"Sisters" by Brian De Palma 1973

This is a great film, and De Palma admits that he is paying homage to Alfred Hitchcock. The movie opens with scenes from a television show, "Peeping Tom," where a blind woman comes in to a men's locker room and starts to undress. the woman, Danielle, is a plant of the TV show, and Philip the black guy is victim of the set up (kind of like the tv show "candid camera.") the contestants on the show have to predict what the guy will do, announce himself and point out this is a men's locker room, or watch her undress? At the end of the show for their payment, Philip gets tickets for two at the African Room, a restaurant that features an African theme (it has every stereotype of Africa - really funny, and of course the black contestant gets the tickets, what a coincidence). Danielle gets the show's gift of a knife set, I mean a bunch of knives with one really big and ugly dagger. Philip asks Danielle out for dinner. During dinner they are stalked by Danielle's creeepy ex husband (Bill Finley, who is really creepy looking). What Philip doesn't know about Danielle is that she was recently separated from her Siamese twin, Dominique, and that tomorrow is their birthday. A gruesome murder eventually sets the plot in motion, and the focus is turned onto the reporter who sees it happen from the window of her building across the street (ala Hitchcock's Rear Window). The police are no help, so the reporter hires a private detective (Charles Durning) to help find out the truth.

The movie is funny, and De Palma is having a lot of fun with the plot, with various scenes, and the ending is absolutely great. There is a dream sequence that explains the relationship between the sisters and the creepy husband. There is lots of blook and gruesome violence - knives and big hatchets are featured - I love it when the surgeon/doctor/ex husband picks up the hatchet in the surgical sequence - Yeah! A doctor using a hatchet in an operating room! One of the best ending scenes ever in a movie. De Palma is master of horror films, and he isn't afraid to let the audience know where he comes up with this stuff - from Hitchcock!