Doppelgänger (1993)

Doppelgänger: Directed by Avi Nesher. With Drew Barrymore, George Newbern, Dennis Christopher, Leslie Hope. A writer with a room for rent acquires a strange new roommate with a psychotic alter-ego that follows her wherever she goes.

“Drew Barrymore is an actress that has gone through bad periods, not only in her career, but in her personal life too. After being a prodigy child actress she descended into obscurity with mediocre films of low quality. While she has recovered from that dark past, this movie stays as a reminder of Drew Barrymoreu0026#39;s worst days.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe movie starts with an interesting premise, very reminiscent to Brian De Palmau0026#39;s u0026quot;Raising Cainu0026quot;; with a plot dealing with multiple personality disorder that sets the story for a horror/thriller. Barrymore stars as Holly Gooding, a young woman who is trying to make a new life in California after a traumatic event of her past in which apparently her other personality killed her mother.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSuddenly, her past returns to haunt her as her evil personality is back in her life willing to ruin her new found peace and her new found love. In the middle of the chaos his new boyfriend, Patrick Highsmith (George Newbern), will try to help Holly to face the demons of her past.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eUnlike De Palmau0026#39;s underrated thriller, u0026quot;Doppelgangeru0026quot; is for the most part a mediocre film that not only never fulfills itu0026#39;s purpose, it also concludes in one of the worst endings of movie history. While Barrymore is definitely not at her best, she manages to keep her dignity with an above average performance. The rest of the cast however range from mediocre to painfully bad over-the-top performances, although Leslie Hope manages to be among the best of them.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe script is full of clichés and De Palmau0026#39;s influence is quite obvious. While the movie tries to be original by making literary references in almost every line, the dialogs are dull and the wooden acting certainly doesnu0026#39;t do any good. It has a fair share of nudity and for strange reasons, and excessive use of special effects.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe make-up effects are done by the outstanding KNB and are really among the few good things in the movie. However, the bizarre over-use of the effects in the totally out of context ending decreases the impact of KNBu0026#39;s work and makes cheesy what in a different movie would be amazing.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe fact that this is a B-Movie is no excuse for itu0026#39;s low quality, as with a better and more coherent script this could had been an interesting movie. Sadly, all we have here is a mediocre film that gets worse every second. Worthy for Barrymoreu0026#39;s beauty. 3/10”