By DR. BENNY GRAVES
Starring: Margot Kidder, Jennifer Salt and William Finley
Written by Brian De Palma and Louisa Rose
Directed by Brian De Palma
American International Pictures
Good evening. A bond between siblings is powerful; One that can be the source of joy or turmoil. When strong, it’s not a connection that can be easily extinguished. How much closer would such a bond be if it were not just shared experience but shared flesh? Brian De Palma’s SISTERS posits that even when that flesh is severed, the mind can mend the mental wound… How it heals, however, can be a darker thing.
Danielle Breton (Margot Kidder, delivering a brilliant performance) is a young model and aspiring actress. Under unusual, very De Palma, circumstances, she ends up spending the night with salesman Philip Woode (Lisle Wilson). The next morning, she reveals that her twin sister Dominique (Kidder in a dual role) has arrived for their mutual birthday. Running an errand to refill medication for Danielle, Philip returns with a cake to celebrate the big day. Instead of jubilation, he’s savaged by a butcher knife-wielding Dominique, scrawling “HELP” in blood on a window in his last moments. Reporter Grace Collier sees the sanguine message from her apartment across the way and attempts to investigate. What follows is an unraveling tale of corrupt medicine and corrupted minds. By the time the last act hits, all the innocence (like all the color) drains from the film.
SISTERS was De Palma’s first foray into the world of horror, and he approached the film as an homage to one of the greatest directors of the genre – Alfred Hitchcock. There’s a great deal of kinship between the directors when it comes to thematic elements. Voyeurism, identity and the nature of duplicity make up the bedrock of both creators’ filmographies. (I also imagine Hitch would have loved the split diopter shot as a narrative tool.) Not content with someone who could imitate the composer of Vertigo, De Palma went for the real thing, recruiting legend Bernard Herrmann to compose the score for the film. The result is an unnerving and unstoppable picture that moves us inevitably towards the darkest revelations.
With SISTERS, De Palma goes far beyond creating a very-realized Hitchcock facsimile. Right out the gate, we are treated to a modified aspect ratio imitating a tube TV screen. A game show called Peeping Tom (referencing the 1960 film? I think so) features a studio audience watching candid camera footage of Philip, who is himself voyeuristically watching Danielle. That’s the snake eating its own tail several times over, and we’re only a few minutes in. Philip is a genuinely nice guy, and we root for him, even though he’s practically introduced with a bullseye on his back. The film’s capability to have us invested in his arc, with the gnawing inevitability of his undoing close behind, makes for a very powerful cinematic experience. Once killed, our investment passes to Grace Collier. She’s a young journalist eager for a story, but more clearly, she’s a person hungry to know the truth. Through her, we learn the reality behind Philip’s murder and the dynamic Danielle shares with Dominique. The ugliness of that knowledge courts madness.
I’m keeping the plot progression deliberately vague because the substance of this film has as much potency as the style it’s so intertwined with. Suffice to say, SISTERS is a movie well-deserving of its Criterion Collection status and worth owning in its beautifully transferred Blu-ray format.
There’s a lot to unpack here, so just relax and sit back. That’s it. Breathe in deep, and repeat after me…
Death to False Horror,
Dr. Benny Graves
