We’ve all been there. You’re sitting with friends, talking about movies you love, and you mention a great flick, and everyone else groans. Then you feel like slime and question your own judgment. Well, I’m here to tell you — we’re not taking it anymore! Yes, there are horror films where I’m the only one in existence who loves them — and that’s okay. If everyone else in the world is too blind to see the unheralded genius of my favorite movies, then they’ll have to sleep at night knowing they’ll never experience the joy and bliss that I have had. But I feel it’s my God-given mission to at least spread the word of these films to those who may never have even given them a shot. There’s no need to thank me — it’s what I was put on this earth to do. So let’s get down to business, looking at some of the horror films that I love — even if no one else out there does.
Raising Cain (1992)
Okay, I’ll admit it — when I first saw this nasty/funny flick by Brian De Palma, starring John Lithgow in multiple roles and Lolita Davidovich as his unfaithful wife, I was not a fan. I found it derivative of his previous flicks, and just slightly odd. Upon watching it a second time, I realized that that’s the point — while it was advertised as a horror movie, it’s actually much more of a satire on De Palma himself, borrowing elements from previous films and bringing them to their ludicrous extremes. This is probably most obvious in a hilarious five-minute single unbroken tracking shot following Frances Sternhagen walking through a police station that, for no apparent reason, looks like a luxurious shopping mall. And yet, even on a thriller level, the film does work wonders, thanks to Davidovich putting in a whopper of a performance that actually has you generating considerable sympathy for an unpleasant character. On top of all that — you get Gabrielle Carteris — that’s right, gang, Andrea “I’m 30 playing 16” Zuckerman from the original 90210 - playing a slutty babysitter who spends too much time hanging out by public restrooms. This film is genius. Genius, I tells ya!
