Day 302 of the challenge! Another Cronenberg nightmare today with Dead Ringers.
So right off the bat, Jeremy Irons is THE MAN. The CLASSY MAN. The CLASSY ACTING MAN.
Any movie is guaranteed to be watchable if it involves Jeremy Irons is some capacity, so watching him play identical twin brother was an extra treat. The nuanced differences between his performances as the two brothers is masterful, so much so that I realized pretty early on that I could tell which brother he was playing without needing to be told.
On the Cronenberg side of things, Dead Ringers is much tamer compared to most of his other works. No rape zombies, armpit vampires, exploding heads, or fleshy television sets here, but that doesn’t mean Dead Ringers doesn’t make you just as uncomfortable (there’s a hint of the usual body horror here and there, but it’s minimal and seems out of place). There is quite a bit of implied sexual horror however, so much so that it gave me a slight anxiety attack at one point, and enough “horror of drug addiction” downward spirals to give the film a uniquely melancholy tone.
This is a far cry from any of the other Cronenberg movies I’ve seen so far, and I loved it. You might need to watch some cartoons afterwards though, as I do after I watch any Cronenberg flick.