Sisters

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From an original story by Brian De Palma.
Originally released as a motion picture in 1972.
Special features include: Director Brian De Palma's 1973 Village Voice essay Murder by Moog : scoring the chill, on working with composer Bernard Herrmann ; a 1973 print interview with De Palma on the making of Sisters ; Rare study of siamese twins in Soviet, the 1966 Life magazine article that inspired De Palma ; excerpts from the original press book ; production, publicity, and behind-the-scenes stills.
"Janus Films."
"A joint venture between Janus Films and Home Vision Cinema"--Container.
Margot Kidder, Jennifer Salt, Charles Durning, Bill Finley, Lisle Wilson.
Two sisters, joined at birth as Siamese twins, are separated in late adolescence. One is lovely, gentle, kind-- the other is quite mad.
Widescreen DVD.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

Library Journal Review
Summary / Annotation

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

DePalma's 'Sisters' submitted by Caser on October 27, 2008, 11:53am From a doppelganger premise to a Soviet conspiracy, DePalma's 1972 feature film, Sisters, will remind many viewers of David Cronenberg's early 1980s pseudo-science fiction horror flicks, e.g. Dead Ringers, Scanners, The Brood, etc. But where Cronenberg indulges his disturbing fantasies to the point of an exorcism (or perhaps esoteric therapy), DePalma attempts to convince us that his story actually has plot.

Sisters best succeeds in the sequences that follow the eager reporter, Grace (Jennifer Salt), because DePalma is at his apex when he's ratcheting up the paranoia, especially when the paranoid character is surprisingly justified in her anxiety. However, the split screen technique is not only overused throughout the film, but it looks dated, clunky, and worst of all, distractingly artificial. It tends to point out that we're watching a movie, an obvious work of fiction, thus the feelings that the characters experience are false. This awareness isn't terribly conducive to establishing some worthwhile paranoia for the audience. There's a cautionary tale in here someplace, and it might even be a good one, but the overwrought stage acting and gadgety direction distances Sisters from DePalma's best work, Carrie, which would premiere 4 years later.