Sisters (1973)

"I saw a murder, and I'm going to prove it!", 11 February 2006

Sisters is a very well made low-budget thriller form Brian De Palma with a few very shocking moments and, unfortunately, a couple of serious flaws that keep me from rating it any higher. The basic premise of the psychological impact of being separated Siamese twins is, as far as I know, rather unique. De Palma handles this portion very well and in a believable manner. In lesser hands, Sisters might have disintegrated into the ridiculous psycho-babble I've heard once too often. As for shocking moments, the main murder in the film is rather unexpected and caught me off-guard in its viciousness. The low-budget special effects only add to the brutality of the images on screen. De Palma also creates a dream sequence near the end of the film that is beautiful and disturbing at the same time. The acting in Sisters is at least adequate with Margot Kidder giving a standout performance. The great Bernard Herrmann contributes a wonderful score.

But, as I mentioned, there are a couple of moments that do not work at all. The first is the reporter who "witnesses" the murder. From her vantage point, all she sees is a hand writing something in what appears to be blood on a window. In addition, there's such glare on the window that there is no way she couldn't have seen a whole lot more. Yet she tells the police that she "witnessed" a murder and that the victim was a black man. What? She never saw any of that.

My second problem with the movie comes near the end and is part of the dream sequence I mentioned previously. Exposition is fine as long as it's interwoven into the action going on screen. Having characters stop and explain what's going on so the viewer knows what they're seeing can drag a movie to a standstill. And when this type of exposition occurs during the climax of a film, it's unforgivable. During the build-up to the climax are scenes of one character basically telling another what the audience is watching. Maybe I'm being picky, but it really bothered me and hurt the flow of the third act.

7/10