Die Sister, Die!

Rating:
Summary: Family Matters...
Review: Amanda (Antoinette Bower) is a depressed, suicidal woman. Who could blame her? After all, her father hated her, loving her self-worshipping sister, Nell, instead. He dropped dead one day, leaving Amanda at the mercy of her greedy, sociopathic brother, Edward (Jack Ging). Nell seems to have vanished on the same day old daddy died. Now, Edward has hired a "nurse" (Rita Conde) to make sure Amanda winds up dead, so he can inherit his father's entire estate. DIE SISTER, DIE! is a good, solid thriller with no need of gore or cheap effects. It looks into the minds of twisted people who will do just about anything for money. The terror lies in knowing that creeps like these actually exist! DSD has some cool characters and a nice little ending (though not too unexpected). Enjoy...

Rating:
Summary: A typical 1970s psychological thriller - but not bad at all
Review: The title of this film might lead you to expect a little terror, some blood, maybe even some gore, but there is no great big butcher's knife dripping with freshly spilled blood to be found here. Die, Sister, Die! is basically a psychological thriller of sorts, the story of a dysfunctional brother and sister struggling against one another to play out the final act in a tale of greed and deceit. Amanda is the older sister, struggling against some unknown but terrible weight that makes her seek death as a means of escape - although she is not very good at suicide. Her brother Edward is so concerned about her that he hires a private nurse to live with her; if dear Amanda attempts suicide again, Edwards wants her there to make sure she succeeds. Yes, that's right. He wants her dead, and he wants the nurse he has hired (a woman with a questionable past and an initial willingness to accept twenty five thousand dollars for her part in Amanda's demise) to make sure he gets his wish.

This is a weird little film, a dark and dreary look into the minds of some rather unbalanced characters. Amanda is by no means ill, although she stays locked up in the house and has dreadful nightmares at night, all of them having to do with her father's death and her sister Nell's sudden departure from the house; she understands Edward quite well and suspects that Esther, the nurse, is in cahoots with him. Still, she wants to trust Esther, and Esther comes to question her role in this woman's much-anticipated death. Everything plays out quite well, really, with the film concluding in fine fashion. I rather liked Amanda; sure she was a little bit grouchy, but as she says herself, "Only idiots are not moody."

Of course, some questions remain. If Amanda has attempted suicide twice, the odds are she will try again fairly soon, so why bother bringing a nurse into the mix and risk implicating yourself in a suspicious death when the end is probably nigh, anyway? Edward, as you will see in the film, is no criminal mastermind - not by a long shot. Barney Fife could have seen through this guy quicker than he could pull his one bullet out of his shirt pocket. This film is classified as horror, but it is really not a horror film at all. These kinds of dark psychological films litter the cinema landscape of the 1970s; neither very good nor very bad, Die, Sister, Die! is representative of the bunch. As long as you don't go in expecting blood and guts, you should find interest if not a lot of enjoyment in this film.