Twinless (2025)

Directed by indie horror sensation Isabelle Hartley, Twinless (2025) is a chilling slow-burn psychological horror that explores grief, identity, and the terrifying bond between twins that transcends even death. With its haunting cinematography and complex emotional undercurrents, this A24-style thriller stands out as one of the most unsettling films of the year — not for its gore, but for the questions it leaves unanswered.

The story follows Mara Langley (Anya Taylor-Joy), a soft-spoken music teacher who lost her identical twin sister Lena in a tragic childhood accident. For decades, she’s lived a quiet, isolated life — until a series of unexplainable events in her apartment begins to unravel her fragile sense of reality. Scratches on the mirror, her own voice recorded in the dark, and disturbing dreams where her twin whispers, “I never left.”

When Mara returns to her childhood home to confront her aging mother (Tilda Swinton) and revisit long-buried trauma, she finds Lena’s old belongings mysteriously untouched — as if waiting. As the line between memory and haunting fractures, Mara begins to question if the ghost she fears is real… or a part of herself she never let go.

Twinless delivers on atmosphere in spades. Director Isabelle Hartley crafts a world soaked in melancholy — sterile hospital rooms, echoing hallways, fog-covered lakes — all serving to trap the viewer in Mara’s psychological spiral. Cinematographer Lucien Arnaud uses long, still takes and dim lighting to evoke an oppressive mood, while composer Max Richter’s score balances between ethereal beauty and unsettling dissonance.

Anya Taylor-Joy once again proves she’s the reigning queen of psychological horror. Her dual role as Mara (and occasional flashback glimpses of Lena) captures both sides of a split identity with subtlety and pain. Her descent into confusion and fear is portrayed with aching realism.

What elevates Twinless from just another ghost story is its ambiguity. Is Mara being haunted by Lena’s spirit — or by her guilt? Is the supernatural real, or are we witnessing a slow mental breakdown? The film wisely refuses to give clear answers, instead layering visual and emotional metaphors that demand repeat viewings.

The pacing is deliberately slow, which may test some viewers' patience. There are few jump scares. But those expecting a more cerebral horror experience will find it deeply rewarding.

A potential sequel could explore the origin of the Langley family curse. We learn in passing that Mara and Lena’s grandmother was also a twin — one who died in childhood. Could the haunting be generational?

In Echoes, Mara is now in a psychiatric facility, seemingly cured — until another woman in the ward claims to be Lena, fully grown. Meanwhile, a string of twin-related disappearances across Europe leads a paranormal investigator to dig into the Langley bloodline. As timelines begin to collapse and doppelgängers appear, we move into more cosmic horror territory — raising the possibility that "twins" are never separate souls, but shared halves of something far older and darker.

Twinless is a haunting, emotionally rich debut that lingers long after the credits roll. A meditation on grief, guilt, and shared identity, it earns its place among modern psychological horror greats. It’s not just about losing someone close — it’s about what happens when you can’t let them go… because they might still be inside you.