10 Horror Movie Characters Who Were Their Own Worst Enemy

Prior to his recent string of blockbuster hits, Denis Villeneuve was making his name on smaller, but no less thought-provoking features. And few of these are more thought-provoking than the psychological, sci-fi inflected horror-drama Enemy.

While Enemy may be smaller in production scale and budget than the likes of Dune (2021), it takes aim at far weightier concepts. Jake Gyllenhaal inhabits the role of both protagonist Adam Bell and his doppelganger and apparent antagonist Anthony Claire. Adam is a history professor with a dry life and a reliable schedule; Anthony is the exact opposite, an actor who drives a motorbike and frequents underground sex clubs.

As the pair meet and reject each other, they begin having similar dreams and soon infiltrate the other's lives, sleeping with their opposite's wives and trying out each other's lifestyles. Their lives converge, Anthony is killed in a car crash with Adam's wife, and Adam appears to adopt Anthony's life wholesale before things pass a surreal tipping point.

The film is tough to unpick, but whichever way you cut it, Anthony is a manifestation of Adam, and Adam is tearing his own life apart. Either he has regretted too long the things he didn't do, or is paying the price for the things he has done in secret.