Doppelganger has its moments, but they are few and far between.Essentially, this is a grade B blend of pop-psych thriller, ghost story and horror. Drew Barrymore plays a young woman who is haunted by the demons of her past (most of her family has been murdered and she was, in at least one case, the prime suspect), or does she just have a really bad case of multiple personality disorder? George Newbern is her new room mate, and most of the action centers on him.Newbern's character is pretty sympathetic, and both he and Barrymore do decent work (though not exactly good). The mediocre to (at times) totally horrendous script and the unimpressive directing seem to have combined to sink the rest of the performances into oblivion. Leslie Hope's character is memorable, but so irritating that you will want to forget her.The plot eventually disintegrates into a bifurcated (one story arc is psychological realism, the other is supernatural horror) outlandish climax which is so badly conceived, acted and photographed that it effectively counteracts most of what value the film had achieved previously.Overall, the film has the feel of what might expect to be the result of M. Knight Shamalyan's first undergraduate film class. The acting and script for the two leads are just good enough to make you care a little about them - at least until the film derails utterly and completely.My recommendation - send your doppelganger, but avoid a first-person encounter.

I liked it! The plot was weird, Drew Barrymore and DC making out was awkward for both of them. Drews acting was dodgy in places but this could be down to her life at the time. Dennis Christopher as the shrink was pretty cool, and as always he does his best - i'm a major Dennis fan anyway, that's why i bought the DVD.I didn't get the ending! that weird animatronic red skeleton thing looked just like it was out of filmschool, which is OK i guess but it could have been more. ....and the whole thing with the knife- if it was that uncomfortable why didn't they just get rid of it? It was very confusing as to when it was the Doppelganger weird thing or when it was DC-or was it Dennis all the time? Because the Doppelganger made out with Dennis and Patrick. In the scenes with Patrick if it was Dennis as the Doppelganger then I think Patrick would notice.The music was OK but obtrusive in places, the whole orchestral score seemed to be revolving around a theme but this theme was overdone.A big mix of lots of blood and gratuitus shots of Drew nude. All in all a bit of a GPM-Guilty Pleasure Movie. Don't read too much into it, don't look for secret messages and a fantastic script because you wont find it. There are some diamond moments and goofs galore- WATCH IT AND JUST HAVE A BIT OF FUN WITH IT!

SPOILERS WITH-HELD For what starts out as a good horror/murder movie, it sures gets stupid quick and fizzles out. Primarily made for the titillating Drew Barrymore to ooze sex, it doesn't make very much sense and what sense it has is based on lousy, fuzzy logic. What is does have is a good intense and suspenseful plot set in a claustrophobic sequence of events and then marred by one villain we are expected to believe was pulling all the strings and everywhere at once. Drew is wildly kept uninhibited, much like Alyssa Milano in "Embrace of the Vampire," and George Newbern is a rather odd witness to the events around him. The rug is constantly pulled under him as he believes Drew's character Holly Gooding is a murderer, then being set up, and then being haunted. Dennis Christopher is miscast in a unnecessary role as her psychiatrist. There's not much horror, but lots of suspense to this movie which ends with an anti-climactic crash of confusion. Personally, I could have written it better.

This movie holds your interest and keeps you wondering, up until an ending which will make cry out "Oh boy!". It's so gruesome and far-fetched and off-base that it's positively ludicrous. On the plus side, Drew Barrymore burns up the screen with a much steamier performance than the one she gave in "Poison Ivy", and the "good guys" are unusually likable (in an unforced way) for a horror film. (**)