John Chard

The evil that men do. The final part of Hammer Films Karnstein Trilogy is in keeping with what made the studios output so readily embraced by the horror faithful. Based on characters created by Sheridan Le Fanu, Hammer take one of their vampire movies and add puritan witch- finding into the mix as well. Upon the death of their parents identical twins Maria and Frieda Gellhorn are relocated to Karnstein in Central Europe to live with their Uncle Gustav Weil. Weil is a stern puritan who leads a fanatical bunch of witch-hunters known as the Brotherhood, this is a problem because the twins are going through sexual awakenings. Opposing the Brotherhood is the aristocracy, headed by Count Karnstein, a man of debauchery who is soon to sell his soul to the devil and drag one of the Gellhorn twins with him… It would be easy to assume that the twins of evil of the title are the two girls, here played with a nifty gimmick by real life playboy twins Mary and Madeline Collinson, but it’s not the case. The girls are in the middle of two evils, wicked men on either side of them, God and Satan their respective keepers. This coupled with the political and religious sub-texts bubbling away, makes this a narratively smart picture. Production values are high, with the smart period design and costuming given an atmospheric sheen by cinematographer Dick Bush. Director John Hough provides solid direction and smooth camera work, while Harry Robertson’s music has the requisite olde world gothic about it. Peter Cushing heads the cast superbly as Weil, looking gaunt due to his personal tragedy, he mesmerises as a man increasingly crumbling under the weight of emotional confliction. Dennis Price others sturdy support but is done no favours by the writer (Tudour Gates) as he is under developed, while the twins themselves, their voices dubbed, are fine and able to put enough of a different slant on their characters for us viewers to know which one is which. Damien Thomas’ lustily fanged count is not a particularly striking villain, and David Warbeck as the normal love interest is too weak an actor to convince in the role. One of the better horrors from Hammer’s 70s output. 7/10