The Bad Twin

The Bad Twin (2016)

John Murlowski 

   We all have that crazy aunt. But what if your mother instructed you to kill her? Put that and your mother actually being the crazy aunt and then you have John Murlowski's The Bad Twin. The film follows Cassie (Jacy King), a woman struggling with an unnamed mental illness (I feel as though every villain in Lifetime movies share the same fictional illness) who is faced with having to pass custody of her twin daughters, Quinn and Olivia (Grace Van Dien) onto her sister, famous radio host (who we only see present once), Dr. Jen Burgess (HAYLIE DUFF) after being forced into psychiatric care. Dr Jen Burgess being the true good samaritan she is, is more than happy to take in the clearly troubled girls into her surprsingly lavish home (which we see PLENTY B roll shots of) until things begin take a dark turn. Chemical burns from lotion filled with pool acid, a bunch of stolen junk, and some creepy disappearances later, instead of thinking to place these girls in counseling like the doctor she claims to be, Dr. Jen begins to think something is up. Unbeknownst to her, Quinn and Olivia have been plotting to kill her, under orders of their mother of course, in order to take possession of her will. The girls take down roadblock (more like simply concerned friend), Gail, by somehow trapping her in sand and having a couple ocean waves drown her until finally there's only one person left in Dr. Jen's surprisingly small social circle: her boyfriend, Kevin. This is where the movie really shifts as we begin to see some real character development from the meeker of the twins, Quinn. Planning to murder Kevin via a plate of fettucini alfredo with mushrooms (which a random older woman nicely points out are poisonous), Quinn begins to question how far she is willing to go to get this podcaster's coin and switches said poisonous mushrooms for some normal ones they just have laying around. The attempted murder is proved to be pointless in the next scene where Dr. Jen is given custody of the girls. Shortly after, Cassie is released from the hospital (a simple brick room with a few folding chairs) and the family is on the way to a seemingly nice getaway to a beautiful looking green screen mountain. On this road trip in Dr. Jen's Mercedes, we learn that Jen and Cassie's mother was especially hard on Cassie growing up and that is why Cassie has so much resentment towards her podcaster sister. And I thought I was jealous of my sister for being the favorite child! This heartfelt talk is brief though because what comes next is the final blow to Dr Jen: a box of bees. A BOX OF BEES!!! Not a hive but a box wrapped in a red ribbon and everything! Somehow the bees manage to only sting Dr Jen who is mysteriously allergic (you'd think she'd do something about that giant hive in her backyard where said bees came from) and is left to die on the side of the road. The title of the film really begins to make sense here as Quinn provides her aunt with an epi pen she had hidden in her sleeve- you see, its not "The Bad TWINS", there's only one single bad twin and that is proven to be Olivia. Olivia (the bad twin), Cassie, and Quinn (the good twin) all pile back into the Mercedes but are only able to drive about a mile before Cassie crashes the car due to a fight between Olivia and Quinn. My mom would have simply threatened to turn the car around if my sister and I were fighting that viciously! Dr. Jen, now completely cured due to Quinn's good deed, sees the smoke from her beloved Mercedes in the distance and soon finds her sister dead, finally at piece from the torment of her neglected childhood. The film ends with the girls at that same brick wall psychiatric ward with Quinn filling all her belongings into a fish tackle box (???) and meeting Dr Jen while Olivia struggles with the hereditary battle of the fictional mental illness of her mother. 

Needless to say, though the film was slightly anti climactic until the last fifteen minutes, that box of bees easily made up for everything. My one comment would be the costume department really could've worked harder in giving Quinn and Olivia better, less victorian era, matching outfits. I understand that they must have not had much time with Van Dien playing both girls to change but thought it really could've added to the inner contrast of the girls. The Bad Twin is more than a creepy flick that ends in death by box of bees; it explores the good and evil inside all of us. Using the foils of Cassie vs. Dr Jenn and Quinn vs Olivia, Murlowski really explores the complexity of the modern family dynamic and how the struggle for attention can be deadly.

rating: 9/10