Doppelganger

Title - Doppelganger

Language - English

Genre - Horror, psychological

Patrick can’t believe his luck when the beautiful Holly rents his spare room but he soon begins to suspect that there is something strange about her.  He sees her on the street but when he calls her she ignores him and when he mentions it she denies even leaving the house.  Even when they sleep together she denies it was her.  As the relationship continues Holly behaviour seems to get stranger.

Holly's brother is confined in a metal home.  He was accused of throwing their farther out of a window when he was eleven and Holly herself has recently been accused of killing their mother.

Holly tells Patrick that it wasn't her, that the person he has been seeing around (and sleeping with)  is the same person who killed her mother and that it is not actually human but a Doppelganger, a spirit or demon that is a duplicate of Holly. As Patrick tries to find the truth to what is going on he finds that there may be some truth in Holly’s claims and, even if there isn't there is definitely more going on  than anyone knows.

Doppelganger is an odd film that i came across  on one of the less known Uk TV channels (at the time) and it had me hooked almost straight away.  The film is part thriller part ‘Psycho’ and part horror movie and for a long time we (the viewer) are made to wonder if the monster and other Holly are real or if it is just all in her head and, as the film progresses the mystery gets stranger.

Doppelganger has a good flow and Drew Barrymore does well at switching between good and bad Holly, although I’m not sure where the scene where Holly kicks Danny Trejo between the legs is supposed to fit in.  The film has a good feel to it with some of the jump scares tuning out to be dreams that are almost reminiscent of the dream scenes in ‘An American Werewolf in London’ and these coupled with the hallucinations and reflections of the creature that Holly has all add the mystery of what is actually true.

I have seen a couple of reviews for Doppelganger in the past and none of them thought the film was much good and I really do have to disagree with them.  There isn't much gore in the film but that’s ok it a more psychological film, focusing more on the ‘is she mad’ aspect of Holly than on the gore and murders.  There is a bit of sex and nudity but it does not detract from the film, instead it is used to show/hint at and move along relationships between some of the various characters.  One of the reviews I saw stated that the only reason to watch the film was for the shower scene featuring Drew Barrymore and yes it’s always nice to see some naked flesh on screen I’m not sure that the other reviewer quite understood that the scene was also there to show part of the ‘other’ aspect of Holly mind.

As I said earlier Doppelganger is, in some ways more than one thing, the psychological, the slasher and the monster and in other films i have reviewed I have said that this kind of tale doesn't always seem to work.  In some other films i have reviewed some parts just seem to have been added to cover all the bases, for instance in the Japanese Cursed the film seems to suffer from not really knowing what is killing off the character, some are killed by slashers, some by ghosts whilst others just disappear.  This is not the case with doppelganger, the genre switching mystery is handled in such a way that not knowing what we are actually dealing with until the end actually helps keep us interested instead of leaving us with a jumble unnecessary plot lines and characters (although until the end I was beginning to wonder what the point of Holly’s dad was).

Over all I would recommend Doppelganger it has a good narrative, a mystery, a monster, some killing, some (female) nudity and a cameo by Danny Trejo.  Who could ask for more?