The Films of Brian De Palma: 'Sisters'

Photo: Montreal Film Journal

Synopsis:
The Staten Island apartment of lovely model Danielle becomes the scene of a grisly murder that is witnessed by her neighbor, Grace, a reporter. But the police don't believe her story, so it's up to Grace to solve the murder mystery on her own.

It's impossible to talk about Sisters without first acknowledging it's Hitchcockian roots. De Palma, of course, was probably the most significant purveyor (or imitator, depending on your viewpoint) of the style that Hitchcock mastered. At the very least, this is true of De Palma's early works, and particularly the likes of Sisters, Obsession (1976), Carrie (1976), Blow Out (1981) and Body Double (1984). In some of these, De Palma's obsession with the craft of Hitchcock often triggered perverse narrative environments, compulsively frantic characters, and also more overt dabblings in the sociopolitcal realm.

Released in 1973, Sisters was De Palma's first distinguished foray into Hitchcockian horror-thriller-mystery territory; it's essentially his postmodern prototype. He wastes no time in setting the tone, with longtime Hitchcock collaborator Bernard Hermann on board to compose the score that's featured extensively over the ominous title sequence. Hermann's score is unsettling and abrasive and altogether chilling, and it works as well here as it did for it's use in Hitchcock classics such as Vertigo and Psycho.

More after the jump...

A Decade in Horror / 'Scream 4' Trailer

                                                                      Photo: IMDB

It's been about eleven years since Scream 3, and since then, many new horror trends have emerged. The mindless teen-slasher renaissance seems to have come and gone (for the most part), giving way to big-studio remakes and reboots of classic horror franchises (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, Dawn of the Dead, Friday the 13th, etc.). Films such as Saw and Hostel have come along and completely changed, and in some ways revitalized, the mainstream horror landscape. And though Saw has become a tired, hopeless franchise of late, we still have the original film to thank, in part, for the mainstream accessibility of torture-porn, snuff killings and excessive bloodshed in the mainstream.

There's an overwhelming fascination with what I'll refer to as throwback exploitation, or films that attempt to mimic the style of and pay homage to cult exploitation films of the '70s and '80s. In fact, many of the landmark exploitation flicks from decades ago are getting stylish, mainstream-friendly rehashings via major Hollywood studios (The Hills Have Eyes, The Last House on the Left, I Spit On Your Grave, The Crazies, etc.). These types of films, while once notorious for their low-budget grit, shock value and graphic nature, are ironically being exploited by Gen-Y Hollywood and remade into watered-down, cliche-ridden mainsteam schlock.