Die Sister, Die! (1978) User Reviews

Reasonably entertaining.

[Hey_Sweden · 6/10 · 13 January 2014]

It's not hard to see why some viewers might mistake this for a TV movie, for it does have that sort of feel, except spruced up a little bit with mild use of gore. The story is nothing special, and in fact is pretty familiar, but it does entertain: the dialogue actually isn't bad, and the performances are definitely solid. Written by Tony Sawyer (based on a story by William Hersey) and adequately directed by Randall Hood, it doesn't exactly offer any surprises as its twists are revealed, but one could still do far worse than this.

One thing that does it make worth watching is the work by Edith Atwater ("True Grit", "Family Plot"), who's affecting as the haunted Amanda Price, who's attempted suicide as the movie opens. Amanda's younger brother Edward (Jack Ging, "High Plains Drifter", "Sssssss") hires a woman named Esther Harper (Antoinette Bower, "Prom Night", "The Evil That Men Do") to be the supposed nursemaid and companion to Amanda, but he really wants to convince Esther to let the old woman kill herself so they can split the family estate. As it happens, Esther comes to like Amanda as she gets to know her, and doesn't really want to contribute to the woman's death in any way.

Fine supporting performances by Kent Smith ("Cat People", "The Spiral Staircase") as the family doctor and Robert Emhardt ("The Intruder", "It's Alive") as the deceased patriarch (seen in flashback) are an asset, and the music score composed by Hugo Friedhofer is very good as well. Ging is appropriately smarmy and Bower does alright as the troubled accomplice. The movie's pace is acceptable and Hood manages to keep the viewer watching through the assorted twists and turns. The ending is basically satisfactory.

Worth a look if one is hungry to discover low budget obscurities from decades past.

Six out of 10.

Gothic melodrama in the vein of DIABOLIQUE

[capkronos · 6/10 · 31 July 2006]

Really a nice little surprise we have here, despite the little attention it was given and the mediocre to bad reviews I've read pretty much everywhere.

Edith Atwater stars as Amanda Price, a troubled, depressed old spinster who's just attempted her second unsuccessful suicide ("I'm alive... Oh damn!"), but was saved in the nick of time by the family doctor (Kent Smith). It turns out that Amanda has an even worse enemy than herself to deal with as her outwardly caring sibling Edward (Jack Ging) is conspiring against her. While at a bar, Ed meets Esther (Antoinette Bower), a desperate, discredited nurse now working as a waitress because she was cheated out of a load of money after her 90-year-old sugar daddy died. Edward offers her 25,000 dollars to 'keep Amanda company' (i.e. speed along her death so he can get the inheritance) in a large mansion home full of locked cupboards and doors. Once Esther is hired on as the nurse, she starts to appreciate and enjoy the company of the eccentric Amanda, and refuses to continue conspiring against her. But by the time she has a change of heart, she discovers there's more than one skeleton hidden inside this families closet... and one is behind a cracked wall in the basement! 

The screenplay (by Tony Sawyer, from a William Hersey story) has its share of twists and turns and most of the acting (especially the amusingly self-deprecating Atwater) is good. There's also an effectively nasty flashback and a great nightmare sequence involving birds, incest, severed limbs and a decapitation. If you don't mind slower paced thrillers, you can do much worse than this one.

Gothic psychological thriller with few horror bits.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 6/10 · 9 March 2015]

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.

Tolerably Tolerable

[gavin6942 · 4/10 · 6 January 2011]

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.

More Columbo than Horror

[bensonmum2 · 4/10 · 28 September 2005]

I don't care that this movie is listed as a horror on IMDb or that the video cover art features hands coming from a wall to grab a woman or that the film is included on just about every budget horror set, Die Sister, Die! has little in the way of horror to offer. There are moments of horror to be sure, but it's really more of a drama/mystery. If you're a fan of Columbo/70s style mysteries, this movie might appeal to you.

My problems with the movie have nothing to do with the way it has been incorrectly categorized over the years. Instead, I see weaknesses in the script and acting. Too much of the movie is just plain dull. Die Sister, Die! might have been much more enjoyable with a tighter script and a shorter run time. There's just too much in the way of padding for my taste. As for the acting, Antoinette Bower is dreadful in the pivotal role of the nurse. She plays the role as a woman who appears on the verge of going comatose at any minute.

The plot is standard 70s made-for-TV stuff. An older woman wants to commit suicide because of some unknown guilt. Her brother, seeking to inherit the family's fortune, would like to see her succeed. He hires a nurse to look after his sister and to make sure the next suicide attempt is the last one. The family doctor plays detective and puts the pieces together. There are some fairly entertaining twists and turns along the way, all leading to a satisfactory, if not predictable, conclusion.

Fans of 70s Movie of the Week fare should definitely check this one out.

'Almost like an act of mercy'

[Cristi_Ciopron · 4/10 · 25 February 2010]

Antoinette Bower, the delicious B actress of English origin, was 40 yrs when she played 'Ester' (nicely sounding Biblical name, symbolical), a frightening nurse, the sexy widow of a senile old millionaire, in Die Sister, Die!, an already (by the time it was shot) old—fashioned shocker about family secrets, the strangeness of old puppets, revenge, traumas, family rancor, destabilizing other's mind, greed, old mysterious houses, Freudian overtones, domineering father, rivalry, jealousy, putrid souls.

The father in the movie is an 'old bitchy Brando'—type; the physician belongs to the old Olivier—type.

What a great film!

[shanek-2 · 7/10 · 4 April 2002]

It is amazing that the people behind this film haven't gone on to make many more films, they did well.

It has a good story, interesting characters, and they did a pretty convincing job of pulling it off.

It is refreshing to see characters in a film who are intelligent enough to figure out what is going on as it happens, and confronting each other with their knowledge. It seems they all have their secrets but not for long... and yet there are still some surprises at the end. I'm not talking the obvious.

Wonderfully gothic with good performances. Maybe todays horror films could learn some small lessons from this. Horror films can still work without a sexy young cast of TV stars.

An above average made for TV suspense flick

[rixrex · 31 October 2004]

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.

Hurry Up and Do it Already

[saint_brett · 1/10 · 30 November 2023]

I'm really scraping the barrel in my movie collection, as I'm running out of crap to watch. I felt like watching something festive tonight, as it's close to December, so I settled on whatever this is.

Well, we're off to a good start, as ole Jack Ging is in this. What a brilliant actor! Remember him in that other movie he made? What a fine performance.

An old lady has slit one wrist, and crimson blood trickles on the carpet. At least it's red, keeping up with the Christmas appearance. She fails in her attempt to exit this earth and is ungrateful for her saviors' heroics. A simple alcohol swab, and she's right as rain and still in the game. Her only wish this Christmas is to die.

Not much is happening so far in this dinosaur other than two alcoholics saluting a portrait of Grandpa from 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre.' A washed-up spinster is hired at a bargain basement rate to babysit the ungrateful bag with the suicidal tendencies. It comes with the condition that she must see to it that the old bag must die by any means. A bonus incentive of $25,000 will be awarded, like an instant scratch prize, if it's done as fast as possible.

On a scale of one to ten, the suicidal one is an ironing board. She looks like my kindergarten teacher or Fred Figglehorn wearing a wig.

The movie reaches no 'Speed' or 'Fast and Furious' levels.

By the looks of that atomic bus that arrived in town earlier in the movie, this time capsule was filmed in the 40s but was transported to the 70s and comes complete with gas cannister warning labels where you're liable to suffer from a caustic burn if you watch it too much.

Jack Ging and the hired spinster warm to the idea of inheriting the suicidal ones belongings and stamping their deadly contract by locking lips and forming a contract to succeed.

This crap is prying 90 minutes of my time away from me. I'm only up to the 32-minute mark, so I still have to endure another hour of this misery.

Why doesn't what's her name just do us all a favor and "do it" right now and end this movie at the 37-minute mark instead of dragging it out?

It's a depressing concept for a movie plot.

She's not a likeable person. She has no friends. She's unattractive. She's so unloved that even her own brother, Jack Ging, doesn't want to win Mega Millions but instead wills her to roll over so he can inherit everything. She's so pathetic that even the rose garden bed died and shriveled away. A scarecrow is what she is.

Jack Ging goes to desperate measures in purchasing some cyanide and was clever enough not to search online for methods to waste humans, as he knew his history web browser would have given him up when the FBI lab technicians traced his activity.

But how will he administer the cyanide to the scarecrow? Oh, please, the poison is straight from 'The Road Runner' cartoon! It's called Acme Q-Kill. They stole this idea from The Candy Man! All that hogwash about razorblades in apples never killed anyone in real life, but this guy did with cyanide candy. It burns your insides like a microwave, apparently. I told you this movie was from the 40s! I'm on point tonight, I tells ya. I got it going on. This is "The Quickening" when I'm on fire and nailing crime scenes! Word.

Ging seems to be lacing a doobie with the crap, or is he cutting it in small doses and mixing it with pills?

Wait a minute. If Jack Ging wanted his sister out of the picture, then why did he save her at the very beginning of the movie with the doctor?

The scarecrow is contacted by the Emperor and ordered to move out of the asteroid field to receive a clearer signal. We're then given the backstory of how Grandpa came to be a dehydrated yet still breathing corpse, and the whole family is corrupted by greed.

The scarecrow continues to defy everybody, including the viewer, and I wonder if it'll all be reversed at the end and she comes out on top.

Jack Ging's stress levels are stretched as the scarecrow refuses to cark it, and he takes his frustrations out on the hired spinster, who's now webbed in his deceit, and she herself may become a victim in his desperate game as their relationship is souring by the minute. I'd split ASAP if I were you, lady.

What other idiot watches this in 2023?

Finally, the scarecrow "does it." About time! One hour and 15 minutes into the movie, and we're spared her presence. She's not in the final 15 minutes of the movie, and a weight is lifted off the viewer.

It all unravels at the end for Jack Ging, backfires, and doesn't go according to plan.

The spinster quivers at the knees, reneges on the deal, and turns state evidence in exchange for amnesty.

The house is left to an illegal part-time assistant.

And the hired spinster is taken away in Joni Mitchell's big yellow taxi.

The movie may have ended with the assumption that Jack Ging was put away for a long time, but I wouldn't sell him out that short, as no doubt he would have wrangled a legal maneuver and found a loophole to reverse all charges and countersue all parties involved, as he's too clever.

With this movie disappearing in its time capsule, along with Jack Ging, we'll never know what he's up to now or what year he jumped to, for that matter.

Jack Ging is still out there.

Make no mistake; he must be stopped.

Oh, wait, that was Dracula.

A somewhat unfairly maligned thriller

[Red-Barracuda · 7/10 · 2 September 2012]

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.

SISTER'S ACT

[mmthos · 4/10 · 18 November 2021]

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!

Passable thriller

[Woodyanders · 6/10 · 9 January 2014]

Conniving wealthy heel Edward Price (a deliciously smarmy portrayal by Jack Ging) hires nurse Esther Harper (a solid and credible performance by the attractive Antoinette Bower) to take care of his sickly, but mean and snippy sister Amanda (adroitly played with spot-on snarky bitchiness by Edith Atwater). However, Edward really wants Esther to help him kill Amanda so he can inherit the family fortune all for himself. Although director Randall Hood does an adequate job of crafting a brooding gloom-doom Gothic mood and makes the most out of the opulent mansion setting, both the sluggish pacing and Tony Sawyer's overly talky and uneventful script ensure that this movie is quite a heavy and rather tedious slog to sit through. Fortunately, the sound acting by the sturdy cast keeps this picture watchable: The three leads all do commendable work, with fine support from Kent Smith as kindly and concerned family physician Dr. Thorne, Robert Emhardt as domineering patriarch James Lendon Price, Rita Conde as friendly housekeeper Mrs. Gonzalez, and Peg Shirley as sneaky missing sister Nell. Moreover, there's a few decent twists and turns in the narrative along the way, plus a truly spooky dream sequence and a perfectly macabre conclusion. Both Michael Lonzo's sharp cinematography and Hugo Friedhofer's spirited shuddery score are up to speed. An acceptable time-waster.

Die, live, whatever! Just do something, Sister!

[Coventry · 4/10 · 21 October 2019]

Like most people, I reckon, I got enticed by this film's awesome-sounding title as well as by the sinister poster image (yes, the one with the arms coming out of concrete walls and the creepy old mansion in the background). But then - and also like most people, I presume - the disillusion quickly became apparent, because "Die Sister, Die" simply is an extremely slow-paced, dull, cheap and unsurprising little mystery/thriller! Usually I love low-budgeted exploitation movies of the 70s, as they are often grim and shockingly nihilistic, but unfortunately this one isn't. "Die Sister, Die" starts slow and uninvolving and remains that way throughout. The only somewhat noteworthy moments are the rants of lead protagonist Edward Price (Jack Ging), in which he frustratedly complains how badly he wants his sister's suicide attempts to succeed for a change! And so, Edward hires a private nurse for the completely wrong reasons, namely to ensure that Amanda dies so that he can inherit the family estate and fortune. Instead, however, nurse Esther stumbles upon a few dark family secrets where Edward and Amanda were both involved in. There's hardly any suspense or creepy imagery, except during one dream/hallucination sequence and a brief shot in the finale. The rest of the film exists of endless dialogues in which the characters keep repeating the same things. The production values are poor; - even poorer than most contemporary made-for-TV thrillers, and this probably also explains why the film spend several years in the post-production phase. The director didn't even live long enough to see the release of his work.

Forget the cover, this is a dull murder mystery.

[DigitalRevenantX7 · 4/10 · 11 June 2015]

CAUTION: Plot spoilers present.

Rich siblings Edward & Amanda are feuding over their late father's estate. Amanda is also suicidal since she is grief-stricken over her involvement in the death of her father & the disappearance of her sister. Edward hires Esther, a former nurse who has some dark secrets of her own, in order to watch over Amanda – and to ensure that if Amanda, who has a history of suicide attempts, tries to kill herself again, that she must succeed. As Edward secretly tries to kill Amanda due to her knowledge of their family's ill fortune, Esther discovers that the pair have been responsible for the fate of their family members.

This B-grade mystery thriller was notable for being released with a lurid poster which featured a woman in red negligee being pursued by hands that come from walls around her. The reality is that the film is nothing more than an average mystery thriller with some reasonably good acting.

Director Randall Hood did not live to see his film being released – he died of cancer while the film was still in post-production & a long-running rumour has it that Clint Eastwood had stepped in to oversee the production as a favour for actor Jack Ging.

As far as mystery thrillers go, Die Sister, Die! is okay, although not good enough to warrant more than one viewing. The actors do their roles professionally – Jack Ging has some fun in his role as the sinister brother who tries to get his fortune by killing his suicidal sister – and the production values are okay. But in saying that, Die Sister, Die! has nothing to say about the thriller genre other than to use the old 'feuding siblings' plot that has been around for a while. Inexplicably, the film was remade in 2013.

Seen on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater in 1981

[kevinolzak · 5/10 · 14 March 2014]

1972's "The Companion" was among several genre titles that sat on the shelf for years before being picked up for distribution by indie outfit Cinema Shares International Distribution Organization Ltd. (that's quite a mouthful!). Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater broadcast no less than nine of their films during its last days on the air- "Web of the Spider," "Track of the Moon Beast," "Godzilla on Monster Island," "Godzilla vs. Megalon," "Godzilla vs. the Cosmic Monster," "Creature from Black Lake," "Dynasty," and "Blue Sunshine," all still rather obscure decades later. Many believe this to have been a TV-movie, but that is not so, director Randall Hood simply had some television experience and knew what to do on an obviously low budget, gathering together a cast well known for their small screen work. Scriptwise, it's strictly routine 'skeletons in the closet' stuff, with Edith Atwater ("The Body Snatcher") in the central role of Amanda Price, like Bette Davis in both "Baby Jane" and "Sweet Charlotte" (or even Agnes Moorehead in "Dear Dead Delilah"), an unmarried spinster devoted to the memory of her dead father. Jack Ging plays brother Edward Price, who hires a discredited nurse, Esther Harper (Antoinette Bower), to look after his sister, in the hope that her suicidal tendencies will reach fruition, enabling him to take over the estate. Esther discovers her charge to be sharp as a tack, not the 'mental deficient' that Edward described, and comes to regret becoming his 'partner in crime.' The entirely predictable skeletons in this closet can be found in the basement, and are thrown away two thirds of the way in, leaving very little to follow. Veteran Kent Smith does well as the concerned Dr. Thorne, but Antoinette Bower's performance is sadly lacking, making her scenes opposite the fiery Atwater fizzle rather than sizzle, blunting the film's overall impact. Producer/director Randall Hood's early death in 1976 preceded the release of his final film, his only previous feature a 1961 children's fantasy called "The Two Little Bears." It remains his modest efforts, and a mostly game cast, that make this ideal late night viewing, not the horror film promised by the criminally misleading ads for its theatrical title "Die Sister, Die!" (which totally gives the game away). "The Companion" aired twice on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater, Apr 4 1981 and Dec 18 1982.

A decent film but what does the poster shown on IMDb have to do with this movie?!

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 30 April 2012]

If you look at the poster currently shown on IMDb for this film, you'd think the film is about zombies and nubile creatures running about in various states of undress. Well, if that's what you're looking for, then "Die Sister, Die!" is not the film for you. Despite the poster, the film is a murder mystery--and the solution to the mystery isn't all that difficult to deduce. But, it does set a nice, spooky mood--so it is worth a look.

The film begins with a crazy old lady trying to kill herself. She is saved but the doctor (Kent Smith) talks to her brother about either committing her or getting someone to look after her and make sure this doesn't happen again. The loving brother isn't so loving and finds someone--someone he assumes will do nothing to stop the sister from killing herself next time. Then, it seems, he'll inherit the family fortune. Why he hates her and why she hates herself is something you'll soon learn in this spooky but not especially deep film. It really sets a nice mood but that is all. A bit obvious but enjoyable nonetheless.

A decent low budget psychological thriller

[dieseldemon85 · 6/10 · 1 February 2023]

This movie has a decent story and does keep your interest despite moving at a slower pace as you learn about each character and the secret they have. The film only really masks one secret as you begin to figure it out as the movie movies along. The synopsis is an ailing woman who has guilt and tries to commit suicide receives a live in nurse by her brother. The Price's are wealthy and their father died a year ago, there are three siblings but one is out of the picture so it becomes a duel as to who really keeps it all. All characters are well acted and I see Shatner mannerisms in Jack Ging. It is low budget and appears like a tv movie but it is a decent watch.

Family Matters...

[azathothpwiggins · 21 May 2022]

DIE SISTER, DIE! Is a solid thriller about family dysfunction to the extreme, complete with sibling rivalry, greed, a mysterious disappearance, and death.

This movie looks into the dark minds of those who will do anything for money. The true terror lies in knowing that people like this actually exist. There are some interesting characters and an effective twist at the end...