PSYCHO SISTERS (1974)
aka SO EVIL, MY SISTER Directed by Reginald Le Borg
Prism VHS
THE FILM
I just did 500 push-ups, 720 leg squats, and benched 1000 pounds. Twice. All with my mind. Yet, Psycho Sisters still dogs me.
After 76 minutes of stunning acid freak-outs, listless bitch sessions, a few karate chops, and two ironic car explosions, Psycho Sisters makes one thing explicitly clear: "I'm ready, willing, and able, big boy. But you're gonna have to work for it."
F-that! I'm exhausted!
Possibly shot in two hours and edited in twenty minutes, Psycho Sisters is a carelessly cheap inheritance-scam thriller with a couple of exploitive zingers. Satanic tranquilizer hallucinations. A monster in the shower. Handyman Woody and his bloody hatchet. Unfortunately, the bulk of the film attempts to tackle a grade school book report with a Master's in English Lit. Or maybe it's the other way around? Anyway, remember when Chuck Berry said "Too much monkey business for me! Ahh!"? Well, he took the words right out of my mouth.
Motorcycles! Shoot-outs! Suicide car cliffs! Where are those Psycho Sisters? After 12 minutes of backstory, we finally meet Millie (50s siren Faith Domergue) and Brenda (50s-80s TV & B-babe Susan Strasberg). One of them might be crazy. Or, both of them might be crazy. I'm not sure. The point is, there's a pot of money to be had, Woody lives in the basement, and Brenda wears entertaining bathing suits while chatting with a surfer (who doubles as a cop). There are harpsichords and flutes. Brenda's husband has something to do with it all. A burned body looks like a dirty baseball mitt. I miss you, Hands Of Blood.
Needlessly complex, the PG-rated Psycho Sisters is a blown-out soap opera with an itch for trash thrills. However, the terrific weirdness just doesn't flow freely enough, and when it does, its brevity is a sin. Like the cast themselves, director Reginald Le Borg (The Black Sleep) and director of photography Dean Cundey (Halloween) are content with disinterest. Consistency by any standard is of little importance. It all leads to flat indifference. Boom mics, monotone shouting, and The Woody Asthete could push the scales, but it would take some work.
A lot of work; like 2000 push-ups, 1400 leg squats, and benching 3000 pounds. F-that.
AUDIO AND VIDEO
The print is dark, dirty, and colorful. Big deal! The real issue here is the sound mix. The seesaw levels jumped from mousy to volcanic in the blink of an eye. Whoever was in charge of this owes me a new speaker cone. Or, I'll take a copy of Snowballing. Prism, are you listening?
EXTRAS
An extended trailer is the mark of every white Prism clamshell. Psycho Sisters continues the tradition with Dominque aka Dominique Is Dead. Yes, I own a copy of Dominique. No, I have not checked to see if it contains a trailer for Psycho Sisters. That would be a little over the top.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Are you feeling nimble? No? Then get ready to work it. The inconsistent Psycho Sisters is somewhat intriguing, as long as you're willing to put forth some effort. Although, you could just as easily throw on Die, Sister Die! and simply fall asleep. A tough choice, but one that must be made.
— Joseph A. Ziemba, 06.07.07 | 
They will dog you
The Woody Shuffle
Now this I like
A Tale Of Two Toxies
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