An interesting construct of a potentially great thriller is there in Brian De Palma's first such film that casts Margot Kidder in dual roles as Siamese twins separated, one now psychotic and the other attempting to live a normal life while hiding her sister. When the sister living a normal life brings home a date, he finds himself quickly on the end of the other sister's wrath, brutally struck over and over again with a knife as reporter Jennifer Salt witness is it from across the street. She basically is the prototype for the character that Nancy Allen played in De Palma's "Dressed to Kill" eight years later, and gets a much more complex character than either of Kidder's characters. The police investigate, but don't find any real evidence, and salt, an award-winning reporter, protest that because the victim was black, they aren't doing anything.
This has an incredible cast of supporting actors, with Charles Durning and Dolph Sweet joined by Barnard Hughes, Olympia Dukakis and Justine Johnson in smaller roles. However, the real star of the show is the eerie photography and music, utilized in black-and-white sequences that are meant to represent nightmares. While there are definitely elements of a later Hitchcock thriller here, the style is distinct DePalma that really strings the viewer along in a way that makes them realize that anything can happen at any moment. This is a little forgotten sleeper that has been discovered by connoisseurs of the genre, and should be re-examined as a modern American classic. Not perfect, but certainly well worth studying for its unique style.
This has an incredible cast of supporting actors, with Charles Durning and Dolph Sweet joined by Barnard Hughes, Olympia Dukakis and Justine Johnson in smaller roles. However, the real star of the show is the eerie photography and music, utilized in black-and-white sequences that are meant to represent nightmares. While there are definitely elements of a later Hitchcock thriller here, the style is distinct DePalma that really strings the viewer along in a way that makes them realize that anything can happen at any moment. This is a little forgotten sleeper that has been discovered by connoisseurs of the genre, and should be re-examined as a modern American classic. Not perfect, but certainly well worth studying for its unique style.