Friday, March 8, 2013

RAISING CAIN (1992)

A child psychologist (Lithgow) takes a few years off to raise his daughter.  Sounds innocent enough, except for the fact that he's crazier than a shithouse rat (thanks to the severe abuse he suffered as a child).  Things get even worse when he finds out his wife is cheating on him.

Released just a year after THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, I suspect that the studio was wanting something more like that, but then when De Palma turned in this more challenging (both visually and in the storytelling) mind-bender he was pressured into changing it into a more straightforward narrative.  At least, that's what I've gathered from different interviews and articles over the years.

The official release though is still pretty good and although it's aged horribly it's a fun watch...Lithgow being creepy as fook, dream sequences, zero gore, very little blood, zero nudity, hardly any violence despite the gruesome subject matter, flashbacks, interesting visuals, nods to a bunch of different suspense films, 90's fashions, Cliff Clavin's mother,  90's cars, Satan awful looking 90's clocks, good supporting cast.

I've never been a fan of De Palma's style, but this is still an interesting time capsule of early 90's cinema.  I would love to see his original version.

If you need me, I'll be in my room watching Dexter season 4.