Doppelgänger

This Tag represents a collection of films focusing on the theme of "doppelgängers". Arising from a need to affirm the innate transcendental/metahistorical component of human beings, the concept of the double often assumed a prominent role in the realm of religion. There, a person's duplicate generally operates within an extra-human dimension with connotations that tend to vary according to the particular doctrine involved (think of agnostic dualism or the accounts of bilocation typical of Christian hagiography).

Although "doppelgänger" can refer to any sort of double or lookalike of a given individual, genre films tend to focus on the duplicate's underlying deceptive and deceitful nature, common in folklore. From evil twins - be they physical or incorporeal - to changelings of Celtic lore, to reincarnations of ancient rulers and wizards, horror films have featured unsavory alter egos since the dawn of the Seventh Art.

One particular category that we decided to include in this Tag pertains to dissociative disorders: here we have a group of films - commonly imbued with psychoanalytic influences - which prominently feature a protagonist (or someone close to the protagonist) with a split personality.

Science fiction has also addressed the doppelgänger theme, although taking a different tack. One of the most frequently seen methods for introducing a double involves time travel, a scenario that paves the way for characters to encounter past or future versions of themselves. Characters can also run into interdimensional doubles, especially when concepts such as the multiverse or parallel universes arise. Finally, doubles can be the result of shape-shifting organisms, generally of extraterrestrial origin, or created by advanced scientific knowledge, such as in the case of the Somas in "The Resurrection of Zachary Wheeler" (1971) or the T-1000 of "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" (1991).