"Every woman's nightmare … the gynos become psychos." Rita Kempley, The Washington Post (1988)

Die eineiigen Zwillinge Beverly und Elliot haben ihr ganzes Leben gemeinsam verbracht und betreiben nun eine Gynäkologen-Praxis. Selbst ihre weiblichen Eroberungen teilen sie sich: Elliot ist der aktivere der beiden. Mit seinem Charme gewinnt er fast jede hübsche Patientin, die er dann seinem schüchteren Bruder überlässt. Dann lernt Beverly eine Frau kennen, die das Spiel nicht mitspielt. Dadurch gerät das Leben der beiden völlig aus der Fassung...

"The gentleness of Cronenberg's direction subtly offsets the torrential psychological damage done by his twin sexual psychopaths. Family here is like poison, slowly released into the bloodstream." Scout Tafoya, Brooklyn (2016)

"Welcome to one of the most squirm-inducing and innovative movies in a filmography that was built on squirm-inducing and innovative movies. DEAD RINGERS finds director David Cronenberg ("Videodrome") exploring the lives of Beverly and Elliot Mantle (Jeremy Irons), identical twin gynecologists who share the same apartment, addictions, and romantic partners. Feeling like a tabloid expose with body horror kinks that could only materialize from Cronenberg"s twisted brain, this is an eerie portrait of psychological destruction." Alamo Drafthouse Cinema

"With DEAD RINGERS, Cronenberg broke from his already trademark brand of stretchy, gooey, practical effects-aided body horror, opting instead for a more clinical approach (though he couldn't resist a dream sequence in which Claire bites into a fleshy, pulpy web conjoining the twins). Cronenberg exposes us to each incident as though we, too, are collecting data, privileging us to an uncomfortable level of character detail." Chloe Lizotte, Reverse Shot (2017)

"Cronenberg's emotionally devastating study of the perverse relationship between identical twin gynaecologists, Beverly and Elliot Mantle, is an intense psychological drama which confronts his familiar preoccupations – fear of physical and mental disintegration, mortality, the power struggle between the sexes – without the paradoxical protection of visceral disgust. Instead, the abstract, expressionist imagery synthesises the physical and the mental. Courtesy of clever, unobtrusive trick camerawork, Irons gives a superlative performance as both twins. The delicate symbiotic balance between the brothers is suddenly upset by the eruption into their lives of hedonistic actress Claire. As always, they share everything, including Claire, until Beverly realises that he has at last found something he does not want to share, and he is plunged into a whirlpool of emotional confusion; when Elliot tries to help, he too is sucked into the vortex of pain and despair. Likewise, Cronenberg pulls us deeper and deeper into his harrowing tale of separation and loss, the disturbing, cathartic power of which leaves one drained but exhilarated." Time Out Film Guide

"Ein Film, der so richtig unter die Haut geht: Zu Beginn fasziniert die interessante Psychologie, später die imposant-absurde Mischung aus Realität und Albtraum. Das Ganze ist – wie bei Cronenberg kaum anders zu erwarten – mit verstörenden, aber überaus brillanten Bildkompositionen mit ungewöhnlicher Ästhetik gefilmt. Außerdem bietet Irons in der Doppelrolle der Zwillinge ein exzellentes, weil überaus nuancenreiches Spiel." Prisma