Fiction has a strange obsession with twins, particularly identical twins. On the one hand, there’s an ideal that twins are each other’s closest friends. They might not always get along, but they understand each other better than anyone else and are stronger together.
On the other hand, there are the twins who absolutely hate each other and don’t get along at all. Most of these twins follow a yin/yang pattern, with one good twin and one evil twin clashing in epic battles. Some movie twins are just bad people. They may work together for survival or to bring down a common enemy, but at the end of the day, they will gladly stab each other in the back.
10 Brianna And Gabriella Are Double Trouble For Cinderella (A Cinderella Story)
Brianna and Gabriella are the evil stepsisters from A Cinderella Story, a modern take on the Cinderella fairy tale. Although the evil stepsisters have always been a pair, they’re not always twins. In fact, there’s only one other popular Cinderella adaptation where they are twins, and that’s in Cinderella from 2015, which came eleven years later.
Brianna and Gabriella are spoiled girls who aren’t happy about being stuck together all the time. They’re usually so busy fighting that they can’t get anything done. The only thing they do accomplish is hurting their stepsister, and even that doesn’t last long.
9 Rich Sadie Was The Bad One In The Batch (Big Business)
Big Business includes not one, but two pairs of twins who are mixed up at birth and given the same names: Rose and Sadie. One pair grows up rich in the big city while the other pair grow up middle-class in the country.
Three of them turn out okay, but one of them, Rich Sadie, is a ruthless businesswoman who neglects her family for her career. She’s brutal, sharp-tongued, and steamrolls over everyone to get what she wants. She even lies to her sister, causing Rich Rose to turn on her and help the other pair. Even if Sadie relented in the end, she is a bad sister and a bad twin.
8 Maggi And Milo Have A Lot Of Baggage (The Skeleton Twins)
A dark comedy, The Skeleton Twins is an emotional roller coaster featuring a pair of twins dealing with a lot of baggage. After being estranged for ten years, they reunite after almost dying by suicide on the same day and try to help each other out.
Although the movie has a feel-good ending, both twins display toxic and destructive behaviors which affect innocent people. Maggie is especially bad. She lies to and cheats on her husband and acts horribly towards her brother when he tries to be honest. While her desire to help was genuine, her words and actions are unforgivable, and it’s unlikely they would have reconciled in real life.
7 Kate And Patricia Bosworth Are The Perfect Example Of The Good Twin/Bad Twin Trope (A Stolen Life)
Played by Bette Davis in a dual role, Kate and Patricia Bosworth are an early example of the bad twin/good twin trope. Kate is a guileless, unassuming artist, while Patricia is a conniving manipulator who steals her sister’s man. The tables turn on Pat when she drowns in a boating accident and Kate assumes her identity to win her man back.
Although there are plenty of evil twins in fiction, Patricia is among the scariest because she hits closest to home. People who are low enough to muscle in on their sibling’s significant other do exist in the real world, and it’s always satisfying to see karma catch up to them, though perhaps not so harshly.
6 Maria And Frieda Show What Can Happen When One Twin Is A Vampire (Twins of Evil)
Set in the country of Styria in the 17th century, Twins of Evil is a vampire horror movie starring a pair of twin girls, Frieda and Maria. While Maria opts to be the good girl, Frieda is boy-crazy and indulges in forbidden things. One of her secret excursions results in her being turned into a vampire.
At first, Frieda tries to protect her sister from herself and her new lifestyle. However, as the witch hunters close in, she turns on Maria and forces her to switch places. Thankfully, Maria escapes and Frieda is killed. Frieda might not have intended to become an evil vampire, but her mischief caused a lot of trouble.
5 Agatha And Sophia Have A Deadly Sibling Rivalry (Double, Double, Toil and Trouble)
Agatha and Sophia are as opposite as night and day. Sophia is sweet, kind, and soft-spoken, while Agatha is spiteful, vindictive, and greedy. As children, Agatha found a moonstone that gave her powerful magic and used it to torment her sister for years. One day, Sophia tried to leave her, but Agatha imprisoned her in a mirror.
Thankfully, their twin nieces are onto her and can free Sophia before she’s trapped forever. Even better, Agatha accidentally puts herself in the mirror, condemning her to the fate she planned for her sister. What comes around, comes around.
4 Margaret And Edith Gave Bette Davis Another Shot At Playing Twins (Dead Ringer)
In 1946, Bette Davis starred as rival twin sisters in A Stolen Life. Eighteen years later, she again flexed her acting chops in Dead Ringer. This time, the good twin gets even.
In the beginning, it is revealed that Margaret DeLorca – the “bad” twin – had an affair with Edith’s beau and trapped him into marriage by faking a pregnancy. While she lived in luxury and comfort, Edith fell into poverty and spent her life alone, and Margaret isn’t one bit remorseful. Fed up with her lies and mistreatment, Edith ditches her goody-two-shoes identity and shoots her sister dead. Unbeknownst to her, Edith had also avenged Mr. DeLorca who was murdered by Margaret and her partner. Justice was served all around.
3 Avatar And Blackwolf Brought A Country To War (Wizards)
Directed by Ralph Bakshi, Wizards is a post-apocalyptic fantasy film that narrates the war between two twin wizards, Avatar and Blackwolf.
In the film’s prologue, audiences learn that Blackwolf wished to take power for himself after his mother’s death.
Blackwolf was defeated by a wrathful Avatar who banished him in typical hero fashion, and in typical villain fashion, Blackwolf uses the opportunity to raise an army to invade Avatar’s country. As their forces clash, Blackwolf’s atrocities continue to mount until Avatar finally kills him outright. Mercy only goes so far, especially when it’s family.
2 Faith And Hope Had A Killer Relationship (A Simple Favor)
Technically speaking, A Simple Favor’s Faith and Hope were originally triplets (their third sister was stillborn). Nonetheless, it’s a minor point that isn’t disclosed until the big reveal scene, and until then, the plot reads as a case of a shady person stealing their twin’s identity.
In truth, both twins are bad people who do bad things. They were a united front when they were young and helpless, but once they became independent, each twin decided that they didn’t need the other one anymore. Faith was just the twin who had the guts to kill her sister.
1 Louis And Phillipe May Be The Most Famous Twins In Fiction (The Man in the Iron Mask)
The Man in the Iron Mask was originally part of a larger novel written by Alexander Dumas as a sequel to The Three Musketeers. In the novel, neither twin is completely good or completely evil. However, cinematic adaptations often polarize the twins, making Louis the bad twin and Phillipe the good twin (though it has been done the other way around once or twice).
The most recent adaptation, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as the twins, follows this trend. King Louis is a repulsive character who only refrains from killing his brother out of superstition. Instead, he makes Phillip’s life a living nightmare, forcing him to wear an iron mask and locking him in prison. Thankfully, Phillipe is rescued by the musketeers, and Louis is defeated.