Dead Ringers

There really is something metaphysically empowering about the role of a male gynecologist. It comes off as a sexist protective role played out for dire love of the other sex, but it can also be seen as a voyeuristic sense of comatose induced empowerment. David Cronenberg has covered many things in his films, but none of them have been as sexually charged as this film.

Dead Ringers is a film concerning twin gynecologists, the womanizing Elliot and the peepish Beverly. The past is not explained about these characters due to their own psychic link they share. This is a common theory that is brought up on the subject of twins. It hasn't been proven, but it hasn't been disproven. When an illustrious actress enters their life with a mysterious vaginal mutation, their identities swirl into a concoction of sexual deviance, surgical nightmares, and family bonds.


Dead Ringers is a vastly important film due to many things. One of them is it's own set pieces. Cronenberg had constructed designs for the most horrifying, and ghoulish vaginal instruments; even worthy for a H.R. Giger drawing. The principal duo was based off of Stewart and Cyril Marcus. Jeremy Irons plays the role of a century as two brothers, each with their own personality, but linked together as a similar soul. No one else could have pulled this role off, but I wouldn't mind seeing a version starring Alan Rickman.

A film that features gynecologists are as rare as they come. This film is unforgettable. While being a personal masterpiece of Cronenberg's, it does suffer mixed pacing; pacing that is only forgiven with it's mammoth ending. Personal identity is the issue at hand in this film. The similar concept of twin souls was brought up more in depth in Richard Kelly's Southland Tales. The genre here is a confused one. Dead Ringers can be regarded as a realist science fiction, or even a black drama, teeming with Cronenberg's trademarked body horror themes.


Dead Ringers is hands down Cronenberg's best film. It features a sadistic score that compliments the fruits of labor passed on by Irons. He notes every emotion by including key colors in the film that rub off on you, leaving you emotionally marked. Women with teeth in their vagina is not scary, but women with a mutant vagina IS scary. See this instead of any post-feminist shit. This is a film about sorrow, not shock.

-mAQ