Rish's Reviews
John Lithgow plays child psychologist Carter Nix, who follows in the footsteps of his rather unorthodox father (a discredited psychologist who used his own son to prove his theories). When Lithgow's wife (the handsome Lolita Davidovich) does a little stepping out on their marriage, well, Lithgow's already addled mind takes a plunge into the split-personality end of the pool.
John Lithgow, nowadays, is known as a comic actor. But he isn't, apparently. The split personality stuff was very interesting, with each side appearing on-screen as another characters played by Lithgow. It had an intriguing plot, was VERY Hitchcock (I came close to giving it a Rips Off The Works of Alfred Hitchcock Skull...then went ahead and did it anyway), as it had several of the same themes, and freely stole from Psycho, and DePalma's own Dressed To Kill. This does have one of the few instances of a VICTIM who doesn't stay dead. For that it's noteworthy. And there was one super long scene that's only one take, something DePalma is renowned for. But it had a really bad ending, including a ludicrous slow-motion danger montage. I've said it before, the ending of a horror movie determines what attitude you're left with, and with Raising Cain, I was left feeling it was all kind of stupid.
This film was very low on the list of DePalma's Hitchcock-inspired movies. Only for the interesting performance of John Lithgow is it to be recommended, and even that can be seen in other films.
Best Scare: There was one great scare involving the TV channels. You'll recognize it if you see it.