Entertainment Weekly - 10/09/1998
"...Daringly perched between the exploitive funk of PSYCHO....and the romanticism of VERTIGO..." -- Rating: B
Total Film - 03/01/2001
"...Wildly entertaining....This is a leaner, edgier De Palma than we're used to seeing now..."
Description by OLDIES.com:
Margot Kidder is Danielle, a beautiful model separated from her Siamese twin, Dominique. When a hotshot reporter (Jennifer Salt) suspects Dominique of a brutal murder, she becomes dangerously ensnared in the sisters' insidious sibling bond. A scary and stylish paean to female destructiveness, De Palma's first foray into horror voyeurism is a stunning amalgam of split-screen effects, bloody birthday cakes, and a chilling score by frequent Hitchcock collaborator Bernard Herrmann. Criterion is proud to present Sisters in a new Special Edition.
Product Description:
Director Brian De Palma made a name for himself with this twisty shocker starring a pre-SUPERMAN Margot Kidder as the mysterious Danielle. A French-Canadian model, Danielle may be covering up a murder to protect her recently separated homicidal Siamese twin--or maybe not. Plucky female reporter Grace Collier (Jennifer Salt) witnessed the killing from her apartment window but can't convince some clueless cops to investigate, so she hires a private detective (Charles Durning) to help her solve the case. Eventually she winds up at a mysterious sanitarium in the clutches of Danielle's creepy psychiatrist husband, Emil (William Finley), and begins to unravel the shocking truth.
Scary, funny, clever, and firmly rooted in a Hitchcockian universe, SISTERS set the tone for many of De Palma's future works, including DRESSED TO KILL and RAISING CAIN. Bernard Herrmann's score even recalls his work on PSYCHO--only this time he's spruced things up with bizarre electronic effects. However, not all of De Palma's work pays debt to the master of suspense. An innovative use of split-screen techniques to heighten the suspense is distinctly his own, as is a memorably twisted black-and-white hallucination sequence.
Plot Synopsis:
This ghoulish horror film deals with Siamese twin sisters who are surgically separated--with horrible results. One is mad, one is sane, and it is impossible to tell who is who.
Film Collectors & Archivists: Alpha Video is actively looking for rare and
unusual pre-1943 motion pictures, in good condition, from Monogram, PRC,
Tiffany, Chesterfield, and other independent studios for release on DVD. We
are also interested in TV shows from the early 1950s. Share your passion
for films with a large audience.
Let us know what you have.