SECONDS APART

CCOONNTTAAIINNSS SSPPOOIILLEERRSS

Yet another average, middle of the road, thoroughly unremarkable horror outing. This one's from the latest wave of After Dark DTV movies that has already given us the average, middle of the road Husk and the thoroughly unremarkable Prowl: there's clearly a market for movies with low aspirations for an audience with low expectations. Obviously not every film can be a great and timeless classic but that's no reason not to try. No-one won a gold by aiming low, and this is barely aiming at all. Okay, it's occasionally a bit creepy and there's a bit of blood and gore, but that's not enough.

The Seconds Apart of the title are the 93 seconds that separate the births of our identical twins: generally overlooked and ignored by the social cliques at high school, they certainly lead an unorthodox lifestyle, dressing alike, acting alike, and keeping to themselves in an old mansion with their loving parents. But could they have anything to do with the mysterious suicides of the school's leading sports jocks? Detective Orlando Jones, back on the force after his wife's death in a fire in which he was badly burned, is convinced there's something sinister about these guys, especially when other people mysteriously kill themselves. But what? Do they have supernatural powers? And how will their strange relationship cope when one of them gets involved with a girl?

Rather than have one actor play both parts as Jeremy Irons did in Cronenberg's Dead Ringers (surely the best twins movie, even if you include Schwarzenegger's) or use CGI to paste the same face onto another actor, as in The Social Network, they've actually used identical twins. It's the film's one trump card, and it has to be said the effect is unsettling. But the movie's overdone with fantasy, flashback and hallucination sequences as we're not entirely sure what's real. And ultimately it's just not gripping or exciting enough. And it's not even a disappointment since expectations weren't high.

**

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