all photos by Niko Tavernise / Courtesy of Amazon Prime Video

It’s difficult to overstate just how excited I am about the upcoming Prime series Dead Ringers, a television adaptation of one of my favorite David Cronenberg movies. In the original, released in 1988, Jeremy Irons played twin gynecologists who blurred boundaries in their professional and personal lives. In the new six-part series, Rachel Weisz will play the twins, and they will be queer, sharing not just wild ambitions of revolutionizing fertility and birthing practices but also lovers.

It’s set to be bloody, sexy, twisted, gruesome, and horny. In other words, all my favorite things. And Weisz — who is also executive producing,  as she did for Disobedience, prompting me to ask, will there be lesbian spitplay tho? — agrees, telling Vogue in a First Look at the series the following about what drew her to Cronenberg’s source material: “I liked that it was deeply psychological, deeply twisted, perverse, and thrilling … I think that’s quite fertile territory.”

And it sounds like we can expect some of the wicked sense of humor of that fertile play on words from the series as well. The central gyno twins’ names remain unchanged from the original, Weisz stepping into the roles of Elliot and Beverly, and the way they’re described in the Vogue piece makes them sound like the personification of this meme:

behind every gay person is a gayer, more evil gay person

— anania (@Anania00) January 1, 2023

Hot!!!!!

While many of their pursuits are technically good — trying to push forward science on maternal health and fertility — the twins are no role models, reveling in their shared appetite for power, bacchanalia, and chaos. Weisz describes the character to Vogue as “really fucking cleven and funny and strange and extraordinary” but also “fucked up” and “dysfunctional.”

Indeed, the original film deftly explores highly questionable medical ethics, drug use, the tumultuous energies of sex and desire and its connections to power, and the violence of birth and bodies. This series is poised to have all that — plus a lot of cursed and spicy lesbian mischief. Britne Oldford will play Beverly’s lover Genevieve (a character also seen in the original), and Jennifer Ehle plays a “cutthroat lesbian investor.”

Gay spoiler alert, but according to Vogue, the first episode features the women taking turns swapping identities to sleep with a famous actress who is also one of their shared patients. Yeah, this is a story that sets fire to boundaries in more ways than one.

Alice Birch serves as head writer (Succession, Normal People) and there will be directing turns from Karyn Kusama (who of course helmed Jennifer’s Body but also the Yellowjackets pilot!) as well as queer director Lauren Wolkstein (who directed episodes of Queen Sugar and my beloved Dare Me).

I am well on the record as enjoying creepy twin shit, psychosexual lesbian thrills, and anything that promises both horror and erotics in tandem. Between that and my love of the original movie, it’s hard not to feel like two twin lesbian mad scientists cooked this up in a blood and sex soaked laboratory just for me. The series promises horny horror, and I am very much ready!!!!!!

I encourage checking out the original movie — or rewatched it, as I’ll be doing — before the series premieres on Prime on April 21, 2023. Be prepared for body horror, strangeness, and erotics. But if you’re a Cronenberg Head like me, you already know what you’re in for.

AND NOW LET’S GAZE UPON SOME VERY IMPORTANT PHOTOS FROM DEAD RINGERS:

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