Doppelganger (1993)
Last Watch Date - March 11, 2025
Total Times Watched - One
Comments
What did I just watch? Let's start at the beginning: I heard about this on the How Did This Get Made? podcast last night (before watching Spaceballs) and thought "hmm, I should check this out." I'm SO glad I did. WTF?
First things first, this movie features a YOUNG Drew Barrymore, like 17 years old at time of filming, in a bizarrely sexual role (including nudity..?) and an otherwise totally unforgettable cast. George Newbern is in this. Have you heard of him before? Probably not, but I bet you've HEARD him before because he's been in a ton of voice acting roles. He was ok? Leslie Hope is someone I never heard of before this but it appears she's been in a lot of stuff. She must've hidden this from her credits because it is one of the worst performances I've ever seen.
The plot in this movie is completely bonkers. I'm going to spoil some of it just so you can understand how utterly weird it is. Drew Barrymore has a multiple personality disorder from a "vanishing twin".. or .. she has multiple personality disorder because her dad was banging her as a child? It's unclear which is the cause because both are mentioned. After her brother catches her dad and her together one fine day (when she is 14), her 11 year old brother kills her dad. Or DID HE? He's institutionalized for this, but her therapist says she framed him. On top of this, her therapist was ALSO banging her (it's professional, don't worry about it) and manipulating her into doing things like, I don't know, killing her mom. I guess she killed both of her parents for different reasons. Oh, her mom was going to have her killed by the way. Because of inheritance! It makes sense.
You're like "that's a relatively tame thriller plot" and you're correct, but here's where it gets even more bizarre. Her therapist is a master of creating latex masks and faces for all of these people in her life, including her dad, her, an FBI agent, and others. How, you ask? I have no idea. He's a therapist, but also a special effects guru. Funnily enough, he is the same exact size and build as her, but also the same exact size and build as her dad who is MUCH LARGER than her. This is never explained. He's doing all of this because he's in love with her and wants to keep her institutionalized so no one else can have her.
And even at this point, you're like "ok that's weird but that's not THAT weird." CORRECT AGAIN, MY FRIEND. Remember when I said she had a vanishing twin thing? Well it turns out she's also some sort of worm that splits into two .. aliens? monsters? entities? First she writhers her arms and legs together, then she becomes gooey, then she turns into a giant worm, then she splits into two. And then one of those worm-aliens kills the other before killing the therapist and sparing her love interest. I didn't mention him in this plot because he really doesn't matter at all. He's only there to move things along. After this whole worm-alien thing happens, the two aliens merge back into a worm which then ungoos into Drew Barrymore again.
WHAT?
This ending leaves so many more questions. It seems like she DID have multiple personalities in the end, but she was also a supernatural creature? And the doctor (who was supposed to be in NY this whole time but was in LA) somehow crafted this array of characters to trick the other dude into telling him if they were sleeping together or not just so he could get her framed for more murder and institutionalized? They could've just left it at this without the worm, but adding the worm/alien thing made this SO MUCH MORE CONFUSING.
Recommended?
Oh hell yeah, this movie was amazing. It's completely bonkers and I enjoyed all of it. Plus it has the line "you scratch my back, I'll lick your balls."
