Horror movies are no strangers to tropes, whether it's in the recent movie Lisa Frankenstein, which uses a Frankenstein's monster trope, or in Evil Dead Rise, which has an apocalyptic log. That said, some tropes are just creepier than others. One such trope that never fails to send chills down viewers' spines is the presence of twins.

Things are always scarier in pairs — and they're even more terrifying when it's a pair of sadistic, murderous human beings. Twins in horror films effectively scare the audience because they play on the idea of duality and the uncanny. They look identical, yet something is unsettling about them, whether it's their synchronized movements, shared thoughts, or eerie connection. The horror genre understands this well, and the trope of creepy twins is used in some of the most disturbing films to cross the big screen.

10 Elias and Lukas

'Goodnight Mommy' (2022)

The creepy twins in the remake of the Austrian horror film Goodnight Mommy, Elias (Cameron Crovetti) and Lukas (Nicholas Crovetti), seem like your average, well-behaved boys when their mother comes home from the hospital covered in bandages. The movie catapults into a dark and brooding foray into violence when the twins believe she's an impostor.

The movie is delightfully sadistic and follows the story of a mother returning home with only her eyes and mouth visible and the rest of her head covered in thick bandages after facial surgery. To the twins, she looks nearly unrecognizable in both face and demeanor, and they begin to think she is an impostor. They stop at nothing to get their mother to confess that she is someone else. Goodnight Mommy is a superb horror movie without a jump scare, keeping viewers on the edge of their seats as the twins go on a series of violent and disturbing actions to confirm their truth.

9 Danielle and Dominique

'Sisters' (1972)

In one of Brian De Palma's best movies, journalist Grace (Jennifer Salt) is horrified when she witnesses her fashion model neighbor, Danielle (Margot Kidder), violently murder a man. She calls the police, but when the detective arrives, nothing seems to be amiss, and the scene is deprived of any evidence of murder. Grace takes things into her own hands and uncovers sinister secrets of Danielle's past.

In Sisters, only one of the twins is evil — Danielle's twin, Dominique. Dominique is furious at being separated from her sister — if she can't have her, no one will, resulting in many gruesome murders. The movie was praised for De Palma's usage of split-screen techniques, which elevated the suspense and nerves of the movie. Sisters is a classic psychological drama film that horror fans should be well acquainted with.

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8 Duane and Belial

'Basket Case' (1982)

In one of the more bizarre horror movies about conjoined siblings, Basket Case puts the "deranged" in killer twins. In the film, Duane Bradley (Kevin Van Hentenryck) is a normal-looking man who seeks vengeance for the unwanted surgery that separated him from his deformed conjoined twin, Belial, who he now hides in a basket.

The Siamese twins in Basket Case spend the movie trying to get revenge on the surgeons who separated them against their will, and the two brothers share a psychic connection that lends Duane his mutated brother's wrath. The movie keeps viewers on their toes with its many surprising twists, such as the true nature of Belial and the ultimate fate of the twins. Basket Case's low-budget innovations and cult classic status have certainly inspired many horror filmmakers, so much so that even horror master James Wan recommends it.

7 Emily and Gabriel

'Malignant' (2021)​​​​

In another horror movie that contains conjoined twins, Malignant takes on the absurd and the evil in Emily (Annabelle Wallis) and Gabriel's story. In one of James Wan's most eccentric films yet, a woman begins to have visions of people being murdered, only to realize that the terrifying events are happening in real life.

The psychodrama built around the heroine's implied backstory lacks sincerity, but the twist towards the end is disturbing enough. Gabriel is revealed to be a large teratoma — Emily's vengeful twin brother who never separated from her in the womb. While the film is a bit out there, Malignant was still lauded for its creepy atmosphere and adrenaline-packed action, even being up for the fan-favorite award at the 2021 Oscars.

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6 The Twin Sisters

'American Mary' (2012)

There is nothing subtle about Jen and Sylvia Soska's films, and American Mary is no exception. Not only do the real-life twin sisters direct their own horror films, but they often star in them too. In American Mary, the Soska sisters play nameless German twins obsessed with body modification and their connection to each other.

What makes American Mary creepy is not in what the twins do but in what they get done to them in the surgical room. These twins want nothing more than to share everything they have in a desire to fuse together. In the film, a surgeon removes both of their left arms and attaches them to the opposite sister's body. While American Mary certainly touches on a dark topic and shows disturbing images, it ultimately presents an empowering narrative, as the protagonist embraces her profession as a body modification artist and helps people find their true selves.

5 The Grady Girls

'The Shining' (1980)

The Grady girls (Lisa Burns and Louise Burns) in The Shining are the most well-known twins in horror history, despite not even being twins. With their frilly, powder blue dresses, iconic barrettes in their brown hair, and vacant stares, the girls turned into an iconic pair in The Shining.

While Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece was flooded with behind-the-scenes drama, the movie birthed some of the creepiest characters in horror. When the girls appear in the hallway in front of Danny on his tricycle, one smiling in a sinister way and the other one deadly serious, both of their eyes hollow, it's hard not to double-check your hallways after midnight. It's also interesting that the innocent-looking young twins are juxtaposed with the hotel filled with horrors and violent events, which can be seen by viewers as a symbol of corrupted innocence.

4 Elliot and Beverly Mantle

'Dead Ringers' (1988)

One of the creepiest sets of twins in film history is Elliot and Beverly Mantle of David Cronenberg's Dead Ringers. Both characters were played by Jeremy Irons with perfection. The brothers were based on a pair of real-life, drug-addicted gynecologist twins, Stewart Marcus and Cyril Marcus, who practiced in 1970s New York.

In the movie, the twins' lives are so intertwined that they may as well be conjoined. They feed off each other's obsessions, addictions, and lust. So much so that they become co-dependent on one another and fuel each other's self-destruction. The movie follows them as they seduce their gynecological patients and slip into madness. In 2023, Dead Ringers was remade into a miniseries, with Rachel Weisz playing a genderswapped version of the twins.

3 Bo and Vincent Sinclair

'House of Wax' (2005)

House of Wax is one of the many horror films of the aughts that will make you never want to stop at a small roadside town to ask for help again. The movie is filled with disturbing wax figures, humans turned into live attractions, and being endlessly hunted with no remorse.

One of the movie's creepiest parts is twins Bo and Vincent Sinclair (both played by Brian Van Holt). The two are introduced at the beginning of the movie as young children, one calmly eating his breakfast and the other having a violent tantrum as he is strapped to a chair. Throughout the film, it is discovered that the twins were originally conjoined, and while Bo is handsome and Vincent is disfigured, the evil twin isn't the “hideous” one — Bo is the one filled with fantasies of murder.

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2 Holly and Heather

'A Haunting at Silver Falls' (2013)

A Haunting at Silver Falls is yet another excellent and harrowing paranormal movie that teaches you that people who look frightening are not always the ones to be afraid of. In the movie, twins Holly and Heather (Nikita and Jade Ramsey) were murdered 20 years prior, and the town they lived in still believes their father killed them.

The film sets you up to be terrified of the dead twins, as they set out for vengeance on the town and appear as nasty, rotting ghosts. But as they violently haunt a young woman in her aunt's home, she soon realizes that the dead twins aren't trying to hurt her but instead trying to warn her of the same fate befalling her. Apart from the twins, there are plenty of haunting moments in the movie, such as when the protagonist encounters the ghost of a young girl in the woods, as well as the discovery of hidden rooms in the town's old church.

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1 Todd and Terry

'Blood Rage' (1987)

Blood Rage is a classic good twin versus evil twin story. A woman and her adult son are stalked at their apartment by the son's unhinged twin brother, Todd, who has escaped from a psychiatric institution after being accused of killing a man years earlier.

The movie is interesting in that the angelic-looking twin, Terry (Mark Soper), is the one who brutally kills a man with an axe when the two brothers are younger. He blames his innocent brother, Todd (also played by Soper), in an event that can only be explained by the fact that Terry has no feelings for his brother whatsoever. The film never gets into why Terry would do such a thing. He has no hatred for Todd — in fact, Terry has no feelings for anyone but himself.

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NEXT: The Best Horror Movies of All Time, Ranked