After a mainstream success, an artist will either try to mimic that success by making something in a similar vein, or will use this newfound clout to make something truly unique. Sometimes it works beautifully (such as The Big Lebowski following the massive success of Fargo for the Coen brothers), and other times it's a complete disaster (such as M Night Shyamalan staking his entire career on Lady in the Water). With David Cronenberg, he largely ditched the body horror gooeyness of his successful remake of The Fly with his follow-up Dead Ringers. However, the subject matter, tone, and Jeremy Irons' performance makes this an even grosser and less fun effort than The Fly, with none of the standard movie payoff. True, The Fly wasn't exactly a fun-filled romp, but Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis were likable leads that you could sympathize with and root for, and while the climax ended in tragedy, it did follow a logical path that the audience could at least get on board with.
All of this is to say that Dead Ringers is about the furthest you can get from an enjoyable, crowd-pleasing film, even though it's a great work of art. Irons gives a stunning performance as twin gynecologists Beverly and Elliot Mantle, with each twin having clearly different personalities but sharing a professional and personal need for each other. You get some of the standard camera tricks when an actor plays twins, but my favorite is a scene of Beverly and Elliot both slow dancing with a woman that Elliot has brought up to their apartment, with her sandwiched between the brothers while Elliot guides her hand up and down Beverly's back. Irons' performance should have gotten an Academy Award, but let's not kid ourselves, the grey-haired Academy probably chucked the screener of Dead Ringers so hard into the trashcan after viewing it that it left a dent.
There is much to dislike about this film. While the twins are great characters, it's impossible for the audience to get behind and root for two drug users who will sometimes both fuck the same woman without her knowing which one she slept with. Once Beverly's actress girlfriend leaves town to work on a project, he falls further into a cycle of drug use and madness, ordering specially made gynecological instruments for mutant women, using the wrong instrument on a patient and hurting her, and then finally injuring a patient with one of these instruments during a surgery. While Elliot is portrayed as the cocky asshole twin, you can barely tolerate the timid Beverly as he continues to fuck both his and his brother's lives up with his addiction and delusions. This leads to Elliot becoming a drug user himself in an attempt to synchronize with Beverly. The film ends with the two celebrating their birthday the way many twins do, with Beverly disemboweling Elliot in an attempt to "separate" himself. Then Beverly dies in Elliot's arms while the audience members scream at the poor Regal staff for a refund.
I've been continuously hammering away at how unenjoyable this film is, but I need to make something clear: David Cronenberg is my favorite horror director, and one of my favorite directors, period. Not only that, but I'm a huge fan of the body horror genre and will watch the worst pieces of shit if they even vaguely fit into the genre. I love Cronenberg films because they successfully mix intelligent, smartly written philosophy with lurid gore hound thrills. It's what H.G. Lewis would have made if he had an interest in medicine, better writers and no contempt for his audience. However, I'm not so blind in my fandom that I can't recognize his films as being the most audience-unfriendly works out there. There's a reason why his movies typically don't turn a profit; his sensibilities are too "out there" for most people.
I've watched Dead Ringers a few times now, and I still don't love it. I appreciate what Cronenberg's doing here, and I think it's a brilliant piece of filmmaking, but it's such an uncomfortable viewing experience that I find it difficult to sit through even though I admire it. Still, my inclination is to rank it higher than films that I've had a better time watching, because realistically, I'm going to end up watching this one again. There's so much going on in this film that I find interesting and that sticks in my mind that I can't rank it lower than, say, A Night to Remember. However, I can't put it higher than This Is Spinal Tap because at that point I'd be bullshitting myself. I enjoyed Tap more and will probably rewatch it sooner than Dead Ringers. Plus as a film I just like it more, so the sweet spot is #13, right between Tap and The Naked Kiss.
1. Beauty and the Beast (1946)
2. Seven Samurai (1954)
3. The Seventh Seal (1957)
4. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
5. Grand Illusion (1937)
6. Shock Corridor (1963)
7. Hard Boiled (1992)
8. Sid and Nancy (1986)
9. The 400 Blows (1959)
10. Walkabout (1971)
11. The Killer (1989)
12. This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
13. Dead Ringers (1988)
14. The Naked Kiss (1964)
15. A Night to Remember (1958)
16. The Lady Vanishes (1938)
17. The Samurai Trilogy (1954-1956)
18. Amarcord (1973)
19. Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975)
Next up: I fire up some Sublime, put sunscreen on my nose and chill out to the sweet surf rhythm of David Lean's Summertime. Or maybe not...I have no idea what this movie's about, so this marks the second Criterion film that I'm seeing for the first time, and the first one that I'll be going into blind.
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