Dark R-Rated Horror Thriller On Max Gives DC Star Her Wildest Role
Fans of the DC cinematic universe will always remember Margot Kidder as the quintessential Lois Lane. Kidder’s star was shining bright in the late 1970s as she co-starred as the caped superhero’s love interest for the first time in Superman, a role she reprised three additional times. But horror fans remember the late actress from cult films Black Christmas and Sisters, a 1972 Brian De Palma movie that stands out as one of Kidder’s greatest performances on screen.
Margot Kidder Before Superman
Sisters begins with a woman named Danielle (Margot Kidder) taking a man back to her New York apartment for a romantic tryst. Afterward, Danielle tells the man that her twin sister should be arriving in the morning to celebrate their shared birthday. Ever the movie gentleman, the man does a favor for her and leaves to retrieve a prescription for her at the local drug store, picking up a birthday cake for his new love and her sister on his way back.
Of Course There’s A Twist
The man is greeted by Danielle’s twin Dominique (also played by Kidder), who attacks him with a knife. Before he bleeds to death, he manages to write out “help” on the window in his blood, hoping to attract the attention of someone. Sisters sees Danielle’s neighbor, a reporter named Grace Collier (Jennifer Salt), witness this gruesome scene and bring the authorities into the movie.
The Sisters movie continues with Danielle’s ex-husband Emil (William Finley) arriving and helping her hide the dead body inside a sofa bed and cleaning up the mess that Dominique made. The police cannot find any evidence of wrongdoing when they arrive, but the movie is about to take an interesting turn when a dissatisfied Grace hires her own investigator to uncover the grisly truth.
Kidder Plays Dual Roles
Margot Kidder shows audiences early on that she is capable of a wide range of characters, effectively playing both Danielle and Dominique with a convincing style. When she transforms herself from one woman to the other, Kidder is able to contort her features to physically appear different to a level so effective that you could pick them apart in a police lineup.
Ingenious Film Techniques
The Sisters movie is more than just Kidder’s homerun performance, however. Brian De Palma used elements from Alfred Hitchcock‘s Rear Window and Rope, capturing vital camera shots throughout the movie that any fan of the master of suspense will recognize.
De Palma also used elements of Roman Polanski’s filming techniques from the 1965 movie Repulsion and the German silent-era horror classic The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari to fully capture both the range that exists between Danielle and Dominique and the different ways that audiences are meant to see the film from different characters’ perspectives.
De Palma utilized a split camera technique as well, showing simultaneous actions between two different characters.
Streaming On Max
REVIEW SCORE
Adding to Sisters‘ cinematic greatness is the score that Bernard Herrmann supplied for the final production. Known for his work on Hitchcock movies, Herrmann’s jarring notes and chords keeps the anxiety and tension high throughout the film and gives Sisters the masterful touch it needed to complete De Palma’s opus.
Sisters is available to stream on Max.
