Sisters (1972)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

There's a certain extent of how much influence can one director draw from his icon, and Brian De Palma seems to stretch that extent to its very limits with "Sisters". This, along with "Dressed to Kill" are the American film maker's most Hitchcok-ian films, and a double feature screening is much suggested for a complete experience. Perhaps lacking the later films sexual emphasis (but of course not lacking sexual themes entirely-typically for De Palma) this film borderlines horror exploitation, but only in the best of ways.The visual style is top notch, as split screen narratives serve the suspense in an excellent way and drive the story forward keeping a fast pace, saving on screen time. However, as usually commented on De Palma's work, one can truly argue that this stylization is utilized to cover up the lack of a strong story. Talking about the story, it borrows (and that is a very weak word...) elements from classic Hitchcock films, notably Rear Window. There is an abundance of clichés, which, although performed perfectly, are still, nevertheless clichés. To be honest, once you've seen psycho, this movie and its "sister feature" (no pun intended), Dressed to Kill, lose a lot of what appreciation they could have earned from the viewer.With that being said, "Sisters" is a very entertaining movie, mainly because of its visual style and tricks, which will satisfy fans of the director but disappoint viewers looking for an original story or plot.

The only good thing I can say about this movie is... damn, Margot Kidder was so cute once! Never liked her in the "Superman" films, but in this one she was just too hot.Anyway, the film is yet another attempt to do a Hitchcock. For me it didn't work at all. The movie was way too slow, way too boring and way too weird - and I admit I didn't understand the ending at all. Even Bernard Herrmann's music didn't work for me - like the rest of the movie it was way too over the top.There were some minor surreal moments, but just like in "Rosemary's Baby", it didn't save the film.Olympia Dukakis is great in a tiny (and uncredited) role as a Louise Wilanski from the bakery. Don't blink or you'll miss her.

The movie begins simple. If there is no Criterion mark on DVD, one may think that its a horror flick and it is actually a horror flick got prestigious somehow except for the fact that the plays are surprisingly good. Specially Margot Kidder delivers an outstanding performance as a French Disturbed woman. The African American guy looks like a potato but that's how most guys act when a stranger woman surprisingly asks them out. I would say it was an awesome performance in potatoness! The plot is simple and easy to follow. ***Now I warn you, this is going to be a real spoiler***. The woman who murdered the black guy was in the bed while it is clearly shown that Danielle was unconscious in bathroom although we never discover the nature of those very important pills nor we never find out why she needed more when she just took 2 pills 5 minutes before. Anyways, what I'm saying is, despite the outcome of the movie that Danielle and her sister are essentially the same person, Danielle can not be the woman in bed murdering the guy. I don't want to say the plot had problem but it was rather a defect in one scene. I think based on the outcome of the movie, Plama should have re written the scene. Another problem was the faith of the couch. It ended up next to a railroad in Canada while the private detective was watching it from the top of a telephone or power pole. There is a corpse in that couch for God's sake, it should grossly stink. Not only there is no foul smell (I say it based on the arrangement of the scene) but we do not know what took the private detective to get close and inspect/report the couch. The ending was unclear in murky way otherwise it was a descent entertaining movie, not something extraordinary and certainly does not belong to the Criterion line of movies. 5/10

Writer/director Brian De Palma is most acclaimed for his - admittedly brilliant - epic gangster movies from the 80's and 90's ("Scarface", "The Untouchables", "Carlito's Way"), but personally I'm a much bigger fan of his imaginative, raw and often very flamboyant horror outings of the 1970's. "Carrie" is an obvious favorite, but so are the "The Fury", "Murder à la Mod" and the oddly stupendous but still criminally underrated "Phantom of the Paradise". And also "Sisters" is a very worthwhile and entertaining motion picture from the period De Palma was still a struggling young filmmaker. Particularly the first half hour is a crude and shocking psycho-thriller that once again showcases the director's blatant obsession of Alfred Hitchcock, while the rest of the film is more of an experimental paranoia/medical horror (although Hitchcock's influence is clearly present here as well). The Canadian actress/model Danielle, on the run for her stalking ex-husband, meets the gentle Philip during a crazy TV-show entitled "Peeping Tom" and invites him to her Staten Island apartment for a passionate night. The next morning, however, Philip discovers that Danielle has a twin sister named Dominique, and she isn't nearly as hospitable or charming. From her apartment across the street, the ambitious journalist Grace Collier witnesses how Philip is brutally murdered, but by the time the police arrives, all the evidence has disappeared and they don't believe her story. Grace starts her own private investigation, which unravels disturbing secrets about Danielle, Dominique and ex-husband Emil. Since the background of the twin sisters is rather predictable, even if you haven't read or heard anything about the plot from beforehand, the whole second and final act of "Sisters" isn't too suspenseful or surprising. De Palma attempts to compensate for this by inserting grotesque surgical horror, black humor and an ambiguous open ending. Speaking in terms of style, our director effectively uses cool split-screen and excessive gross-out gore during the murder sequence and flashbacks. De Palma could also rely on a downright terrific score by Bernard Herrmann and stellar performances from Margot Kidder, Jennifer Salt and particularly William Finley as eerie husband/surgeon. His character reminded me of a sinister Nazi doctor or even a cold war spy, and his hypnosis sequence is genuinely uncanny.