A director's fan-made edit rescued this psychological thriller from its own incoherent theatrical release
In short: Brian De Palma's 1992 thriller Raising Cain was criticized for being a confusing, illogical mess. Yet, decades later, a fan-made edit impressed the director so much that he officially released it as the definitive version, finally restoring the story he originally intended to tell on the big screen.
Raising Cain follows Dr. Carter Nix, a child psychologist suffering from multiple personality disorder. His alternate personas—a violent criminal named Cain, a child named Josh, and a protective nanny named Margo—commit murders to secure subjects for unethical experiments. The plot reveals that Carter’s own father, Nix Sr., subjected him to severe abuse as a child to study the development of these personalities. While the film was a modest financial success, grossing $37.1 million worldwide, critics were largely baffled by its narrative inconsistencies.
Upon its 1992 release, reviewers like Dave Kehr of the Chicago Tribune labeled it one of the most incoherent films in memory, while Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times called it a preposterous stew. Brian De Palma, who had not directed a thriller since 1984's Body Double, had conceived the project while living in Woodside, California, during his wife's pregnancy. He aimed for a simple, local production, but the resulting theatrical cut left the director with lingering regrets about the film's structure.
The film's redemption arrived in 2012 when Peet Gelderblom, a Dutch filmmaker and fan, posted a re-edited version online that rearranged scenes to match the original script. De Palma discovered the edit, found it impressive, and commissioned Gelderblom to supervise a high-definition version for a 2016 Blu-ray release. This director's cut, which De Palma claims restored the true story, stands as a rare example of a fan-led intervention fundamentally altering the legacy of a major motion picture.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Raising Cain
- Also: Wikidata — Raising Cain · CC0
- Also: Wikidata — Raising Cain · CC0
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