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Twisted Nerve

Twisted Nerve

Thriller · Horror · 1968

Martin Durnley is a young man with an infantilizing mother, resentful stepfather and an institutionalized brother with Down's syndrome. To cope, he retreats into an alternate child personality he calls Georgie. After being caught during a theft attempt at a department store, he befriends a female customer who is sympathetic to him, but his friendship soon turns into obsession.

Movie details

Twisted Nerve

“Cleaver. Cleaver. Chop. Chop. First the mom and then the pop. Then we'll get the pretty girl. We'll get her right between the curl.”

1968 Thriller · Horror 1h 52m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

6.8 / 10

Community rating

Martin Durnley is a young man with an infantilizing mother, resentful stepfather and an institutionalized brother with Down's syndrome. To cope, he retreats into an alternate child personality he calls Georgie. After being caught during a theft attempt at a department store, he befriends a female customer who is sympathetic to him, but his friendship soon turns into obsession.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Twisted Nerve?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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The Stepfather

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Funny Games

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When Ann, husband George, and son Georgie arrive at their holiday home they are visited by a pair of polite and seemingly pleasant young men. Armed with deceptively sweet smiles and some golf clubs, they proceed to terrorize and torture the tight-knit clan, giving them until the next day to survive.

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Roy Boulting

Written by

Roger Marshall · Leo Marks · Roy Boulting

Hayley Mills

Hayley Mills

Susan Harper

Hywel Bennett

Hywel Bennett

Martin (Georgie) Durnley

Billie Whitelaw

Billie Whitelaw

Joan Harper

Frank Finlay

Frank Finlay

Henry Durnley

Barry Foster

Barry Foster

Gerry Henderson

Phyllis Calvert

Phyllis Calvert

Enid Durnley

Salmaan Peerzada

Salmaan Peerzada

Shashie Kadir

Court is in session

Put Twisted Nerve on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Big-Idea Head

“Its refusal to behave is the point.”

The strange choices create the kind of friction that follows you out of the theatre and into the argument.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Oddness is not depth.”

A film can break every rule and still leave nothing behind but the memory of how hard it tried to be singular.