Very well executed

Overrated

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

I have liked this film since I first saw it back in the 70s when I seem to recall it was much dismissed. I felt there was something different about it. Maybe not as clinically professional as some films and more concerned with the action than the actors. There also seemed to be unusually seedy aspect to the goings on. Later, of course, I discovered Italian exploitation and gialli in particular. This is the territory De Palma is working in even if the references to Hitchcock are undeniable. Interestingly enough I recall Hitchcock being asked if the violence in Frenzy was really necessary and he said that continental films had much more sex and violence and if he had been allowed to he would have made his films more like that. So, De Palma does get away with it and in some style. The story races along with a pretty Margot Kidder central at first, before we get tabloid type flashes as to the past evidence of conjoined twins and the whole thing gets very creepy. The use of split screens is exciting, indeed De Palma seems to use anything at his disposal, including the great score, to give us that thrilling experience with just a little feeling of dread.

Inspired by a 1966 'Time' magazine article on Siamese twins who had divergent personalities, Brian De Palma wrote a script that combined elements from several Alfred Hitchcock films, particularly 'Rear Window' and 'Psycho'. De Palma even hired Hitchcock's music composer, Bernard Hermann, to write the score. Though certainly an unabashed homage to the Master of Suspense, 'Sisters' is not a Hitchcock rip-off. Margot Kidder plays Danielle, a French-Canadian beauty separated from her Siamese twin, Dominique (also played by Kidder) by surgeon Emil Breton (William Finley). Some time after the surgery Danielle becomes Madame Breton but the marriage soon founders. Moving from Quebec to New York City to pursue an acting/modeling career—and pursued by a jealous, stalking Dr. Breton—Danielle appears on a weirdly voyeuristic game show called 'Peeping Toms' (no doubt in homage to Michael Powell's 1960 classic horror-thriller). Also on the show is Phillip Woode (Lisle Wilson), an attractive young black man who wins dinner-for-two at the Africa Room, a Manhattan theme restaurant. He asks Danielle to join him and, after an agreeable evening, the two repair to Danielle's apartment, despite the fact that Emil is lurking nearby. To his surprise Phillip discovers that Danielle has a twin sister and that it is their birthday. When he initiates foreplay, Dominique (or is it Danielle?) reacts in sex-phobic horror and stabs him to death à la 'Psycho' (or, better yet, Roman Polanski's 'Repulsion'). Emil arrives on the scene and helps Danielle clean up and dispose of the body in her convertible sofa! Now the 'Rear Window' plot presaged by Peeping Toms, kicks in. Grace Collier (Jennifer Salt), a reporter, witnesses the murder from her window in the adjacent building and calls the police. The cops search Danielle's apartment but find no evidence of a killing. Vowing to solve the crime, Grace hires Joseph Larch (Charles Durning), a private investigator, to help her. Suffice to say that the proceedings get weirder from then on and that the ending is both surprising and brilliant. Despite the dubious efficacy of Margot Kidder's French accent, 'Sisters' boasts an intriguing script, tight direction, fine performances, and Bernard Hermann's suitably chilling score. It is not only Brian De Palma's first distinctive effort it is probably his best film, certainly the most underrated. VHS (2000); Criterion Collection DVD (2000).

Sisters is the first Hitchcock influenced thriller that Brian De Palma directed. He has subsequently famously been described as a Hitchcock copyist. While he certainly has taken a lot of influence from the great man, I think it's unfair that he is so often derided for this. For me, he simply takes a few ideas from Hitchcock and updates and twists them into his own. And he sure isn't the first to do this. De Palma certainly has his own style and Sisters quite clearly demonstrates it. In this particular example he takes elements of Rear Window and Psycho as the basis for a psychological thriller with slasher elements. Because this was a very early De Palma film he was still working on quite a low budget, so Sisters is definitely a movie that is consequently a little rough around the edges. But despite this the direction has considerable invention and visual flair in places and it's this reason above all others that makes this one interesting.It opens somewhat improbably like a comedy, where we are thrust into the middle of a ludicrous game-show called Peeping Toms. From here the principal characters meet and the thriller narrative begins, which boils down to a woman believing she has witnessed a murder in the flat opposite hers, her investigations lead her to learn about a strange case of two disturbed Siamese twin sisters.The story and dialogue is often a bit clunky if truth be told. But if you can get past this there are some very worthwhile things about this. Firstly, the opening murder is extremely effective indeed. It's actually pretty scary and brutal. And I still get a bit of a jolt when I see it, even when I know it's coming, which is a pretty nifty trick it has to be said. Furthermore, De Palma gets to express his customary technical excellence in cinematic style. And when he does it really elevates the quality of Sisters. There is excellent use of split-screen that is not gimmicky but very effective in relaying a lot of information simultaneously and adding to the suspense. These moments are used in the immediate aftermath of the murder and allow us to be with the villains and the witness. Great stuff. Later on De Palma is allowed to go for it again with an extensive flash-back/dream-sequence which was also very well executed. Throughout all of this there is the very distinctive music of Hitchcock collaborator Bernard Herrmann on the soundtrack and that certainly helped add additional value.I wouldn't put this as amongst De Palma's best offerings though, as its great moments were interspersed with quite a lot of quite mediocre ones. He revisited this type of film later on to much greater effect with Dressed to Kill (1980). But, that said, this is still a film that showcases some of the techniques and influences he would go on to be famous for. And it is a film with great individual moments that's for sure.

Sisters is directed by Brain De Palma who also co-writes the screenplay with Louisa Rose. It stars Margot Kidder, Jennifer Salt, Charles Durning, Lisle Wilson and William Finley. Music is by Bernard Herrmann and cinematography by Gregory Sandor.When newspaper reporter Grace Collier (Salt) observes what she perceives to be a murder in the apartment across the street from her own, it proves to be the catalyst for a trip down a dark psychologically damaged street.To be honest here, the continuous complaints about De Palma being a Hitchcock clone got boring around about the mid eighties. As Hitch is my personal favourite director it has never bothered me one bit that he homaged and borrowed from the great man's cannon, in fact I have always found that when on form it was great to have someone like De Palma to keep the suspense thriller genre going. It's not as if he's the only one who owes his career to director's from the past really is it?Sisters is a wonderfully trippy suspenser, where De Palma lifts from some great Hitchcock motifs to portray a clinically edgy story based around an article he read about Siamese twins Masha and Dasha Krivoshlyapova. Infused with technical flourishes such as split screens, POV filming and close quarter framing, the director is donating his own blood for the veins of the piece. Suspense is rarely far away, be it characters in some sort of danger, or the possible discovery of a body, there is no pause for pointless filler fodder. While twists and revelations engage the brain instead of insulting it, something many of today's horror/thriller directors could learn to "homage" from actually, and a nightmare section of film literally unfurled out of the minds eye is top draw.Herrmann was enticed out of near retirement to score the music, the genre and themes at work in the story ready made for his skilled compositions. The score in all essence is lifted from his own major works for Hitchcock, with added sections taken from Jason and the Argonauts and Mysterious Island, but reworked in such away it drifts a perfectly off-kilter vibe across production. Kidder and Salt do great work in tricky roles, and Finley is suitably edgy. Durning is a little wasted, though, but it's a small complaint in the acting area. There's a couple of plot holes and one turn of events that just doesn't make sense, but this is a prime De Palma thriller and a good starting point for anyone interested in his work. And yes! For anyone who really isn't bothered about someone homaging a past master. 8/10