Sisters (Chloe Sevigny)

REVIEW
Brian DePalma’s 1973 thriller, Sisters, remains one of the director’s greatest exercises in Hitchcockian suspense, and, subsequently, the prospect of a remake is a daunting one. Yet this new interpretation by Douglas Buck — an American independent filmmaker previously best known for an acclaimed series of short films on violence in families and suburbs — is a remake with a difference. Rather than merely rehashing DePalma’s highly operatic approach, Buck has opted to sharpen his focus on the psychology behind the characters and place substance over style (which is not to imply that the remake isn’t quite liberal with its bloodshed, as the crimson flows freely). As with the original, the new Sisters focuses on reporter Grace (Chloë Sevigny), as she investigates the sinister activities of one Angelique (the excellent Lou Doillon), who is apparently one-half of a separated set of conjoined twins. Violent mayhem surrounds Angelique, and Grace — increasingly in over her head — attempts to discover the links between murders and the medical experimentation that involved the twins, connected to Dr. Lacan (Stephen Rea). Soon Grace and Angelique’s fates become intertwined in grisly and tragic ways. Buck doesn’t entirely forego DePalma’s visual pyrotechnics, but he does shift his interest to the sadness and madness of the characterizations, making this new Sisters one of those rare horror remakes that compliments the original in fascinating new ways.