Review: Even With Theresa Palmer Working Overtime, 'The Twin' is a Mess

While director Teneli Musonen ("Lake Bodoom") certainly crafts an attractive film, and lead actress Theresa Palmer ("Lights Out") is always good, the new horror-thriller "The Twin" is a confusing mess of a film that is never sure what it wants to be – and ends up making little sense in the end.

The set-up of "The Twin" is upsetting and simple. A young couple, Rachel and Anthony (Palmer and Steven Cree), move to Finland after losing one of their twin boys in a car accident. When they arrive at their new home – a large, creaky estate – their son Elliot (Tristan Ruggeri) seems to adapt well. But when he starts to talk to people that aren't there and begins acting strangely, Rachel begins to suspect all is not right with Elliot – or the town.

Of course, the small village is where Anthony grew up, so he has a connection to the curiously off-putting town folk. The only villager that will talk to Rachel is Helen (Barbara Marten), the elderly woman that most refer to as a bit crazy. But she knows things aren't right in the village and warns Rachel to be on the lookout for strange happenings.

Everyone seems distrustful at some point, with Helen and Anthony key suspects. There's a bit of folk-horror, with town secrets, family secrets, and a final twist that renders 50% of what came before it into nonsense. The reveal simplifies everything and, to be frank, has been done in hundreds of horror films before. (Not that the misdirects were all that original, either.)

Palmer is working overtime as the stressed-out mom trying to keep her family together. She manages to impress, despite the material. It's just a shame that she wasn't given more to work with and a script that didn't rehash every B-horror movie of the last forty years.

"The Twin" premieres exclusively on Shudder May 6th.