The Evil Twin Review

Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!

Plot Summary: After a girl awakens from a coma, she finds herself and her village haunted by the ghost of her dead twin sister.

Review: This is another movie going away on Netflix, but maybe these movies are simply leaving the streaming service? Eh, oh well. While this movie is nowhere near as incoherent as "Ghost Photos," it is plagued by its own stupidity in the main plot. It's really sad, because there are a lot of cool things going on in this film and most of the more idiotic elements could easily be corrected with slight adjustments. I especially liked the setting being some older point in Korean history; forgive me for not recognizing Korean time periods based on clothes, but if anyone could help me know what year this is supposed to be, I'd appreciate it! The ghost does look scary, even if a bit Kayako-esque, and she has a few original moments to shine which is great. Also the production value, cinematography, and acting were excellent for what was probably a low budget film.

So if there were so many good elements, what went wrong? Well, the biggest problem is the mystery regarding the twins and the complete asinine nature that drives the story. The film establishes that there were twin girls of some rich family and one was good, Hyo-jin, and one was the "evil twin," So-yeon. I know that sounds stupid from the offset, and as it should considering the girls are only 7 years old! Yes, if they tried to make the girl look like a sociopath I'd understand, but instead she is merely presented as a brat doing stupid shit like stealing a bracelet. Besides, she's only seven years old for fuck's sake and spoiled to boot! Wouldn't it be normal to expect her to grow out of such bratty ways? Anyway, some incident occurred resulting in Hyo-jin drowning and So-yeon surviving but in a coma for 10 years. This is just ridiculous, because I don't see how they were medically equipped to take care of a comatose little girl for a decade. But forget all that, because the story is that once the evil twin awakens, she is acting nice and the ghost of the good twin appears and is killing people. This wouldn't be too bad if everyone wasn't acting like assholes to this poor girl like she's the devil incarnate. Some dude that, apparently, was betrothed to Hyo-jin remembers how "evil" the living twin was and is pissed that he'd have to marry this girl instead. This whole movie you see flashbacks and hear references to how evil this twin was as if she was tearing up the town last week. Does no one in this town think it odd that they called this kid evil and that it was 10 years ago? I know it might sound like I'm exaggerating here, but, seriously, these people refer to this twin as if she's Voldemort or something. This becomes really annoying when people are getting mad at the living twin believing she is responsible for the deaths by the ghost, since, she is supposed to be the evil twin after all.

It gets worse because you discover, with no shock, that the living twin is the good twin, Hyo-jin, and that it was So-yeon that died; no explanation on the coma though. The reason why no one knew which twin really lived was because the mom saved who she thought was the evil twin (her favorite) and deliberately let the other drown not realizing she mixed them up. This whole mama drama, which felt like a scene out of "The Good Son," comes out of left field in the final moments when it should have been more present in the film. There is also never an explanation for why the ghost looks adult or didn't do anything until after the other twin awakens; you also never understand what was the whole idea behind this "prank" that led to the drowning. Then there is this unspoken idea that the ghost is killing people connected to her death all '80s slasher style. I feel like there were so many holes that emerge all of a sudden at the end when things should be wrapping up more concisely. Bonus: I hope you can make sense of the ramblings I'm writing, because I tried to describe these twins in the least confusing manner possible.

I want to like this film for trying to tell a different kind of story in an almost fairy tale-esque way, but there are so many idiotic plot points. You know, if you simply knock off the zero and instead of ten years ago, you pretend it was 1 year ago, this plot would flow significantly more smoothly. Most of the technical aspects to the film work effectively and are done quite well. The main girl who plays both twins, Shin-hye Park, was exceptional and nearly carries the film with the aid of the intrigue, but all the good aspects can't completely compensate for the plot problems. I would say check this one out if it sounds remotely interesting, but understand the story has some serious faults and the scares do not occur often enough to make it worthwhile for that alone.

Notable Moment: When So-yeon's mother is combing her hair and a face emerges from the hair; it was unexpected and sort of original.

Final Rating: 5.5/10