Forget about DRESSED TO KILL or BODY DOUBLE, SISTERS is Brian DePalma’s masterpiece. It’s more horror than thriller. The film starts with aspiring model Danielle Breton (Margot Kidder, SUPERMAN) and newspaperman Phillip Woode (Lisle Wilson, TV’s THAT’S MY MOMMA) meeting as contestants on a CANDID CAMERA-type game show. Danielle wins a steak knives set and Woode wins dinner for two at an African theme restaurant. They decide to go to dinner together. At dinner, Danielle’s ex-husband Emil Breton (William Finley, THE FUNHOUSE) shows up. He’s super creepy and starts the strange tone that is veiled over the rest of the film.
The film is filled with a lot of twists and turns throughout. I don’t want to reveal any of the film’s secrets, but I can say there is a vicious murder. Danielle is one of a famous Siamese twin pair with her sister Dominique, who isn’t very nice. Wrapped up in the crime are upcoming, women’s lib reporter Grace Collier (Jennifer Salt, TV’s SOAP), who witnesses the murder, and veteran private detective Joseph Larch (Charles Durning, TOOTSIE).
The film, like many of DePalma’s thrillers, is an homage to Hitchcock’s films. Where DRESSED TO KILL was DePalma’s PSYCHO and BODY DOUBLE was DePalma’s REAR WINDOW, SISTERS seems more inspired by Hitchcock and less of a copy. The film has everything that I love in a horror/thriller. It’s shocking, tense, bizarre and mysterious. DePalma even understands Hitchcock's love of humorous irony. Collier witnesses the murder, but the cops won’t believe her because she is known for her articles on police corruption. Hitchcock would have loved that. I love that. The film was released in 1973 and would have easily been the best horror film of that year if it were not for the release of THE EXORCIST. I really believe that SISTERS is a horror classic. A must see!
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
