Review of Sisters (1973) by Zack B — 21 Jul 2012

What a gem of a movie this was! An eerie psychological thriller of the seventies! Brian DePalma has done a great job on the lines of Alfred Hitchcock. The latter's 1960's Psycho movie was a classic of psychological thriller genre and this less known 1973 Sisters has a similar premise which the director slowly builds till we feel for the beautiful and charming girl, Danielle Breton (Margot Kidder) until a brutal back stabbing takes place that confounds the entire audience. In 1960's Psycho the murder was implied but wasn't depicted, the wounds and the victim's body were never shown explicitly. Here the gore finds a way through. The wound in the victim's mouth takes the winning position of all. The ingenious method of swaddling and then stowing away the body of the victim in a car to be drowned in the lake in the Psycho has it's own parallel competence here in the Sisters.

Other than the gore galore, this movie houses several controversial aspects that it openly depicts. The forbidden relationship budding between the doctor (Willian Finley as Dr. Bretob) and one of his patients culminating in marriage and an unborn child. The very patient (Margot as Danielle Breton) being a Siamese twin with her mentally disturbed sister (Margot as Dominique Blanchion) suffers from privacy breach in the bedroom and often wishes her separated, to which the doctor reacts by undertaking a rather harsh challenge to surgically separate both the sisters compromising the well being of the other sister he had come to dislike. What ensues is a tale of horror and misery of a manner that entails a powerful cinematic consequence for the audience to appreciate and be bewildered.

A rather ethically controversial issue arises with the use of hynotherapy to change the thoughts of a murder witness should there be a determined and fearless one coming forward to expose the murderer of a brutal first degree murder case. Another scientifically challenging view argues if such a drastic change in the thought process through hynotheray is even possible. Then there is a frightening concept of a mental institution where the mentally disturbed patients are allowed to roam around and work outside with general public despite the risk of them causing mass hysteria and trouble to the general civilians living outside. Well, this timeless thriller is so intelligent and intense in it's mystery, suspense and horror with a flavor of the science fiction genre, that would instill fear into the viewers for generations to come. Needless to say, several artist would draw inspiration from the murder to the gore to the peculiar case of Blanchion Sisters. Even the work of Sydney Sheldon, Tell Me Your Dreams (1994), looks like a direct inspiration from the Sisters (1973).