Horror Movies With Actors Playing Multiple Roles

At the heart ofBram Stoker's DraculaBram Stoker's Dracula is the immortal love story between Dracula and his wife Elisabeta, who died by suicide after reports of the Count's death. Winona Ryder brought the film's script to director Francis Ford Coppola, and the roles of Mina and Elisabeta became one character.

Ryder said the love story between Dracula and Mina, a reincarnation of Dracula's beloved Elisabeta, drew her to the script.She said:

I liked the script because it is a very emotional love story. This is not what you expect from Dracula. Mina, like many women in the late 1800s, had much repressed sexuality. Corsets forced women to move. This showed repression. Expressing passion seemed freakish.

One big twist in Jordan Peele'sUsFeatures a system of underground tunnels holding society's "tethered" members. These people must mirror the actions of their above-ground twins.

Everyone on screen is double cast. Director Jordan Peele made subtle hair and makeup changes to show character differences.

The main characters and their tethered versions differ mainly in their blond eyebrows.Star Lupita Nyong'o suggested this idea because the tethered family would have singed eyebrows from their son's fiery tricks., who felt the tethered family would have singed eyebrows from their son's fiery tricks.

Dual roles are hard. Playing the killer and the final girl is especially difficult in Ti West'sX, Mia Goth plays Maxine, a stripper seeking fame and fortune in the adult film world. She and her friends go to a remote farmhouse where a jealous old woman takes them out one by one.

West explained, he planned to double-cast the character. Maxine and Pearl are two sides of the same coin: Maxine starts controlling her sexuality, while Pearl feels her talents were wasted because she was born in the wrong era.

Mars Attacks!is Tim Burton's love letter to1950s B movieshe dreamed up after directingEd Wood, his other love letter to B movies. Burton sent the script to Jack Nicholson right after working on it to see if he wanted to play anyone specific.

While Nicholson played the dual roles of President James Dale and Vegas mogul Art Land, the actor first wanted every character.Burton explained:

Jack first wanted a multi-role performance. I asked him which part he wanted. He replied, “How 'bout ALL of them?” We developed Jack's two characters: the President and a decadent Las Vegas mogul planning a Martian-themed hotel franchise. Jack is the best actor to face the Martians. I was lucky. I like actors who do what they do. Jack does anything, no matter how wild it seems. He is the greatest; seeing him in two parts is amazing.

Doug Jones handles weirdo monsters with a soul. A director calls Jones for three different parts, so Guillermo del Toro asked Jones to play in.Hellboy II

The actor plays Abe Sapien (with his voice for the first time), the Angel of Death, and Chamberlain, a big goopy monster.

In 2008,Jones explained the process of working with del Toro, especially how to quickly build new character details:The process of putting together a new character's nuances quickly.

Just a detail: for the Chamberlain character in Hellboy II,he met me at the creature shop while I worked on the Chamberlain role. He said, “Doug, now for the Chamberlain. I'm picturing… I see him as sort of an ewwww!”He met me at the creature shop while I worked on the Chamberlain character. He said, “Doug, now for the Chamberlain. I'm picturing… I see him as sort of an ewwww!” This is a prime example of all the characters I played.

He made a sound effect and a hand motion. Instantly, I knew the Chamberlain. He never directed me again on that character. He yelled action on set. We did the thing. He never gave me changes or said, “I want it more like this or more like that.”

Cheech Marin is everywhere in

Cheech Marin is all over. He appears as a border guard, a barker outside the vampire bar, and plays the gangster Carlos who deals with the Gecko brothers at the film's end.. He plays a border guard, a barker outside the vampire bar, and the gangster Carlos. Carlos appears at the movie's end to make a deal with the Gecko brothers.

Marin seemed meant to play the border guard and Chet the barker. According toQuentin Tarantino: Everything to Know About the Original Reservoir Dogstar Erik Estrada was supposed to play Carlos but dropped out late in production, letting Marin take a third role.The Mummy ReturnsErik Estrada was set to play Carlos.He dropped out late in production. This left Marin to take a third role.

The Mummy ReturnsThis film features actors taking on extra parts. Rachel Weisz returns as Evelyn O'Connell. She also plays Nefertiti, the Egyptian princess. This past life makes her fight with Imhotep more personal than when he tried to kill her family.

Patricia Velasquez plays Meela Nais, a woman letting the soul of her past life, Anck-Su-Namun, take over her body to fight Evelyn.

InThe Bride of FrankensteinElsa Lanchester plays both Mary Shelley and the Bride. She brings a different energy to each character. Lanchester is easy to forget in this film (Shelley and the Bride are at opposite ends of the runtime), but she is a powerhouse in both roles.

Lanchester's dual casting gives the actress more screen time. It also shows a mirror image between Shelley and the creature in the finale. Shelley shows childlike wonder; the Bride is a monster that cannot be controlled and only wants to die. Shelley sees possibilities; the Bride sees darkness.

Nothing but Trouble Chevy Chase stars as a publishing magnate. He finds himself in a ghoulish hellscape after a traffic stop in Valkenvania, a town on a fiery sinkhole. After getting a speeding ticket, Chase must face the demonic Judge Alvin "J.P" Valkenheiser, played by Dan Aykroyd.

Aykroyd directed the film and played the main villain. Aykroyd also played a giant man-baby becauseno one else wanted to play.No one wanted to play the part. Getting a lot of prosthetics and playing a demented baby is a thankless job in a nearly unwatchable movie.

John Candy plays Officer Dennis Valkenheiser and his sister, Eldona Valkenheiser. As Dennis, Candy plays an officer torn between duty and morality; as Eldona, he is just man-hungry. No decision would surprise people about Candy playing both roles.

Dead RingersJeremy Irons stars as twin gynecologists who share everything: a practice, women, and a drug habit. David Cronenberg made this film one of his most visceral works. Irons carries the emotional weight of two brothers who need each other despite their differences.

In 1988,Cronenberg toldSpinmagazineCronenberg wanted to write and direct a film about twins.

Twins have always fascinated people. Many things exist about twins and their link to twin mythology, plus the psychological ideas of being a twin. One idea is what you say: This schizophrenia separates one from their own duties and actions, making them think someone else, not quite themselves, is responsible.

People lead private and professional lives. There is a split: private actions versus professional ones. This mirrors...VideodromeThe celebrity persona many people hold isn't really them.

Alien: CovenantMichael Fassbender's creepy android David meets Walter, another android played by Fassbender who looks slightly less creepy. The dual acting is interesting, especially when the actor seems to try and seduce himself.

Speaking withEntertainment WeeklyFassbender explained that playing two different characters in 2017 was hard but fun. It let him test techniques he would not use in another film. He said:

Shooting and doing this was fun if you like the technical side, which I do. We used one continuous take where I played Walter for the whole scene, getting the beats and blocking with the double, who was excellent. He played either character based on that. Then we blocked David and held that tight.

In 2013'sEnemy, Jake Gyllenhaal plays Adam and Anthony, two identical men matching down to their scars. One is a professor; the other is a hedonistic actor. Are they the same person?

The story confuses the viewer, but Gyllenhaal had a clear view of the two characters.He toldThe Independent:

[Enemyshows a married man having an affair with a pregnant wife. He must figure out himself before committing to adult life.

Ah, it is all much clearer now.

Blood RageBlood Rage is one of the few slashers set on the most draining holiday: Thanksgiving. Mark Soper plays Todd and Terry, twin brothers who killed with an axe as boys. Terry frames Todd, who then goes to a mental institution for ten years.

Ten years later, Todd leaves the institution ready to correct things. Meanwhile, Terry prepares to kill everyone at his mother's Thanksgiving. Soper uses different mannerisms to show the brothers' differences, but the key point is the evil twin carries a huge bloody machete.

In Tim Burton's adaptation ofDark Shadows, Bella Heathcote plays the nearly identical love interests of vampire Barnabus Collins. Josette du Pres is an 18th-century woman who dies after a witch curses her. Maggie Evans (or Victoria Winters) is a 20th-century governess who strongly resembles Josette.

When speaking withAnothermagazine, Heathcote credited the ease of playing dual roles to Colleen Atwood's elegant costumes:

Playing two parts was great. Colleen Atwood, the costumier, was extraordinary. She let me play dress-up in two different eras and two incredible styles she made. Wearing one over the other was not the point. Colleen's costumes feel like the character's skin; you just step into it. This makes everything much more accessible.

Josette's costume was 18th century. She was wealthy, so her pieces looked ornate and very structured. They felt fun to wear; you stood straight for once. Changing how you carry yourself made everything else fit right in. Victoria's costume was totally different, very put together, and '70s style.

Simon James in Richard Ayoade's Dostoyevsky adaptation.The Double.Jesse Eisenberg plays a nebbish office drone who fails to catch a break. His boss does not know who he is. He loves a co-worker who ignores him. He just seems annoying to be around.

Eisenberg also plays James Simon, James's doppelgänger. James is cool and calm at the office. He is respected. He interacts better with the opposite sex. He is the worst nightmare for an introvert.

Speaking with [name]The Guardian.In 2014, Eisenberg explained his approach to Simon and James. He did not make them two separate characters. He saw them as the worst parts of one person. He said:

This thing you suppress will show up in a scary way. James embodies everything Simon lacks. James has too much of it. Instead of just talking to people easily, James takes over a room. He acts extremely and does it at Simon's expense.

There isa lot happening inSouthland Tales.In Southland Tales, one strange aspect is Seann William Scott's dual performance as Roland and Ronald Taverner. These two men might be brothers, or they might be the same person depending on your belief in space-time anomalies.

Everyone inSouthland Tales.Everyone in Southland Tales is playing a double of themselves, whether that double is on screen or not. Director Richard Kelly said the actors, especially Scott, trusted him enough to join his super-weird vision.He toldVice::

They all knew I had it swirling in my head. The same thing happened on Donnie Darko.Donnie Darko. It felt like, “We don't get the whole big picture, but you seem sure you know what you're doing, so we will follow!” When they saw the final product, they said, “Okay, okay.”

Film school can be brutal, especially when students compete for the Hitchcock Award.Urban Legend: Final Cut.Urban Legend: Final Cut follows Amy Mayfield. She is a student inspired by the original film's murders. She plans to make a student film about the set of attacks.

Amy's friend, Travis (Matthew Davis), is a filmmaker. Someone arranges his death to look like suicide, but his twin saves him.

Travis's twin, Trevor, arrives on campus to solve his brother's murder. Trevor figures out all victims worked on Travis's film. He accepts the Hitchcock Award for his brother.

I Know Who Killed MLindsay Lohan uses her star power to examine one of her first successes.The Parent TrapBoth films feature Lohan playing twins who do not know each other. Unlike other films, these twins do not know each other.The Parent TrapIn this film, one twin is Dakota Moss, an exotic dancer kidnapped by a serial killer.

Dakota and Aubrey dream of each other but never meet. Dakota takes over Aubrey's life; Aubrey ends up in a glass coffin. This feels like a Lynchian fairy tale you only want to watch at midnight with friends.

In 2007,Director Chris Sivertson told Entertainment WeeklyEverything in this camp-fest depends on Lohan:

We needed someone who could play complete opposites, not in a tired way. Lindsay's performance carries the movie.