Sisters (1973)

Sisters is the kind of early Brian De Palma thriller that grabs you with a single shocking moment and then tightens the screws with pure, mischievous craft—split perspectives, prowling camera moves, and a sense that the walls are closing in even when the police insist nothing happened. Margot Kidder is terrific in a dual performance that feels both glamorous and unsettling, while Jennifer Salt makes the amateur-sleuth desperation of a witness who can’t get anyone to believe her feel urgent and human. The movie hums with Hitchcockian tension and a nervy score, turning everyday spaces into traps and coincidence into dread, all without needing to drown you in gore to make its point. It’s not for everyone—there’s sexual content, a nasty burst of violence, and psychological material that’s meant to disturb—but if you like stylish, brainy ‘70s horror-thrillers that play like a fever dream you can’t shake, this one is absolutely worth your time.

Sisters is Brian De Palma warming up his Hitchcock-obsessed toolkit, aiming for a stylish, paranoid mystery that blurs identity and reality with split-screen flair and a pulpy edge. When it works, it’s tense, weirdly hypnotic, and anchored by Margot Kidder’s committed, unsettling dual performance. But the script and dialogue can feel flimsy and a bit smug, and the movie’s “exploitation” streak (sex, shock, and psychological cruelty) sometimes plays louder than the actual storytelling, making the twists feel more like genre exercises than earned revelations. If you want a tightly written, emotionally grounded thriller, this may irritate you; if you’re up for a messy but inventive early-De Palma experiment with strong violence and disturbing themes, it’s worth the ride.