Jon Peters Reviews: “Sisters”

I met Margot Kidder a while ago and we discussed one of my favorite suspense films and one of her personal favorite jobs, Brian De Palma’s 1973 film ‘Sisters’. She commented on how much she enjoyed working on the film and felt it was one of her better acting jobs. I concurred. Then, half-heartily and a little inquisitive, she asked, ‘Aren’t they remaking it?’ I say that they were. ‘Have you heard when it’s coming out? I’m curious to see what they’ve done.’ Personally, I hope Margot forgot this remake existed. It’s a pale imitation of the minor classic, poorly conceived, and generally boring.

Granted it is a tough act to follow with at that time, De Palma was seemingly a startlingly surprise as he married tension and suspense with split-screen effects, a haunting Bernard Herrmann score, and Hitchcockian sensibilities. On paper, when I heard that they were remaking it, I got kind of excited. It started off with a good cast: Chloe Sevigny (’American Psycho’) and Stephen Rea (’V for Vendetta’) and was to be Douglas Buck’s first feature length film. I heard of Buck through his three short films dealing with the disintegration of American family values with ‘Home’, ‘Cutting Moments’, and ‘Prologue’. He seemed like a director with some ideas as they were thematically interesting. I was hoping he would bring it to this film. Unfortunately, he might’ve been overwhelmed as the film is flat and uninspired, and not at all interesting on any level. It is just one big, flat dud.

‘Sisters’ focuses on obsessions and mental disorders. I never bought into the relationship with the doctor (Rea) and Angelique. Once certain details were revealed, the film had no chance of rewarding us with anything remotely interesting. In the original film, it’s unclear if Margot Kidder was one person or two (I’m trying hard not to reveal spoilers); De Palma kept a lot of mystery throughout the film, making us stay in our seats. We were generally intrigued, with the remake not so much.

The film feels too much like a television production, nothing felt theatrical. The cast does a good job, but it doesn’t matter. The film has a plot twist that is so far out of reality, I dare any reader to defend it. Buck tries hard to create an eerie atmosphere, but he just cannot keep some major flaws from sinking the entire film. It is a drab experience, one not worth the time or effort to sit down and watch. The age old argument it seems now days was if the remake was necessary or not. That’s a subjective question to be sure, but in the case of this film, there’s nothing worth noting for you to make an effort to see it. Get the original on Criterion Collection DVD. It still holds up as an interesting suspense thriller, where as this feels like a Lifetime horror film. Hopefully, Buck rebounds. He has promise, but this was a weak attempt, a dud, hell, it’s just a bad film.