We Are Twisted F—ing Sister

Filmmaker Andrew Horn’s overly long paean to the 1970’s/1980’s outrageous heavy metal band Twisted Sister will be welcomed with open arms from all their hoards of fans who stuck by them religiously through the group’s very rocky musical career. It has less appeal to people who never warmed to their unorthodox style, for in the words of the Atlantic Records executive who finally gave them a recording contract after they struggled for a decade without one  ‘sure they suck BUT they are going to sell a lot of records!’

Twisted Sister had adopted a glam-rock style but unlike other groups who did the same, the Band were far from feminine and so looked like hefty construction workers wearing drag.  As one bemused Brit TV announcer said ‘they look like woman but sing like men’ and in fact what they may have lacked in musical talent they certainly made up for in impressive energetic old-fashioned performances that riled their audiences up into a fevered pitch.

With the help of some excellent archival footage, Horn traces the Band backs to its early start in 1972 when founding member Jay Jay French struggled to keep them together as they constantly toured all the rock clubs in the Tri-State area which was very much their home turf.  They went through various members who drifted in and out, but when they eventually made Dee Snider their lead singer in 1976, the Band really \started to take off.

Snider imbued ‘Sister’ with a much more exaggerated flamboyant style, and aided and abetted by his very young wife an aspiring costume designer, the Band finally settled on what would be its signature look.  It was Snider who persuaded the others that ‘Sister’ should stop just performing covers of other band’s hits and write and sing their own music.  They became successful enough to sell out at large music venues in their own area, but despite all their very many efforts to break out and be more than a large fish in a small pond, success always evaded them for one reason or another.

Snider and the other Band members are refreshingly frank and realistic as they very happily discuss that despite all the setbacks, that they still had such a great time make their own very unique music. It is their constant and persistent struggle to achieve fame ….and that all elusive recording contract… that makes this profile so entertaining, but at over 2 hours running time, it is badly need of an edit. 

Horn’s movie ends at 1982 when the Band finally has its 15 minutes in the main spotlight,  and interestingly enough it was the UK audiences that provided the final push that they could never get from the US.