Beverley, this seems to unleash mental madness that eventually has its impact on both brothers.

Dead Ringers is slow, stone cold and driven by depression and despair. In his typical and brilliant style, David Cronenberg tells the story without any form of emotion or sympathy for the brothers. His directorial approach is detached and it sometimes feels like he's shooting an ordinary scientific documentary. That certainly isn't a bad comment, though. In an unexplainable way, the cold and objective viewpoint is what makes this film so terrifying. Along with the outstanding performance by Irons, that is. He really succeeds in making both of his characters go through a lethal downward spiral of insanity. Dead Ringers is one of those films almost impossible to judge. Half of the time what you see are brilliant and half of the time you're too confused by it, but, in general, it's far too compelling and you refuse to give up understanding what the characters go through. This is psychological terror in its purest form!

Elliot and Beverly Mantle (Jeremy Irons) are identical twins that are top-of-the-class and incredibly well known gynaecologists. They also treat themselves by swapping their identities around, so they can share each other's work commitments and pleasures, like woman. But all of this comes back to destroy them emotionally and physically.

An intriguing and rather inventive premise director / co-writer David Cronenberg has come up with here. The worlds Cronenberg creates in his film's are rather fascinating in looking at the human body and technology. This film is no exception. So you can't really call this mainstream, as it's not for everyone's tastes. That's why his films seem to have great impact in the realistic visuals and material context. It's flowing with originality, good psychological elements, erotica and it holds such an artistic feel with its stunning visuals and elegance to show.

This thought-provoking drama is rather stimulating and quite downbeat. Though, it's mostly a talkative film; the dialogue is dense on many levels that it's truly captivating. It's more the material context that tries to shock and explore in a subtle way rather than the horrific visuals and shocks that we come to expect from most of Cronenberg's films. It doesn't contain much graphic moments, only about one or two. The sub-plots are drawn up quite well with dabbling in sexual desires and pleasure, technology (instruments and tools of the trade),the twins physical bond, addiction and a rather modernistic world. It's filled with sharp and intense sequences that are entrenched with an effective music score, as it overwhelmingly draws you in. This unsettling aurora builds into paranoia in the last half of the film and it ends rather disturbingly. The stylish production valves are incredibly glossy and professional. With beautifully crafted and slick cinematography. The gloomy colours that fill the screen hold great contrast in the moody and detail backdrop. From their fashionable home to their cold work office.

Jeremy Iron gives a tremendously charismatic performance playing both Elliot and Beverly Mantle. Elliot is Beverly's backbone as he's confident and arrogant. Beverly is the opposite as he's more innocent and rather sweet. Beverly wants to break the bond that they share, but Elliot can't let that happen. At first they weren't that likable, but the further the film goes along we see their downfall and there spiral into madness. That's when you start to feel for them and it gets rather emotionally charged. They also live and depend on each other, feeling what the other one feels and that's mostly pain and gloom here. This happens when they start to depend on painkillers and Beverly believing his girlfriend is cheating on him. This portrait shows how fragile they really are and how we really depend and feel when love ones are in pain and sorrow. As we are effected in the same way too. Genevieve Bujold is splendid as Claire Niveau the movie star and Beverly's love interest.

Maybe the film was a bit overlong, but this is a shockingly grim and efficient film that plays on many levels of the mind.

David Cronenberg may not be one of my all-time favourite directors, but do admire him greatly. Even he is not a personal favourite, he is for me one of the most interesting and unique directors out there, his directing style, his themes and how he explores them and how he manages to get the best out of talented actors. He may be one of the originators of the "body horror" genre, but his films are much more than just full on gore and horror, a good deal of his films are disturbing and weird sure but there is humour and emotion in his films too.

All of this is exemplified in 'Dead Ringers'. Do consider it one of his best films and one of my favourites of his too, one of his finest triumphs and also Jeremy Irons' (have said a couple of times about loving him as an actor, one who is deservedly lauded but also deserving of more credit due to a hit and miss filmography, even in the misses he is more often than not a redeeming quality but even then he has been generally deserving of better material for a while now) biggest triumph. Some people might find it weird and slow, from personal view 'Dead Ringers', loosely based on a true story, left me transfixed and from the first time of seeing it it became a personal favourite. It is one of the most disturbing and wonderfully strange films seen by me, but it is also one of the Cronenberg films that connected with me emotionally too (some may disagree with this) and by Cronenberg standards to me it is one of his most accessible.

'Dead Ringers' is one of Cronenberg's best looking films, showing his mastery of visual accomplishment and special effects. Not just looking sleek and stylish, but it also features some of the cleverest and most complex camera work of any Cronenberg film, primarily in the use of split screen when Elliot and Beverly are on screen at the same time and that of travelling matte, done so seamlessly with no obviousness at all to the point of being undetectable. The use of computer technology for positions of the split and camera is also ingenious and still looks great now, it is not over-utilised and certainly not abused, any obviousness is not here either.

Howard Shore's, a Cronenberg regular, score adds a lot. It is hauntingly beautiful, understated in places and unsettling in others as well as melancholic in a slightly dark way. When one hears the score on its own, which then is wonderful in its own right, and then reads of the film or its synopsis (far creepier than the music indicates perhaps),one may think do the two go together and would the score feel at odds. To me the two did go very well together, really liked and appreciated that Shore didn't go for the obvious jump scare in a sudden instrumental sound, ominous bass line, effectively shrill strings or synthesised touches. Instead he goes for fitting with the story's emotional core, not something you expect for a film of this type, and the longing quality makes it a surprisingly poignant score. It does heavily contribute as to why the opening titles sequence, which is also truly beautifully designed with the drawings and design of the instruments seen being quite ominous, is one of my favourite opening title sequences ever and this is meant seriously.

Cronenberg's direction is a big star here. He manages to make the atmosphere very unnerving without being over-reliant on gore, some in sight but appropriately muted yet still creepy in its own way, instead of overtly grisly, and as ever shows a mastery of visual style and effects. He still manages to maintain enough momentum in the story's deliberately reserved first portion to still make it compelling. The script has a good deal of talk, especially in the first portion, but didn't feel overly heavy on it, while also being thought-probing. A lot of meat here, and meat that is lean and without fat or parts that are unintentionally funny (even the dialogue in the opening scene).

The story is structured beautifully and while deliberate at times it never felt dull to me, the reserved, subtle feel of the early parts of the film, where things were setting up and developing, is not something one associates for the genre or if thinking of Cronenberg but is beautifully done and was appreciated, the relationships between the characters (especially between the brothers and the sibling rivalry) well established and interesting. The more the film progressed the more unsettling, in a devillish sort of way, and quite disturbing it got. Some have said the first half is better, for me the more complex Beverly and Elliot became and the atmosphere became more intense that's when 'Dead Ringers' got even better. It's one of not many films etc. that put me off fertility clinics forever, while the frighteningly gruesome dream sequence and the truly disturbing yet also emotionally devastating last third (namely the operating theatre scene, well everything to do with the operating theatre actually, which to me is one of the most memorable scenes in a Cronenberg film) have long stayed with me whenever watching. The gynecological instruments are also suitably nightmarish. Yet, 'Dead Ringers' is much more than full on horror, Beverly's depression is portrayed very poignantly.

Genevieve Bujold gives an intense and deeply felt performance, it may be easy to forget talking about her with such big impressions left by Cronenberg and Irons but one really shouldn't. She and Irons have a subtle but always believable chemistry. Other than Cronenberg, 'Dead Ringers' biggest star is Irons, magnificent in his career best performance for the ages in two roles, the most challenging and most courageous role(s) of his career, even more so than Humbert Humbert and Claus Von Bulow. Two increasingly complex roles and what was remarkable was how Irons took two characters identical to each other and made them completely different and individual in personality and how they look and behave, doing it with intensity and nuance without overdoing it or making either character too passive (even when one is deliberately stronger in personality than the other). Many say that his performance here was more Oscar-worthy than the performance that got him an Oscar in 'Reversal of Fortune'. Actually think that his win for that performance was a more worthy win in a strong category that year and that he was terrific in that film, but he does give the better performance here in my mind and that he was not even nominated for the big awards (namely Golden Globes and Academy Awards, am aware that 'Dead Ringers' scored big with the Genie Awards but the film and Irons deserved even better than not) is one of the year's biggest and most inexplicable oversights. If asked what the best performance in a Cronenberg film is, Irons' is a very strong contender and in the top 3 if to rank.

Overall, a brilliant film and one of Cronenberg's best and most interesting films. 10/10