Sisters
1972 Directed by Brian De Palma
Horror Marathon 2024 Day 22 Film 45
After the deluge of gross out horror this a wonderful change of pace- suspense and playful cinematography show De Palma's ability to manipulate the audience's perceptions. The central mystery is a bit of Hitchcock's meets giallo investigation as a female reporter, Grace, sees a murder of a black man in a woman's apartment across the street. That woman-Danielle- played by Margot Kidder- seems to already be watching her back as her ex-husband tails her every move. It's quickly apparent that something isn't right however (hinted at via some small bit of body horror scarification), and during one of her wild emotional swings her personality shifts and kills her lover.
While coming up to the apartment there a split screen sequence that highlights how easily the police allow the killer to hide evidence just before they come to the door. This idea of how perception is split fits within the themes later in the film, adding to the narrative tension. The police ineptly come up to Kidder's apartment and find nothing out of place (even though the camera pans down and sees spots of blood on the couch where they hid the man's body).
This sets up the frustrating system of law enforcement and a world of paranoia- of how Grace feels when she's being gaslit by the police and they don't seem to care about a black man's murder. Kidder plays the part very coyly and innocent until there are bursts of manic energy, and I was glad to see her in something outside of her role as Lois Lane (though her Quebec by stereotyped French accent is overwrought). Even Grace's mother seems to ask if she's on diet pills- questioning her state of mind. Everyone asks about her professional ability, and eventually she relents to find help with an investigator.
On the tail of Danielle- Grace is finally able to see the truth of what is going on at a mental facility. The film tilts into a more full on psychological horror-a Polanski-inspired interlude of out of body experience. Weird science and the split personality manifests itself through hypnotic suggestion. Here De Palma utilizes the bug eyed frames of glasses to create this world distortion- Under the magnifying glass Grace seems to sink into the trance and is unable to stop it.
It's a wonderfully terrifying moment that shifts the story and connects well to motifs in Jordan Peele's Get Out. As the world seems to float away we're left with a feeling that the pitfalls of investigation often leads to endless dead ends- often because of a system that is dismissive of people that aren't white men. Instead society prefers to wrap things up in a way that fits narrative comfort.