Sisters (1972) Early Brian De Palma Thriller is more than its influences (Review)

Arrow video are continuing their exploration of Brian de Palma’s back catalogue with their release of his 1973 film – Sisters. This follows Obsession, Blow Out, The Fury, Phantom of the Paradise and Dressed to kill in their unparalleled treatment of the controversial director’s work. In Sisters (aka Bloody Sisters), De Palma revisits his fascination of all things Hitchcock with a film that entwines notions from the master of suspense into his own style, with his lens laser-focused on Rear Window and Psycho.

Being far more than a mere Hitchcock copyist, Sisters opens with a bizarre meet-cute centred on Michael Powell’s controversial classic Peeping Tom. From this Peeping Tom’s game show, Philip (Lisle Wilson) goes home with the woman the quiz show used to ruse him, Danielle (Margot Kidder). Despite the seedy way the two meet, Philip could be seen as nothing more than an overly nice guy, going out of his way to buy a lavish birthday cake for a woman he met the day before. For the trouble of this gesture, Danielle ends up murdering him. An incident which is noticed by journalist Grace Collier (Jennifer Salt), setting up a private investigation of Danielle and the mysterious Emil (William Finley).

There are equally legitimate grounds to claim that Sisters is both De Palma at his best and evocative of his most plagiaristic ways. It never really settles, one way or other, as De Palma constantly moves the goalposts – starting as a broad romance, changing to a murder mystery before resolving the tale with a highly stylised and surreal vision of horror. This fluidity can be found in roles too, which is to say that this film has 3 leads with Philip passing the torch to Danielle before finishing with Grace.

This leads the film in some fabulous directions, especially once the realisation has sunk in that there is more to this matter than a confused French Canadian model unwittingly stabbing someone to death. The final ten minutes which inverts the meddlesome behaviour of “murder she wrote” anchor, Jessica Fletcher, and warps into something whereby questions are asked of the sanity of the character. To be challenged by a sleazy thriller is an exhilarating experience and the perfect way for this film to stand above its shallow homages.

Every actor perfectly complements their role. As Emil, Finley has the perfect degree of towering menace to contort to the demands of his role, evolving from placid to obsessive before becoming the disturbing heart of the horror. Without William Finley, Sisters wouldn’t be half as effective. Margot Kidder puts in a fascinatingly ambiguous performance as twins Dominique and Danielle, French accent and all. And, Jennifer Salt has the same energy and dogged passion that defined the best 1970s police procedurals – a collaborative factor that elevates the final few minutes to the top of Brian De Palma’s iconic filmography. Let’s be honest, outside Blow Out, De Palma isn’t the greatest at finishing his films, and now, Sisters is another exception to add to that rule – sitting beside John Travolta’s greatest 2 hours.

One aspect of De Palma’s directorial flair that is always overlooked is comedic embellishments, and like his 1978 film, the Fury, Sisters is in possession of a consistently clumsy sense of humour. His characters aren’t commanding in any way, they are all arms and legs with the murder at the centre of the film not playing out like the act of something deranged or even dangerous, no, instead, it is played out like a clumsy accident. Does this derail what De Palma is trying to do elsewhere? Maybe.

Take the occasions with split-screen, which amplify the tension by showing the absolute neglect occurring elsewhere. On one screen is something that plays up dramatic irony, something Hitchock got great value out of, and on the other is de Palma’s awkward characters somehow blundering their way through things. A simple trick like this creates a powerful contrast whilst experimenting with how a story can be told in what would otherwise be classed, rather contemptuously, as a ‘sleazy thriller’.

Be that as it may, De Palma’s direction, his script co-penned by Louisa Rose and the perfect cast turn this into a resoundingly successful suspense thriller. Where some of the recent De Palma releases have been fodder for completists, Arrow’s typically generous treatment of Sisters is the sort of classy release that should hold pride of place in any serious collector of cinema’s ambitious and dangerous underbelly.

Thanks for reading our review of Sisters

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