Twins of Evil (1971)

Hammer horror films had a very distinct look to their color palate, it was practically a trademark and very consistent from the late 50's into the early70's, so much so that it's kind of hard to tell when an individual film was made as they all look like they could be from the late 50's. This is why there is such an out place quality and odd juxtaposition to the presence of nudity, though not much of it and chiefly breasts, in the 1971 release Twins of Evil. This film was built around 'The Collinson Twins', Maltase born beauties in their 19th year who had just been Playboys first set of identical twins to serve as playmate of the month. Their cute but they can't act great so Peter Cushing is tasked with most of the heavy lifting as the pairs uncle and new guardian after the deaths of their parents. The film is set in what appears to be late 17th or early 18th century Austria and Cushing plays a puritanical sort who is all too willing to burn young women at the stake, and it takes a long time to convince him that the local menace he's dealing with are vampires, not witches.

The films title is a little misleading as well, both twins are not evil just Frieda (Madeleine Collinson) who falls under the spell of a local vampire count, Maria (Mary Collinson) is a good girl, but dress her up in her sisters clothing while she's asleep and Cushing might just try to have her burned at the stake. A workable film and at a nice standard Hammer running time of 87 minutes it doesn't overstay its welcome and is just different enough to be consistently engaging, at least for a single viewing. David Warbeck and Damien Thomas are the twins non-vampire and vampire love interest respectively, and Kathleen Byron, who I quite like is also in this though she has very little to do. **1/2