Sisters · reception & legacy
1973 · Brian De Palma
How Sisters has been received, argued over, and remembered.
The arc
Released by exploitation house AIP in 1973, it was taken seriously by critics like Pauline Kael and marked De Palma's pivot from counterculture comedies to thrillers; now it's a Criterion-canonised cult classic seen as the true start of 'De Palma-ness'.
What's debated
It's exhibit A in the eternal De Palma debate: loving Hitchcock homage or shameless Hitchcock rip-off?
Its footprint
Its split-screen suspense sequence is one of the most cited uses of the technique in American film, and Bernard Herrmann's shrieking Moog-laced score is a horror-music touchstone in its own right.
Where it stands
A Criterion-blessed cult favourite that Letterboxd cinephiles treat as the essential gateway drug to the De Palma filmography.
Named by the director
Influences Brian De Palma has publicly named — the director's own word, distinct from the inferred lines of influence.
- Alfred Hitchcock — De Palma openly framed Sisters as his first deliberate exercise in Hitchcockian suspense grammar, down to hiring Hitchcock's composer.
- Rear Window (1954) — De Palma cited its witness-who-can't-prove-what-she-saw premise as the model for the film's voyeuristic setup.
- Psycho (1960) — De Palma acknowledged borrowing its structural gambit of upending audience identification mid-film.