Raising Cain

If Brian De Palma had worked during the era of internet bloggers instead of professional film critics, his career might have been altogether different. While a few journalists back in the day rallied in defense of the director's grandiose visual style (most notably Pauline Kael), the majority dismissed his work as "Hitchcock-lite;" entertaining enough for the masses but still just a pale imitation of films like Psycho and Vertigo, two of De Palma's biggest creative touchstones.

But in the blogosphere, where nostalgia and top-ten lists take priority, De Palma is a full-fledged hero. Take for example Raising Cain, just released on Blu-ray by genre specialists Scream Factory, which features a director's cut in which the director had no actual involvement. Instead, this alternate version was created by a film student - Peet Gelderblom of the Netherlands - whose leaked internet essay caused such a stir that De Palma gave it his blessing. Rearranging scenes to match the original draft of the script, stacking dream sequences atop flashbacks atop delusions, the new cut doesn't make Raising Cain a better film (internet praise to the contrary) but it does make a case for reappraising De Palma's career as a whole.

Carter Nix (John Lithgow) is a mild-mannered psychologist whose obsession with his 4-year-old daughter is threatening his marriage to Jenny (Lolita Davidovich), a respected doctor who's on the verge of having an affair with a former patient (Steven Bauer). The emotional strain makes Carter snap, unleashing a series of split personalities created long ago by his father who used Carter as a psychological guinea pig. Now it's Cain, Carter's more capably murderous twin, who takes control to create a new generation of experiments on unwilling children...starting with his own!

Produced right after De Palma's critical and box-office flop, The Bonfire of the Vanities, Raising Cain probably felt lake a safe move for the director. It's mix of sex, suspense and split personalities were common thread not just in Hitchcock's oeuvre, but his own. And, in fact, the film plays like a Greatest Hits compilation, lifting gags from Psycho, Dressed to Kill and, in the final shock sequence, Dario Argento's Tenebrae. While it proves De Palma still had a way with a camera, all that recycling will either feel comfortably familiar or downright repetitive, depending on your taste.

What's less debatable are the performances. John Lithgow has a blast playing multiple roles with a minimal amount of make-up and costumes to assist. The film's one true highlight reel is the interrogation scene (with the also excellent Frances Sternhagen) as he shifts from one personality to another. Even De Palma's normally restless camera just sits still to take it all in. Faring far worse is Davidovich, who has all the range of a late-night Cinemax sex starlet and drags much of the film down to her level.

Raising Cain is probably no one's favorite De Palma movie. It's caught between being a spoof of the director's own five-finger-discount tendencies and a string of poorly connected suspense set pieces. But it embodies the love/hate relationship audience's have with his work like no other. And in the internet era of film criticism, black or white seems to be the only opinions people have to offer.

There's no doubt, however, that Scream Factory's collector's edition will be a real people pleaser. It includes the new "Director's Cut" as well as the theatrical version, both looking quite detailed in hi-def (although the De Palma still utilizes some foggy lens effects that pop up from time to time). Extras include a 30-minute interview with John Lithgow and covers his three-film relationship with the director, plus more comments from actors Steven Bauer, Gregg Henry and editor Paul Hirsch.