Raising Cain (1992)
Directed by Brian De Palma
Child psychologist Carter Nix is a loving and caring family man, but under this appearance lies a dark and troubled past. Grappling with the consequences of this past on his own psyche and the influence of his returning father and violent brother Cain, Carter becomes involved in a series of murders and kidnappings. Meanwhile, his wife Jenny rekindles an old love affair, placing herself in the crosshairs of her increasingly unstable husband.
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What critics compared Raising Cain to
Some people favorably note the work he did in the 1970s through the early '90s?1976's "Carrie," 1981's " Blow Out ," 1984's "Body Double," 1992's "Raising Cain"?as the modern-day equivalent of Hitchcock.
In fact, the new version makes the picture seem even more like an off-center carbon copy of De Palma's superb 1980 hit Dressed to Kill, coming off as hokey and jokey rather than clever and suspenseful.
1992: At this time in my life, the name Brian De Palma didn’t kick up any specific ticket buying excitement, though I was well aware of his work, having previously enjoyed “Casualties of War” and “The Untouchables,” while forbidden peeks at “Dressed to Kill” and “Body Double” certainly raised my spirits as a young kid.
If 1980's " Dressed to Kill ," 1981's " Blow Out ," and 1984's "Body Double" earned auteur Brian De Palma the moniker of being Hitchcockian in his form, his thrillers have not been merely a derivate aping of the original Master of Suspense.
It’s a diversion, of story and protagonist, similar to the one De Palma pulls with Angie Dickinson in Dressed to Kill (and that Hitchcock does with Janet Leigh in Psycho, the clear inspiration for both films).
Let’s just say that Brian DePalma’s last nod to Hitchcock was Raising Cain, where he had John Lithgow playing five different characters, including a woman.
But with De Palma serving as his own screenwriter for the first time since 1992's "Raising Cain," "Femme Fatale" presents a consummate film tradesman applying his big bag of tricks in service of an infantile story.
De Palma's last attempt at a Hitchcockian thriller, Raising Cain, was an unintentionally funny mish-mash of Hitch by way of Michael Powell's Peeping Tom.