RAISING CAIN. (1992) WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY BRIAN DE PALMA. STARRING JOHN LITHGOW, LOLITA DAVIDOVICH, STEVEN BAUER, FRANCES STERNHAGEN, MEL HARRIS AND GABRIELLE CARTERIS. REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
This is a psychological thriller by the guy who brought us SCARFACE, CARLITO'S WAY, THE UNTOUCHABLES and the original CARRIE, so you already know that his pedigree is good. Even untouchable, as it were, if you can see what I did there.
RAISING CAIN isn't exactly in the same league as SCARFACE, one of the best films ever made and one to which I've returned repeatedly over the years, but it's still an enjoyable thriller and well worth ninety minutes of your time.
John Lithgow, a prolific actor whom you'll recognise from television comedy sitcom 3RD ROCK FROM THE SUN and movies like FOOTLOOSE and THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP, plays no fewer than five roles in the film. He's pretty damn slick at it, too.
His main character is a respectable doctor called Carter Nix. He and his beautiful doctor wife, Jenny, and their cute little daughter Amy are the very model of American suburbia. Big fancy house with a garden, big fancy cars, big fancy jobs and the kid gets the best of everything. I'm soooo not jealous of their everything-having, honestly I'm not...!
Anyway, while Jenny works in a hospital seducing the husbands of her dying patients (you heard...!), Carter is taking some time away from his medical practice to play at being a house-husband and full-time dad. He's more interested in studying Amy, however, than merely playing with her or hanging out.
Jenny's a little disturbed, in fact, at the way he seems to treat the child more like the subject of a laboratory experiment than his own daughter. He seems to have some pretty fixed ideas about child development as well that his concerned missus doesn't necessarily share.
What gives, we wonder? Could his unnatural preoccupation with child-rearing have anything to do with his father, the Norwegian Dr. Nix Senior, an expert on the subject with decades of hands-on child development under his belt?
If that sounds sinister to you, well, it was meant to, haha. There's something extremely sinister going on underneath the facade of the Nix family's perfect life. And after years of suppression and cover-ups, it looks like things are finally about to come to the boil...
I can't tell you much more for fear of spoilers. There are some genuinely surprising twists in the film which I wouldn't want to ruin for you. I can, however, tell you that this is a fast-moving story about multiple personalities that contains distressing scenes and bizarre dream sequences that will have you on the edge of your seat till the credits roll. I mean that literally, too, because the shocks keep coming right to the very last frame.
The film will remind you very strongly of several other films you've seen and that you won't object to being reminded of. Primarily Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO, but also PEEPING TOM, VANILLA SKY and CAPE FEAR, among others. Four of my own personal favourite films, as it happens, what about you guys?
The similarities to PSYCHO interested me particularly, as it's been one of my favourite horror films since the beginning of time, and definitely the one which influenced me the most, as in I've been s**t-scared of stairs and shower-curtains ever since. Oh and, by the way, ever seen the sun rise on a swamp full of dirty secrets? No? You will in this film.
I love as well that there are actresses popping up all over the film that we'll recognise from other things. Gabrielle Carteris, who's the teenaged babysitter Nan here, also starred in the original BEVERLY HILLS 90210 from the 'Nineties. She wore glasses in it, so I think she played a nerd as opposed to a slut with fake tits and a revolving door where her lady-bits should've been, haha. God, those girls were easy...!
Mel Harris is in it too, with shorter hair than when she starred in sickly-sweet 'Eighties drama THIRTY-SOMETHING as, well, a thirty-something with kids and a husband and annoying friends in identical situations. My dad used to like that show. Had a catchy theme tune to it as well.
Anyway, Mel Harris is Sarah, Jenny's bestie in whom she confides that she still has the hots for the sexy just-back-in-town Jack Dante after all these years. The scene in which Jenny and Jack are kissing in the hospital ward while they're being watched by a dying woman just chilled my blood. Some people have no class...
Dear old character actress Frances Sternhagen is brilliant here as Dr. Lynn Waldheim. You'll recognise her from such fantastic Stephen King book-to-film adaptations as MISERY (1990) and Frank Darabont's THE MIST (2007). She's probably most famous for her role as postman Cliff Clavin's Mom in CHEERS from 1986-1993, but she's had a load of other film and television roles that you'll know her from as well.
I love that bit in MISERY when her elderly husband the Sheriff, whom you just know she's been hitched to since high school, says he'll put the name of the missing writer Paul Sheldon 'through their system' and then out comes the yellow Post-It note...! D'you remember that scene? They make such an adorable couple.
Anyway, RAISING CAIN is out now on Dual Format Edition courtesy of ARROW FILMS and FETCH ENTERTAINMENT. It comes complete with some terrific extra features, including interviews with actors John Lithgow, Steven Bauer, Tom Bower, Gregg Henry and the aforementioned Mel Harris.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA HARRIS.
Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, film blogger and movie reviewer. She has studied Creative Writing and Film-Making. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, womens' fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can browse or buy any of Sandra's books by following the link below straight to her Amazon Author Page:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO
You can contact Sandra at:
http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com
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