Midsommar Night's Fever Dream

Hey, hey, Horror Nuts! Welcome to another edition of WTFHM!

Have you ever had a horribly traumatic event while living in a small town somewhere in Europe? Like...somewhere really, really European?

I haven't because I tend to stay away from places that meet horror movie criteria. But if somehow that's been your experience and you lived through it, I'll venture to say that today's movie is probably one that you can relate to.

Assuming you're not in a padded room somewhere.

Annnyway, this week's movie:

The Twin starring Teresa Palmer, Steven Cree, Barbara Marten, and Tristan Ruggeri

Our tale opens with Anthony(Cree) and Rachel(Palmer). They just lost one of their twin sons in a terrible car accident. To get through their grief, they sell their house and move to Anthony's hometown, which happens to be in a small town where everyone stares at you creepily.

Anthony is a writer, by the way, but that's not really that important. What is important is that Rachel and their surviving son Elliot(Ruggeri) are having a hard time adjusting to life.

See, Elliot believes his brother Nathan is still with him and Rachel is having horrible nightmares about being haunted by Nathan. One of the things that Rachel does to try and help Elliot is to put another bed in his room with an very creepy picture of him above the bed.

I mean, WHO TOOK THIS PICTURE?? Tf is this lighting? Did they take the picture after the car accident??

Anyway, Rachel meets Helen(Marten) at a party and it becomes very clear that she's not wrapped too tight, but she is telling her to "stay off the moors" or whatever, so Rachel starts suspecting something is amiss with Elliot.

Anyway, Rachel has nightmares, Elliot starts acting weird and saying things like "I'M NOT ELLIOT, I'M NATHAN" and Rachel becomes convinced that there is something wrong with him. She tells Anthony that they need to take him to a doctor.

It should be noted that they appear to be decent parents, all things considered. Early in the film, they have a whole fake burial for Nathan to ease Elliot's mind, even. They both appear to be trying to heal their family.

And then things go a little left.

So, after talking to Helen, who basically tells Rachel that she literally lives in some subsection of Castle Rock where all the witches congregate and are trying to summon Satan, Rachel becomes convinced that her son is possessed or...something.

I think this was the point for me where I was like, "Meh, that's kind of thin, but whatever."  Rachel decides to try to take a picture of Elliot, which Elliot immediately hates and stomps off.

Okay, so things start to get really real, however, when Elliot wakes Rachel up in the middle of the night and gets her to perform some kind of mirror seance to summon Nathan. She's startled by a creepy hand and also Anthony waking up to find her there.

Oh, yeah. And he brings the whole town with him.

Anthony, then, gets all Rosemary's Baby and tells her that they need Elliot for a ritual. She, of course, says NooOooOo, but he's already gone and she gets drugged.

Rachel wakes up the next day like nothing happened. It was all just a dream...

Upon seeing pieces of glass from the broken mirror that she broke when she was startled the night before, Rachel starts thinking that something isn't right.

So, they go into town to get a new vacuum cleaner and Rachel takes that opportunity to pick up the pictures that she took of Elliot. She gets them home and finds...

The pictures show the swing that Elliot was on, but no Elliot. Understandably freaked out, Rachel goes running to Helen like, "OMG! You were right! The devil IS possessing my son!" and takes her to save her son.

Okay, boys and girls, it's about here that we start to lose cabin pressure.

So, Rachel takes Helen to meet Elliot. Helen takes one look at Elliot and tells Rachel that she's "sick" and starts to leave. But wait, wait, wait! The townspeople are there, WITH the town doctor and Anthony. Helen tries to shoot them, but she gets jumped by everybody like:

Rachel gets drugged and dragged off into a satanic ritual in which her son is killed and she's made to drink his blood and get pregnant with who we all assume is Satan.

When next she wakes up, she's been locked in her room (well, not so much locked as a chair is wedged against the door). She manages to get out when she hears Elliot calling her. She finds Elliot in a trunk and dips out.

So, Rachel's running through the woods, but she loses Elliot. She gets jumped by Anthony, who tells her...well...

And this is a major spoiler. So, if you don't want to know, stop reading now.

Rachel's husband tells her that...

There is no Elliot.

Okay, so, here's how it breaks down according to Anthony. You might want to have a seat.

So, there was a car accident. We were previously led to believe that it was Anthony driving, but, it wasn't. It was Rachel.

Rachel and Anthony had a fight. Rachel left and took Nathan with her. Rachel crashes the car, Nathan dies.

Rachel was so distraught over the death of her son that she manufactured Elliot, his twin. Anthony let it go on because she seemed, well, better for lack of a better word. But, you know, things just kept getting worse and worse with her delusion, so they moved to his hometown in the hopes that the isolation would...help?

Anyway, Rachel isn't buying it. Imaginary twin Elliot goes running into the woods and into an old mill where Rachel follows. 

Anthony also follows. She tries to follow "Elliot", but Anthony decides to try and kill him by dumping a ton of grain on his head. Rachel flips out and accidentally kills Anthony.

And our story ends with Rachel after burying her husband, and getting in the car with her imaginary family.

So, let me just say that this wasn't a perfect movie by any stretch. I mean, personally, I'd have liked a few more clues along the way as to what was really going on.

All in all, though, I would not call this a bad movie.  I'll lob a jewel at it.

I mean, I do really like a good mindfuck and while I've had better, I can't say I've had very many.  So, if you can get me, I have to give the filmmaker their props.

Next week's movie!! The Sadness.

I've been trying to avoid watching this one because I'm just not in the mood for zombie apocalypse-type movies (given that the whole world's on fire right now), but I also keep hearing it's pretty live, so...

See you next week!

O~

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