Sisters

R

Released Mar 27, 1973

1 hr. 33 min.

Mystery & Thriller

List

85%

48 Reviews

Tomatometer

72%

5,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Inquisitive journalist Grace Collier (Jennifer Salt) is horrified when she witnesses her neighbor, fashion model Danielle Breton (Margot Kidder), violently murder a man. Panicking, she calls the police. But when the detective arrives at the scene and finds nothing amiss, Grace is forced to take matters into her own hands. Her first move is to recruit private investigator Joseph Larch (Charles Durning), who helps her to uncover a secret about Danielle's past that has them both seeing double.

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Critics Consensus

Clever yet clearly indebted to the masters of the genre, Sisters offers an early glimpse of De Palma at his stylishly crafty peak.

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Audience Member

Director Brian de Palma directs a chilling tale of murder and sisterhood The late Margot Kidder and Jennifer Salt could be playing sisters but they're anything but togetherly Grace is an investigative journalist who witnesses a murder of her neighbor Danielle Danielle is the prime suspect but the authorities have no evidence to support it Grace now has to solve the case herself by hiring a private investigator named Joseph But what she finds is way more than she bargained for This takes the 'Peeping Tom' approach and feels very trippy with the extreme close ups as well as the sound effects The twist is positively freaky too Kidder and Salt make for some good leads De Palma shows his craft plus much of the dark humor is funny despite its vileness You can predict a few things during the plots unfolding yet the slick performances manage to save it from falling under its own weight

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/28/24

Full Review

Alec B

A wild and purely cinematic experience. The homages and split screens are all just tremendous.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/22/24

Full Review

Jeff M

This is very early Brian De Palma stuff here, just four years before he would hit the big time with his adaptation of Stephen King's CARRIE, but one can already see characteristics that would become a staple of the director's work throughout his career, most notably an infatuation with Hitchcock. One can't help but think of REAR WINDOW during a good portion of this movie. Overall, it's a moderately successful thriller with an intriguing premise, game performances by Salt and a pre-Lois Lane Kidder and enough curiosity is peaked during the first hour to hold one's interest. However, toward the end, the plot becomes overly complicated and confusing, and without giving too much away, it was hard for me to keep a couple of the characters straight - I had to rewind a couple times just to stick with it. De Palma would go on to make some wonderful films, certainly the aforementioned CARRIE and DRESSED TO KILL being my personal favorites. And although not entirely successful, it's obvious that the man behind the camera was extremely talented and had a potentially big career ahead of him.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/04/24

Full Review

Kyle M

Mixture result in combining Hitchcock's "Rear Window" and "Psycho" as your standard, industrially expressive 70s horror staple psychologically-driven under de Palma's tightening grippy form in his intro into the thriller genre, but the film functions better over its captivating investigation whilst predictable enough to sway away any frights and fundamentally experienced twists though doesn't mean it's not enjoyably satisfying. (B)

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

10/11/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Director Brian de Palma directs a chilling tale of murder and sisterhood The late Margot Kidder and Jennifer Salt could be playing sisters but they're anything but togetherly Grace is an investigative journalist who witnesses a murder of her neighbor Danielle Danielle is the prime suspect but the authorities have no evidence to support it Grace now has to solve the case herself by hiring a private investigator named Joseph But what she finds is way more than she bargained for This takes the 'Peeping Tom' approach and feels very trippy with the extreme close ups as well as the sound effects The twist is positively freaky too Kidder and Salt make for some good leads De Palma shows his craft plus much of the dark humor is funny despite its vileness You can predict a few things during the plots unfolding yet the slick performances manage to save it from falling under its own weight

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/27/23

Full Review

andrey k

One of the better films of Palma, it's an amusing mystery tale with a huge shadow of Hitchcock all over it, but it's done carefully and not without some clever black humour, although there are some tedious scenes which are unnecessarily prolonged, like the hallucination/explanation scene.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

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Brian De Palma

Director

Margot Kidder

Danielle Breton

Jennifer Salt

Grace Collier

Charles Durning

Joseph Larch

William Finley

Emil Breton

Lisle Wilson

Phillip Woode

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Richard Schickel

TIME Magazine

Sisters provides moviegoers with the special satisfaction of finding a real treasure while prowling cinema's bargain basement.

Sep 28, 2022

Full Review

Pauline Kael

New Yorker

The facetious dialogue is a wet blanket, and De Palma isn't quite up to his apparent intention -- to provide cheap thrills that are also a parody of old corn.

Sep 28, 2022

Full Review

Gene Siskel

Chicago Tribune

During a second viewing, filled with the security of knowing when to look away, I was able to really watch the picture, and I found it to be one of the best thrillers I have seen.

Rated: 3.5/4

Sep 28, 2022

Full Review

Rob Gonsalves

Rob's Movie Vault

A nasty, brutal, terribly effective thriller.

Rated: A

Nov 29, 2022

Full Review

Steve Vineberg

Boston Phoenix

De Palma is known for his wit, and it's the most enjoyable aspect of Sisters (the least enjoyable quality of the movie is the extended violence). The humor is generally puerile, but it's funny.

Sep 28, 2022

Full Review

Bill Morrison

News & Observer (Raleigh, NC)

Director Brian De Palma allows the film to wander. It can be asinine and obvious and you consequently doubt the director's sincerity. Then he confronts you with sequences well honed and splendidly sinister.

Sep 27, 2022

Full Review

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Synopsis

Inquisitive journalist Grace Collier (Jennifer Salt) is horrified when she witnesses her neighbor, fashion model Danielle Breton (Margot Kidder), violently murder a man. Panicking, she calls the police. But when the detective arrives at the scene and finds nothing amiss, Grace is forced to take matters into her own hands. Her first move is to recruit private investigator Joseph Larch (Charles Durning), who helps her to uncover a secret about Danielle's past that has them both seeing double.

Director: Brian De Palma
Screenwriter: Brian De Palma, Louisa Rose
Distributor: American International Pictures
Production Co: American International Pictures (AIP)
Rating: R
Genre: Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Mar 27, 1973, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 23, 2017
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.85:1)

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