Alfred Hitchcock is often cited as one of the most influential directors of all-time, and that's a fair claim. But, few directors actually follow his form, at least not in the overt way that Brian De Palma does. A shameless Hitchcock adherent, De Palma's career was dogged with accusations that his films were little more than Hitchcock imitations. Looking at a film like Sisters, his 1973 psychological horror film about a woman with a split-personality who murders her lover (and is seen through a window by a reporter), it's easy to see why some might harbour that opinion of De Palma. The Hitchcock tropes are all there, true, yet the film has a life (and a style of its own). De Palma would go on to direct better films (Carrie, Blow Out, The Untouchables etc.) but Sisters demonstrates his early promise, as well as his debt to Hitchcock.
