The death of a child shatters the lives and bonds between individual family members. They're all still together, but they're isolated by the different kinds of pain they feel, which means they're especially vulnerable to the attacks and machinations of sinister forces. What happens, then, when that family relocates to a rural part of Scandinavia and suddenly finds themselves surrounded by indifferent and suspicious neighbors? How does a grieving mother navigate her own pain and the sorrow of her surviving child? Can she protect her son from the sinister forces that have taken interest in him? Can she trust her husband, who is originally from the area?

Those are several of the questions that fuel director Taneli Mustonen's new grief horror film, The Twin, which is streaming now on Shudder and stars Teresa Palmer as Rachel, Steven Cree as her husband, Anthony, and Tristan Ruggeri as the surviving titular character, Elliot. CBR spoke with Palmer about the film, her love for horror, and which movies she'd pair with The Twin to make the ultimate double or triple feature.

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CBR: Your very first film, Wolf Creek, was a horror movie, and you've gone on to tackle other genres. You've also kept doing horror-related projects. So, I'm guessing you're a fan. What is it about the genre that makes it so compelling to you as an actor?

Teresa Palmer: I am a fan of horror, absolutely! There are some exceptions. I can't do the torture-porn ones. I'm not interested in [anything like that], but I'm a sucker for a psychological thriller. I love a great, dramatic story at the center where the horror enhances the narrative. It makes the horror more terrifying to me

That's how I felt when I read the script to The Twin. I felt like I could pluck out the family story and make a really beautiful drama about dealing with grief. Then we also had the horror aspect, which I think made for a more compelling film. So, yeah, I've always been drawn to darker material. I love those types of characters. I love the fractured nature of it. It may be because it's quite a contrast to my own life with a million children running around. [laughs] I really like horror. I find it challenging.

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The Twin is a sub-genre of horror that deals with grief, and it tackles one of the worst forms of grief imaginable: a parent who's lost a child. As a mother yourself, what was it like getting into the headspace of a character like Rachel? How difficult was it to portray her?

It was very hard to portray Rachel. I kept dipping back into dark thoughts of, "What if this actually happened to me?" So, I had to build up a protective barrier to stop those dark thoughts penetrating because they started to become quite relentless. The more and more I got into filming, the more I'd wake up in the middle of the night with sweats and feeling that horrible sense of dread. I'd look around the room, and I'd realize, "All my kids are here. They're sleeping, and they're safe."

So being in the headspace of this woman took an emotional toll on me at work. I really tried to switch it off before I went home to the kids, but what I also had with me was my new growing baby in my belly. [laughs] I was getting reminded by this new life kicking and moving around in my tummy. I was getting excited about this baby while portraying this woman trapped in sort of the darkest pits of hell.

It was an unusual experience, but it was only a couple of months. Luckily, I found a few great ways of dealing with the feelings that happened. Also, the crew were really excited about having my kids around. My kids came to the set a lot. That old, creepy house was a wonderful playground for them. There were a lot of cool little nooks and crannies for the kids to hide in. They were running around with my little co-star, Tristan, who is the same age as one of them. They became really good friends. So, it was quite liberating having that energy on set. I think it helped all of us process the material that we were diving into.

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One of the things I especially liked about the depiction of grief in The Twin was how you saw that everyone in the family grieved differently. It was like you were all together but also isolated in your own pains. What was it like playing off that with your co-stars, Tristan and Steven?

It was great. One of the interesting aspects of the grieving process is that you can all be physically together and still be completely alone. The grieving process is very isolating, and it looks different from person to person. You can see what that's doing to Tristan's character, Steven's character, and my character. They're this fractured family picking up these broken pieces of their lives and trying to glue them back together quite unsuccessfully.

There's a lot of resentment. You can feel the resentment between all of them. You see them at such an unhealthy and sorrowful time in their lives, but I really feel like we're rooting for them to make it through and be okay. That's why I loved it. It wasn't just a gimmicky horror film to me. It was a horror film with this family at the heart of the story.

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The Twin is also about literal isolation in that Rachel finds herself in a remote location. What was it like acting in that locale? Are you a person that finds rural locations creepy?

I live in a rural area in South Australia and in Los Angeles. So, when I come to L.A., it feels like there's a lot of light pollution here. The sky doesn't get super dark. When I'm on my farm in Adelaide, though, it's pitch black! [laughs] It's really terrifying, and I think your eyes start playing tricks on you. I know it creeps my stepson out. Whenever he comes down to visit us, we have to draw all the curtains because he can't look out into the darkness.

Finally, if you were to program a double or triple feature with The Twin, what movies would you include?

Oh, very cool. I'd do Hereditary because it was one of my favorites. So, I'd do Hereditary, The Twin, and I don't know if it's as much a horror film as it is a psychological thriller, The Sixth Sense. That movie propelled my interest into the darker side of film. I saw it when I was about 13, and I still remember the burned side of the woman's face. [laughs] I was horrified by that, and I still have the image burned into my mind. I also think those three films also have similar themes. We'd put them all on at the drive-in, and you could have as much popcorn as you want. It would make for a really great evening.

Catch The Twin, now streaming on Shudder.