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Monday, June 30, 2025

SISTERS (1972)

Perhaps we’ll hold off on revisiting early Brian De Palma for a bit.  Not doing him (or me) any favors.*  This jokey horror number about a paranoid serial killer, loaded with obvious talent and snarky overreach, not improving with age.  And with his signature reflexive nods at Alfred Hitchcock looking more than ever like product placement.  (Or is it some drinking game De Palma plays with himself?  PSYCHO, SPELLBOUND, REAR WINDOW, many more if you listen as well as look; plus a self-quoting Bernard Herrmann score.  You can all but hear De Palma laughing up his sleeve when he puts Charles Durning in as Grace Kelly.)  The story, a creepy little thriller with Margot Kidder as the serial killer half of separated Siamese twins . . . or is it the sister?  (Watch for a brief news docu on the subject, the film’s comic highlight.)  With sick gags that grow wearisome faster than Kidder’s French accent, misdirection and gore galore.  And that worst of all ‘70s tropes, the early slaughter of a disposable Black character.  Eventfully, De Palma gets to his twist ending, but not before showing off with unnecessary split-screen parallel action.  Later, he’d improve on his model, but you only have to compare early De Palma to early David Cronenberg, a near contemporary, to see how some vintages age into complexity while others simple sour.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  *Same-O on De Palma’s much-admired BLOW OUT/’81.   https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2016/11/fiercely-admired-fiercely-reviled-brian.html

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