Dead Ringers

Not what I meant by 'somebody match my freak' I rented out a theatre to watch this movie with my friends on my birthday. I love this movie so much that I'm scared reviewing it will do it no justice. I Think generally the more personally attached I am to a film the more my reviews just sound like masturbatory, self aggrandizing bullshit. Anyway. I'm going to review it regardless, Dead Ringers is by far and away my favourite cronenberg film. It is so much more restrained than his other films, It trades in body horror for psychological horror and has so much emotional depth (which he rarely utilises). But my unhealthy attachment to this film has nothing to do with either of those things. my attachment is entirely related to the empathy I feel towards bevelly as a character. He is a freak, a terrible man and an even worse gynecologist. BUUUUUUUT, he is easily the most accurate on-screen depiction I've seen of a man who is as anxiously attached, feminine natured and Introverted as I am. The whole film works to emphasize the dichotomy of the mantle twins. Bev is Theoretical, Elly is Practical. Bev is anxious, Elly is avoidant. Bev is introverted, Elly is extroverted. Bev is submissive, Elly is dominant. Bev is Feminine, Elly is Masculine. They exist only to serve the other in situations that would otherwise be uncomfortable. Their homeostasis is entirely built to shield them from the pain that Bev asserts 'creates character distortion. It's simply not necessary'. They are fatally wrong, It actually creates character growth, It's crucial. It's at this point the film becomes obvious as a tragedy and not a hero's journey. The twins are so inseparable that their codependency allows us to view them as one being. The final scenes are so disheartening because it's not really a murder that takes place, It's a suicide. Beverly has so heavily demonised his brothers traits that he wishes to kill them, and the organism known as the mantle twins ceases to exist. This film is important to me, because it reminds me of how dangerous it is to regress in the behaviours that I find comfortable, and it shows me not to demonise the things that I cannot change about myself. Recommended Double Feature Pairing: The Virgin Suicides (1999) (I recommend this because it also is concerned with suicide and the masculine-feminine divide [and also one of my favourite movies])