Reporter Grace Collier (Jennifer Salt) witnesses a brutal murder in an apartment across from her. The murderess is Dominique Breton (Margot Kidder) who has a twin sister Danielle (also Kidder). Danielle is sweet and kind, Dominique is a psychopath. Danielle and her creepy ex-husband Emil (Bill Finley) cover up the killing but Grace is determined to find the body.

Creepy, violent, very bloody (the first murder is still shocking even by today's standards) and just great. Kidder and Charles Durning (as a detective) give great performances. Salt and Finley are just OK. De Palma's direction is fantastic (as always)--some of the sequences (especially the one employing a split screen) are incredible. Also Bernard Herrmann's score is among one of the best of his career. In terms of horror movie scores, it's right up there with "Psycho" and "Halloween".

A good, gory, satisfying film...one of De Palma's best. Look for Olympia Dukakis as a bakery shop worker.

SISTERS is the first Brian de Palma film that sees the director working in his preferred genre (thriller) and with all the elements that he's revisited time and again during his career, from the Hitchcock homages and stylistic flourishes to the joyous score (Herrmann, of course). This film is kind of a combination of REAR WINDOW and PSYCHO, with journalist heroine Grace (played with everyday charm by Jennifer Salt) investigating a dodgy neighbour, played by the excellently creepy Margot Kidder, a long way from her most popular role as Lois Lane.

Sure, the film is predictable, and rough around the edges, with the extra-low budget excluding the kind of dazzling cinematography that de Palma would later bring to the likes of CARLITO'S WAY, but nevertheless it proves to be more than entertaining thanks to the anything-goes nature of the script and of course the stylish direction. The whole first half hour is a wonderful piece of set-up that leads to a genuinely provocative murder set-piece, as inspired as THAT shower scene in its own way.

From then on in, the ride is more mixed, with the film stalling in places and wizzing along in others. De Palma has an eye for supporting talent and gets good value from the peerless Charles Durning as a dedicated private eye and William Finley as the bug-eyed, creepy husband. Okay, so it's not entirely successful, and the ending does lack a certain resolution, but overall it has the same kind of fresh, intriguing, slightly distasteful appeal as the early films of David Cronenberg.

Danielle Breton (Margot Kidder) is a French Canadian model living on Staten Island. Philip Woode takes her home after their appearance on a Candid Camera game show. She's separated from her Siamese twin Dominique Blanchion who is angry about being left behind in a mental hospital. It's their birthday and Dominique is coming for a visit. When Philip returns with a birthday cake, he is stabbed to death by a crazed Dominique which is witnessed by neighbor reporter Grace Collier (Jennifer Salt). Her ex-husband Emil is stalking her and finds Danielle disoriented and Philip dead. He helps her hide the dead body in the foldaway couch. Police detectives Kelly and Spinetti investigate but they don't find a body. The cops distrust the reporter and Grace must investigate on her own. Her editor insists on hiring private detective Joseph Larch (Charles Durning) to join her.

I often complain that characters in movies never call the cops. It's almost as bad when the cops turn out to be idiots. It doesn't make sense that the first cops on the scene are detectives rather than patrolmen. There's an argument about exigent circumstance which seems overblown and unreasonable. I can't understand why Grace is allowed into the apartment other than a need to advance the plot. If this actually happened, I expected uniformed cops to come and knock on the door looking for a victim. The cops dragging their feet is suppose to build tension but it build annoyance for me.

Director Brian De Palma is doing a homage to Alfred Hitchcock. There is a good deal of fun Rear Window scenes. The last act is quite compelling. There are a lot of goodness here but there are a few things keeps annoying me. I really don't understand why Larch doesn't call the cops about the couch. If they find the body, the cops could get the couch delivered in their own sting. These little logic problems just bug me.