Twins of Evil (1971)

a.k.a. Twins of Dracula / The Virgin Vampires / The Evil Twins
Directed by: John Hough

Twins of Evil is the third flick in Hammer’s “Karnstein Trilogy” and by this time the trilogy really didn’t have anything to do with J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s novella “Carmilla” anymore, except for the name Karnstein and a very tiny cameo by Carmilla. There are no lesbian vampires to be found anywhere in the movie (damn you, Hammer!!!) and the nudity is even less than in Lust for a Vampire (strangely enough when the two main characters are being played by the first identical twin Playmates). But, apart from that this is Hammer showing that they’re back to good form again after Lust for a Vampire (which I didn’t care for that much, to be honest).

This movie is much more in the line of other Hammer vampire movies, like Vampire Circus (which feels like it is set in the same universe as the Karnstein flicks), Countess Dracula (yep, I know… not a vampire movie, but it has the same kind of vibe as this one) and Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (which I will return to on this blog in the next couple of days). But, they’ve also thrown in some influences from witch hunting movies like The Witchfinder General and Mark of the Devil as we have Peter Cushing playing a pretty vile fella that likes to burn women at the stake just for “living alone and not wanting a husband”, sure… that must mean they’re witches!


The film is set in the 1700’s (making it a prequel rather to the other Karnstein flicks) and in the small Styrian village of Karnstein, that lies in the shadow of Castle Karnstein, Gustav Weil (Peter Cushing) and his merry men of “The Brotherhood” are hunting witches like there’s no tomorrow and no accusation (which usually comes from a member of the Brotherhood) is small enough to not set off the guys to hunt down some sexy women in the village and burn them to save their souls. But, when they storm the cottage of a woman that is having some nooky with Count Karnstein (Damien Thomas) they are stopped and Gustav humiliated by the cocky Count.

In the meantime, the two twins Maria and Frieda (Mary and Madeleine Collinson) arrives in the village. Having just lost their parents they have been sent to live with their uncle Gustav and his wife, Katy (Kathleen Byron). Gustav, being the religious hard ass that he is immediately senses problems with the girls… I mean, to come here dressed as harlots!


Count Karnstein has his own problems, a fake satanic ritual in his castle just doesn’t do the trick so he decides to try it on his own, human sacrifice and all. The blood from the sacrifice resurrects an old ancestor of his, the vampire Mircalla Karnstein (Katya Wyeth), and after having slept together she makes him a vampire as well. As long as you open up your heart for Satan you won’t die by the vampire’s bite, you’ll turn into one yourself. So, here we get ourselves an satanic explanation of vampirism, pretty unusual…

Maria and Frieda really doesn’t enjoy staying with their strict uncle and especially Frieda does something about it. She’s the more adventurous one (read: wicked) and bullies her sister into covering for her when she leaves one night for Castle Karnstein, where she’s heard the real fun is to be had. And fun she has,so much fun that she’s turned into a vampire by the Count… Being a new vampire she messes up when she takes a bite out of a member of “The Brotherhood” and gets caught by her uncle and his cronies.


Instead of immediately burning her at the stake they throw her in a jail cell while the rest of the Brotherhood decides what to do with her, she’s Gustav’s niece after all… Well, they decide on how to kill her and who will do it, niece or no niece, something as wicked as her must die. This gives the Count time enough to pick up a drugged Maria and have her trade place with her sister in the cell… Frieda, being the wicked wench that she is, really doesn’t care if her sister dies or not. But, the local school teacher who has the hots for the sisters finds out and it’s up to him to rescue Maria and persuade the Brotherhood to stand up against the evil Count.

Well, this is more like it! After the drop in quality with Lust for a Vampire, this flick ends the Trilogy with a bang. This is classic Hammer and when you have Peter Cushing back in the series you know something good will come out of it. And talking about Mr. Cushing, it was quite refreshing to see him play a character that wasn’t really a good guy (even though he believed so himself). Hell, when it comes to this movie, the evil vampire Count was probably more of a good guy than the self righteous and holier than thou Gustav Weil. And I also have to say that the twins Mary and Madeleine are pretty damn easy on the eyes… no wonder they were Playmates of the year (in 1967 I think…). And even though glamour models turned actresses usually doesn’t act that well I felt they did good here.


It was nice to see some gory effects in this flick as well, nothing much, but what was there was pretty effective. There’s a decapitation near the end of the movie that felt unusually brutal and I love that! Some nekkidness was in there as well (of course, with Playboy Playmates in the movie there have to be some nudity at least), and being a guy I really didn’t have any problem with that either… The satanic touch on the vampire stuff was nice (and it would explain the satanic ritual that Lust for a Vampire started with), I would like to see more of that.

When compared to the other flicks in the “Karnstein Trilogy” it doesn’t have anything on The Vampire Lovers (that one is hard to beat), but it’s by far greater and more entertaining than Lust for a Vampire. So, all in all a great ending to the “Karnstein Trilogy”.