Hallowe'en Week 2014
movie: Doppelganger
starring: Drew Barrymore, George Newern
genre: Horror, Thriller, Crime
year: 1993
format: online
plot: A young woman moves across the country after the death of her mother, claiming she's innocent of all charges even though she was the only suspect. She rents a room from a struggling writer, starting a romantic relationship with him. Soon, he starts noticing that she has intense mood swings, which she blames on the fact she has a doppelganger. Her psychiatrist who is stalking her, arrives with the information that she is suffering from a split personality. But nothing is what it seems.
I didn't understand this film when I was 20 years old, and I still don't understand it twenty years later. It has a split personality of its own.
This movie can't make up it's mind if it's a supernatural thriller, a slasher film or a straight up crime mystery. The majority of this movie plays on the idea that the main character Holly is suffering from a split personality which is triggered by seizures. There are other moments in this movie that lead you to think she's been hypnotized into committing the murders. Then just when you think you've figured it out, it takes a 180 and throws a demonic supernatural element at you in the form of a skinless walking skeleton and five foot worm.
Dude, it's just a mess.
It defines a doppelganger as "the ghostly double of a living person that haunts it's flesh and blood counterpart." Quote taken from the cafe scene as one of the supporting characters reads it out of a dictionary.
But the way the supernatural elements in this movie plays out, it can't decide if it's a ghost or a succubus or a vampiric entity or a skinwalker or a shapeshifter or a demon possession. It's just jumping around the scope, leaving you wondering what the real story was that the writers and directors wanted to say?
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