Dead Ringers: TV Review

A heady mix of Succession style skewering and a wonderful double performance from Rachel Weisz makes the TV version of Dead Ringers more of an intriguingly upsetting psychological take than an outright horror from David Cronenberg's 1988 original.

Weisz plays twins Beverly and Elliott Mantle, both of whom work as fertility experts and both of whom have singular obsessions and a yin and yang relationship.

Courting the rich to start their own clinic, both have different ways of living; Beverly's withdrawn whereas Elliott is more vivacious. Combined together, the pair are somewhat nightmarish to outsiders, and inpenetrable to those who would seek to either help or engage with them.

But as the pressures grow, through a series of dinner parties and emotional relationships, there seems to bloom a more sinister side of each other's character, as jealousies and ambitions collide in dark and dangerous ways.

Dead Ringers works solely because of Weisz.

While visually Weisz keeps her characters separate (one has hair tied up, the other loose), physically, the characters couldn't be more different - and it's a virtuoso performance from Weisz that makes for such compelling viewing. Even if at times, it is truly appalling.

Its opening scene sets the tone of Alice Birch's adaptation, as the twins are accosted at a diner and asked about threesomes; the language and the darker near-the-knuckle tone is set early on, but is disarming as the disquiet grows.

Perhaps more fascinating as a dichotomy of two sides of the same relationship than an extended six part serial, 2023's Dead Ringers sways away from Cronenberg's body horror, and lands more squarely in psychologically upsetting territory, and in examining power dynamics between not just the Mantle twins, but upper echelons of society.

It's not always as successful as it could be, and while all six episodes are releasing in one go, it's not a series to binge as the subtleties (and occasional repetitive nature of the scenarios) need to be savoured and occasionally endured. 

While supporting characters are more cyphers than fully-fleshed individuals, it's Rachel Weisz who remains the true reason to watch this series - she deserves all the accolades she'll get here, and her twin performance will haunt you for days after you've seen it.

Dead Ringers is streaming on Prime Video from Friday, April 21.