Die Sister, Die!

A troubled old woman is saved from suicide by her brother and the family doctor. Her brother's concern is purely for show though and he hires a nurse with a shady past to 'look after' his sister, i.e. to ensure she definitely dies next time she tries to kill herself. But once the nurse begins work things change.

This psychological thriller has the definite feel of a TV movie. I can find no definitive evidence that it is but I would not be surprised in the least to discover it is one. It seems to have been promoted as a horror movie. The title is quite in-your-face and the poster art is somewhat misleading. It shows a nubile scantily dressed young woman running away from an ominous house while being terrorised by several brutish hands that reach out to grab her from crumbling walls. It combines imagery of Gothic horror with Roman Polanski's Repulsion. It's a great poster! But, it's hardly accurate in terms of describing the actual content. First and foremost, this is not a horror film. It's pretty solidly a thriller. It's about family secrets and greed within a Gothic setting. It has occasional spooky moments such as nightmarish dream sequences and secrets in the basement.

Despite some of the negativity directed at it, I found Die Sister, Die! to be perfectly enjoyable. It's well acted, including a turn from Kent Smith who starred in the classic Cat People (1942). It's just probably not going to appeal to people who get their expectations up by checking out that cool poster in advance of watching it.

A registered nurse named Esther (Antoinette Bower) is summoned to an eerie Gothic mansion and feels a lurking menace in the place, as if it bears a terrible secret. When she meets Edward (Jack Ging), he tells her that he wants to hire her to care for his difficult, ailing sister Amanda (Edith Atwater). She does not realize his true intent.

Produced and directed by Randall Hood, who has done little else in his career. Jack Ging gets top billing in this film, with his name prominently on the cover of the DVD. Who is Jack Ging? A television actor, who also appeared in a couple early 1970s Clint Eastwood films.

The Treasure Box Collection features the film in full frame with decent video quality for the time period. No extra measure was given to spruce up the picture, and there are no features at all (not even subtitles), but for watching the film it works fine. (The film is also only 84 minutes, not the 88 that the box says.) As far as horror films go, this one is pretty light. More like a slightly tense thriller, as there is not much blood and an extremely low body count. Horror films can be successful on atmosphere rather than gore, certainly, but this one relies very heavily on an atmosphere I do not know if it can deliver.

This is one of those where everyone, including the victim, knows, from the get go, aomeone's gonna die, just a matter of when, and, apart from some pithy pronouncements on the Futility of Life, expertly delivered by Edith Atwater as sister Amanda, those lines far above the pedestrian plodding of the rest of the script, I got impatient for her to croak, a'ready!

Edward(Jack Ging)wants to murder his own severely depressed sister Amanda(Edith Atwater)to get his inheritance.He hires a discredited ex-nurse Esthe(Antoinette Bower)to control Amanda's suicidal tendencies.Esther doesn't want to kill the old woman, though and she is curious about the secrets held in the house including a mysterious third sister Nell."Die Sister,Die!" is relentlessly talky and rather subtle Gothic thriller from early 70's.There is pretty gruesome and grotesque nightmare sequence and two suicide attempts,though.The script is quite surprising and the acting is solid.6 basement walls out of 10.If you liked French "Diabolique" from 1955 give this one a chance.

Other than a mundane performance by Antoinette Bower, this made for TV suspense melodrama has a lot going for it. It's definitely a made for TV movie of the week which was so popular in the 70s, and from which many good films come. This is obvious in the way everything is shot, meaning a lot of close ups for the smaller screen and framing for the old style TV ratio - no widescreen or pan and scan here. The other giveaway is the moody music, just right and not intrusive, and done in 70s TV style. I know, I've seen many dozens of these 70s TV flicks and they have a definite pattern. Of course, most of these got foreign theatrical release, so there's a few well-placed curse words. The whole setup is such that there's not much to make for surprises but there's a nice twist at the end. I just wish that Ms Bower had used a few more expressions than her constant forlorn look. She really is able to do that as she's shown on her hundreds of TV show appearances.