Body Double & Raising Cain

Brian De Palma’s BODY DOUBLE (R, 1984, 114 min)  

A struggling actor (Craig Wasson) suffering from claustrophobia takes a job housesitting in a high-tech Hollywood Hills mansion, where he discovers he can watch a beautiful neighbor perform a nightly routine through a telescope. His voyeurism leads him into a seedy underworld of murder, pornography, and obsession that echoes the best of Hitchcock. Featuring a standout role for Melanie Griffith as adult film star Holly Body and a pulsating synth score, the film is a stylish, slick, and provocative thriller. It is a visual masterwork that celebrates the “cinematic wonder” of voyeurism while delivering a twisty, high-stakes mystery. 

Viewer’s Guide: Graphic violence, sexual content, voyeurism, and adult language. 

Followed by: 

Brian De Palma’s RAISING CAIN (R, 1992, 91 min) 

John Lithgow delivers a virtuoso performance—or rather, several performances—as Dr. Carter Nix, a child psychologist who suffers from multiple personality disorder. When Nix begins kidnapping children for his father’s sinister psychological experiments, the film descends into a surreal, dreamlike puzzle of shifting identities and fragmented memories. De Palma utilizes every trick in the book—from complex long takes to operatic suspense sequences—to build a dizzying psychological thriller that pays homage to Psycho. It is a wild, campy, and inventive romp through the fractured mind of a man who isn’t just losing his grip on reality—he’s redefining it.