Heh. No problem.
*****SPOILERS***** Just in case.
I remember seeing the poster for it and thinking, this is my kind of thriller. I remember the reviews comparing it to 'Psycho'. Also seeing Margot Kidder on a talk show promoting it as being so scary.
But I didn't see it until it was on a double feature, second billed with Hitch's 'Family Plot'.
Especially with the comparisons to 'Psycho', I actually knew before I saw it that one of the twins was dead, and the other had a 'split personality' and was also the killer. So there was really no mystery to me.
One thing I was not prepared for, and which surprised me, was how much of it was tongue in cheek. Almost a black comedy. That disappointed me. I expected a straight-on thriller.
I strongly disagree that the opening was pure Hitchcock. I don't think he'd have ever gone for something so hokey.
I thought this was Bernard Herrmann's worst score. The background music was fine, but the theme was overwrought. I liked DePalma's camera work, and the editing.
The Hitchcock movies it reminded me of were 'Psycho', obviously, and 'Rear Window' with all that spying on other apartments.
I liked the location filming. I don't live far from Staten Island. I've taken the ferry many times.
You have to be careful about saying things like this nowadays, but I liked that the initial relationship (or...hookup?) was interracial, yet no mention was made at all about that.
So I would say the scary scenes were scary, but the comedic parts disappointed me. At the end, I thought, 'Huh?'
Now, that may sound like I really dislike the movie. I really don't. I even own the DVD although I haven't watched it in years.
But I own it because I can appreciate the scary parts, and also get some humor from the comedic parts, now that I know what the movie is like.
Hope that answered some of your questions. Cheers.
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jasonbourne (1027)
6 years ago
What a coincidence. I thought it was like Family Plot, Hitch's black comedy, and you mentioned it as double feature. Sisters had the great comedic touches that we see with split screen and how the "ex-husband" and Danielle cleaned up everything. The story was complex (MacGuffin were the sisters mystery), but explained well. Even when the Charles Durning detective school grad shows up, it was great. I thought the journalist who worked at Life magazine was going to get involved. He was very credible. However, after that the story kinda fell apart. The doctor would have recognized Collier from the apartment immediately, so she shouldn't have been that naive to just walk in. The basic problem was there wasn't enough suspense. What was that dream sequence anyway? It could've been better if someone like Hitchcock took over the story or screen play after the journalist office scene. It was a great story up until that point. I thought it could've been a masterpiece with what it had going for it. The reveal of the Sisters could have been a shocker and then throw in the twist ending. Now that you mentioned it being Herrmann's worst score, I think he could only come up with what he saw in the film. It became a bit disjointed at some point.
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MizhuB (165)
6 years ago
I just watched it again, and again I thought "I like it." "No, I don't".
I was up and down throughout the whole thing.
I thought it was an early example of what would become DePalma's trademark, to me. Style over substance. "Carrie" and "Obsession" were his best combinations of both.
What you called the dream sequence I think was an attempt to brainwash Grace (the reporter) into believing she was the sister who died. It worked to some extent, since at the end she insisted "There was no body, because there was no murder!
Which made the final joke the very end. The detective on the telephone pole, watching the sofa that no one would show up to collect, since Grace insisted there was never a murder.
The part that I thought was the most funny, and by that point not out of place, was when Grace was in the institution and was confronted by the woman who was paranoid about using the telephone. "That's how I got so sick! Someone called me on the TELEPHONE!"
WTF? By that point, I just took it for what it was and laughed.
I'd still be incapable of categorizing it though. Which maybe was DePalma's intention. Who knows, with him?
One thing I changed my opinion about though, was that it wasn't a thriller/black comedy. I don't think it's like Hitch's Family Plot.
Now I just see it as a flat-out thriller/comedy. Nothing much to take seriously.
Disjointed is an excellent description.
I'd be interested in knowing what others think of it.
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jasonbourne (1027)
6 years ago
I did laugh at the ending for some reason. I thought Breton sent it off to Canada where it develops a huge stink and gets sent to the junkyard. More likely P.I. Larch finally comes down to look inside for himself. Still, there is nothing to tie it to Breton and Danielle without Collier. He can't use any of the evidence he got from their apartment.
If Hitchcock got the story, I think he would have streamlined it at some point. For example, the doctor would become the main protagonist. Maybe he just has a private practice at his home and the sisters were one of his patients that he fell for. He could have kept the other sister in the house like Psycho. He would find out about Collier pursuing them with the help of Larch at some point. Maybe the journalist gets involved in helping the two because he's still interested in the twins. You can keep the same ending, but have a more dramatic twist to the reveal as Breton tries to kill again in order to keep his secret.
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ProductionNow (1072)
6 years ago
It was hard not to have a suspicion, considering the newspaper-ad that came out in 1972, with Kidder and her sister joined at the hip, and "what God hathed together, let no man cut asunder". Too much info.
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