The Flesh and the Fury: X-posing Twins of Evil

The Flesh and the Fury: X-posing Twins of Evil (2012)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

A who's who of genre experts are brought together to discuss the making of Hammer's TWINS OF EVIL. This documentary from Daniel Griffith is really terrific because unlike so many horror documentaries it doesn't just tell the story of the film but it goes into much more detail. We start off talking about how Hammer took over the horror market and how the studio began to get dried up because they really weren't doing anything new. This leads us to a discussion on the Carmilla story and previous film versions. We then get to Hammer's output during this era when sexuality and nudity was allowed.

Tim Lucas, Joe Dante, Kim Newman, David J. Skal, Ted Newsom, Wayne Kinsey and Christopher Frayling are among the people interviewed as is director John Hough. As you can see, there are some pretty big names here in regards to genre filmmaking so most people are going to be familiar with them. The entire cast really does an excellent job at keeping their interviews entertaining and there's no question that Griffith himself knows how to tell a story. I've now seen a few of his features and there's no question that he has a talent and delivers more than just what you typically see.

I thought the documentary did a fantastic job at giving you the whole view of the studio during this era. There's also a terrific discussion about the sexuality and how Hammer's promotion went overboard with the various stills that were released because the majority of the nudity wasn't in the actual film. We also learn how the British and American censor boards reacted to the film.