["Sisters" is] a good, substantial horror film with such a sense of humor that it never can quite achieve the solemnly repellent peaks of Roman Polanski's "Repulsion." Never, however, does it become the sort of Nancy Drew detective tale it otherwise resembles, at least in outline….

Mr. De Palma, best known for his anarchic comedy …, reveals himself here to be a first-rate director of more or less conventional material that has associations not only with "Repulsion" but also with Hitchcock's "Psycho." The "Psycho" associations are unfortunate, since they tip one important plot point sooner than is absolutely necessary….

An intelligent horror film is very rare these days. "Sisters" … is just the thing to see on one of those nights when you want to go to the movies for the old-fashioned fun of it.

Vincent Canby, "'Sisters'," in The New York Times (© 1973 by The New York Times Company; reprinted...