DVD Release
While snooping around Dr. Philip Lacann’s office looking for some incriminating evidence for a an article, investigative reporter Grace Collier witnesses a murder take place in an apartment building directly across the street. Turns out, the murder was committed in the apartment of Angelique Tristiana, Dr. Philip Lacann’s research assistant. Coincidence? Grace has stumbled on an even bigger story lurking beneath the dark surface of Philip Lacann’s research and it’s directly connected to Angelique, her twin sister and a strange drug concoction Lacann has been administering.
Douglas Buck’s remake of Brian De Palm’s Sisters is indeed a good film but it just isn’t good enough to justify having been made. In my experience most remakes fit into two categories: “Better Than The Original” or “Worse Than The Original,” Buck’s Sisters has the unique distinction of being both. Is it better than De Palma’s Sisters? No. Has Buck tried to offer up a new, stylish spin to the original? Yes. Does it work? Perhaps for some, for me it didn’t.
The acting was solid, the violence (what little there is) is quite effective and the style in which this film was directed and shot was fantastic but I found myself still resenting the ambiguity of the film. I know it was supposed to keep you guessing but there were only so many places that Buck could have gone with this concept and it felt like we were subjected to all of them and none of them, if that makes any sense. I felt like Buck didn’t play any specific hand long enough to build any major tension. I’m not really conveying my apathy clear enough, I know, so I’ll just throw the word “mediocre” out there and let you all decide whether you find the film a worthy successor to the original.
Sisters, on a technical level, wasn’t a bad movie but I’ve always felt the worst movies are the ones that don’t inspire or provoke any emotions at all. I hate feeling indifferent after I’m done watching a film and, unfortunately, that’s how I felt watching Buck’s Sisters.
Concerning Douglas Buck, I will say this; he appears to have a true passion for the genre as well as cult cinema and exploitation and for that he gets props but I’d much rather see something original from him in the future. This just left me shrugging my shoulders.
