Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.5

Raising Cain Blu-ray Movie Review

Multiple Version Disorder.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 17, 2016

Note: Certain elements of Raising Cain's plot need to be discussed overtly in order for any summary of the film's contents to make sense. Those who have already seen at least the original theatrical cut of the film won't find anything even remotely "spoiler"-ish below, but for those who haven't yet seen the film, it's probably best to skip down to the technical portions of the review, below.

When is a so-called Director’s Cut of a film not a Director’s Cut? Maybe when someone other than the actual director assembled it, which is more or less what’s going on with the non-theatrical version of Raising Cain included on this new two disc release from Shout! Factory’s Scream Factory imprint. Brian De Palma has often been labeled the “second coming” of Hitchcock, at least by some of De Palma’s more vocal fans, but in this case the legendary if divisive director was second guessing, so to speak, having never been satisfied with the way he reorganized his original intentions for the film after some less than felicitous early screenings and perhaps too much time spent pondering how to best find an entré into a story that dallies in marital infidelity, “Skinner box” like behavior modification, and (just for good measure) multiple personality disorder. The original theatrical cut of Raising Cain presents a more or less chronological exposition (albeit with some flashback material) documenting the roiling psychological waters of one Carter Nix (John Lithgow), a highly respected child psychologist who is nonetheless harboring a few big secrets, including the fact that he’s a serial killer and a “host” for several other personalities, one of whom is the titular Cain. Playing out against this lunatic element are at least two other simultaneous arcs, one including Carter’s straying wife Jenny (Lolita Davidovich), who is resparking a romance with former paramour Jack Dante (Steven Bauer), and a disturbing saga involving children (including Carter’s own) who have been appropriated for a kind of ongoing experiment. It’s just completely over the top stuff, and has therefore been even more hotly debated among De Palma followers than some of the writer-director’s other hotly debated films. But De Palma continued to voice his own concerns over at least the structure if not the actual content of Raising Cain, which is when a fan named Peet Gelderblom got involved. Finding an early draft of the screenplay (entitled Father’s Day), Gelderblom took it upon himself to reorder the film’s scenes in the way that version indicated, and, voila, a so- called “Director’s Cut” was born. Some curmudgeons may already be building up steam insisting that this is an awfully loose interpretation of what a director’s cut is supposed to be, but it should be stated that De Palma himself saw Gelderblom’s early assemblage of the material and approved of it, and (according to one of the supplements on this new release) actually lobbied Shout! to offer this version in high definition, so it supposedly has De Palma’s imprimatur, for what that’s worth. Watching these two versions back to back is a really interesting exercise in how restructuring a narrative leads to vastly different reactions to characters and story developments. Raising Cain may still be hotly debated, by both De Palma aficionados and indeed detractors, but for those who delight in the “nuts and bolts” aspects of filmmaking, this new release is really fascinating.

The theatrical cut of Raising Cain is more direct and quick in detailing the fractured state of Carter’s mind, which is perhaps one reason why De Palma kept thinking he could do “better”. In the Director’s Cut, the film actually spends a good while focusing on Jenny rather than Carter, in a gambit that might remind some of, well, Hitchcock’s emphasis on Marion Crane in Psycho before that nasty Norman Bates showed up with his multiple personality disorder. (There's an outright reference to Psycho with regard to the fate of a body in a car that indicates the iconic film may well have been on De Palma's mind, one way or the other.) The Director’s Cut therefore indulges in a bit of mis-direction as it were, and in a way that gives the “reveal” about Carter’s unraveling personality more force.

That said, one of the more (intentionally?) disconcerting moments in both versions is the sequence where Carter dispatches with his first victim. In the theatrical version, it happens more or less right off the bat, while the Director’s Cut delays it for a rather notable length of time, but in neither case is there any background context offered to help the viewer understand why Carter is engaging in this behavior. That’s a time honored horror- thriller trope, of course, but seeing these two different versions deal with the same basic content made me start to realize, perhaps for the first time since I first saw the “original” Raising Cain years and years ago, that the “fault” in the film is not necessarily how it’s put together, but the actual writing (it’s a De Palma screenplay). There are so many competing angles here that no matter how the film unspools the story, there’s no “convenient” way to get to all the relevant information without some segueing time frames and even some perspective shifts.

On the flip side, one of the things seeing these contrasting versions next to each other makes abundantly clear is that De Palma is intentionally toying with the audience at several key junctures, no matter where those might show up in how the film is structured. There’s also an almost Pirandello-esque “meta” aspect to Lithgow’s character (characters?) in particular, with the actor coming awfully close to breaking the fourth wall at times. There’s an especially notable moment in this regard during one of the interview sequences with Dr. Waldheim (Frances Sternhagen), the psychiatrist appointed to get to the bottom of Carter’s multiple personality disorder, where the camera is shooting over Lithgow’s shoulder toward Sternhagen, and Lithgow suddenly turns around facing the camera as if to winkingly ask the audience, “Do you see what’s going on here?” (It’s fascinating to compare the treatment of Carter’s various personalities in this film with that offered in what was one of the first big screen treatments of this syndrome, The Three Faces of Eve.) Even for those who aren’t overly fond of De Palma, or even for those who generally love De Palma but who aren’t overly fond of Raising Cain, it’s Lithgow’s performance (again—performances?) that make the film arresting and, yes, probably campy fun.

Raising Cain Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Raising Cain is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Scream Factory, an imprint of Shout! Factory, with AVC encoded 1080p transfers in 1.85:1 for both versions (for the record, screenshots 1-10 come from the theatrical version, and screenshots 11-19 come from the Director's Cut). There's really no discernable difference in video quality between the two versions, and in fact various minor anomalies like chunky yellowish grain that shows up in various scenes are more or less identical between the two versions despite being placed in manifestly different moments. The overall look of both transfers is very good, though there are some variances in clarity and grain structure. While the palette throughout the film isn't especially vivid, things look natural aside from a couple of intentionally graded (and/or lit) scenes, like the garish yellow tones that overlay the final showdown scene. Fine detail is quite good in several extreme close-ups. A couple of sequences that have multiple optical dissolves (like a love making montage featuring Jenny and Jack) show the expected uptick in grain. On a couple of occasions, there are fairly large drop offs in sharpness levels (contrast screenshot 8 with several others included in this review), something that is consistent across both version no matter where these occasions show up in the overall structure. De Palma and cinematographer Stephen H. Burum often prefer a slightly gauzy look throughout this film, something that adds a hazy softness to several shots. A few relatively minor compression issues intrude but are nothing I would term overly problematic.

Raising Cain Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Both versions of Raising Cain feature DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and 5.1 options. This is a fairly talky horror-thriller enterprise, and so only has a few startle effects to offer, with a lot of the best surround activity coming from the nice Pino Donaggio score. Ambient environmental effects creep through discrete channels and some are quite effective. Dialogue is very cleanly rendered and well prioritized.

Raising Cain Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disc One

• Theatrical Version (1080p; 1:31:31)


• Not One to Hold a Grudge: An Interview with John Lithgow (1080p; 30:00) is a nicely done piece that finds Lithgow garrulously recalling his contributions to the film (and others he made with De Palma).


• The Man in My Life: An Interview with Steven Bauer (1080p; 24:00) is another rather in depth interview with Bauer, who speaks to the Hitchcock connection among other things.


• Have You Talked to the Others?: An Interview with Paul Hirsch (1080p; 10:49) is an interesting interview with the editor, who calls himself a "film fixer".


• Three Faces of Henry: An Interview with Gregg Henry (1080p; 15:47) focuses on the supporting player, who recounts some fun anecdotes about his adventures with De Palma.


• The Cat's in the Bag: An Interview with Tom Bower (1080p; 8:00) profiles another of the film's cops.


• A Little Too Late for That: An Interview with Mel Harris (1080p; 8:43) finds Harris discussing her transition from Thirtysomething.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:05)


• Still Gallery (1080p; 2:09)

Disc Two

• Director's Cut (1080p; 1:31:58)


• Changing Cain: Brian De Palma's Cult Classic Restored (1080p; 2:25) is a brief profile of Peet Gelderblom, but I personally would have liked more actual information on how this new cut was assembled, e.g., what source elements were used, how was the soundtrack manipulated and/or conformed to this new version, etc.?


• Raising Cain Re-cut: A Video Essay (480i; 13:02) features Gelderblom taking a spoiler filled tour of the differences between the two versions.

Raising Cain Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I hadn't seen Raising Cain in years and had never before seen the new Director's Cut version, and revisiting the film in its original form as well as introducing myself to it in its supposedly "new, improved" version only helped to solidify my feelings that the film's deficits are in the writing department, not necessarily in how it's structured. There is simply too much going on in Raising Cain for De Palma to be an effective "traffic cop", one way or the other. The serial killer aspect is great and Carson's multiple personality disorder adds a fascinating element, but once you add in the dallying wife, child abductions, behavior modification and not one but two creepily accented elders, things just tip over into unadulterated silliness at times. There are still some great moments here, but this release is perhaps more interesting as a case study in editing and story structure than as an actual completed film (in either version). Scream has gone above and beyond by offering both versions, and as usual has also assembled a really interesting supplemental package. Recommended.