In the Mouth of Madness

[polymorphikos]

At The Mouth of Madness (1995)

Directed by John Carpenter,

Starring Sam Neill, Jurgen Procznow, Charleton Heston.
In the Mouth of Madness does something improbable. It takes heavy inspiration from the works of both Lovecraft and King, and yet is actually enjoyable to watch.

The story is simple, revolving around an insurance investigator named John Trent (Sam Neill) who is sent to locate horror-writer Sutter Cane (Jurgen Procznow) after the author vanishes before completing his final book. This is problematic not only for Cane's publishers, Arcane, but for the world at large, for Sutter Cane's books have sold billions of copies in over eighty languages, and if people don't get their next fix soon, there'll be trouble.

And so Trent sets-off with his hot-yet-lacklustre assistant, Styles, to locate the metafictional town of Hobb's End, a place that has featured prominently in Cane's books, but less so in reality, and en route and therein an awful lot of very strange things transpire.

Madness succeeds as a film, even as an above-average one, not because of its horror elements (which are occasionally excellent, but sometimes fall flat), than because it is a work of metafiction within fiction, and takes advantage of all the tropes of the horror genre to create both genuinely-humourous and frighteningly-original little touches. There are numerous references for fans of Horror, especially to the works of Lovecraft (especially a nice little nod to the climax of the story which inspired this film's title), and even an (admitedly less than fully-developed) comentary on media obsession.

Carpenter's direction is less than stunning in places (I watched Big Trouble in Little China before this and so noted this especially), but it works well in context. Some of his shots are bungled , and he overplays his hand at times. A scene involving an axe-weilding loon early in the piece is a good exaple of cutting too-often and showing too much, but is still memorable none the less. Styles is very woodenly-played, but when you take the film as a whole it seems to be a conscious and effective decision. A little bit of what was either a good joke or a bad scare lends itself to this, later-on. Sam Neill is excellent as Trent, and owns the role entirely.

Over-all, this is a cut above the usual tripe, and reasonably-witty and intelligent. It's not quite "up there", but it works, and works well. As Trent says of one of Cane's books, it's just pulp horror, pretty simple and generic, but something about it hooks you, and in the end you find yourself mesmerised.

I liked it.

[Circus Cranium]

But....


Do YOU read Sutter Kane???????

[Foxbat]

I agree with the sentiments of your review. The criticisms that you make (I think) are valid. Nevertheless, it does have some kind of mesmeric quality to it as a whole. So, definitely a flawed but still enjoyable movie.

[knivesout]

Yep, this is pulp horror at its best - occasionally ham-handed, but never so cheesy as to break the mood. I've seen this movie several times, and enjoyed it a lot.

[Maxwell Jennison]

When I was in middle school, my friend Ryan insisted that we go rent this movie (at that point, I had never heard of it). I wouldn't have done it had he not started beating me with a wiffle bat (hollow plastic baseball bat, for those unaware) to convince me that the movie was worth the watch.

Now, 8 years later, I'm still glad that he did that because I love this film.

(True story)

[Foxbat]

Extreme measures but, if it got you watching, who am I to criticise?
You have a true friend there

[ThulsaDoom]

I'm a big John Carpenter fan, and I think ITMOM is one of his best. (After The Thing, and They Live) It's got some of his best direction, and a really tangible sense of atmosphere to it. Sometimes I've read reviews where people were critical of the monsters, but as was basically said above, these are supposed to be somewhat stereotypical 'horror' creatures. The book, and its effects on reality are the real horror of the story. It's definitely more of a 'psychological' horror than people often realise.

Recently, I've been seeing some similarity to Sutter Kane in JK Rowling... (The excessive growing madness surrounding every books release!) I wonder what will happen when book seven comes out?? No doubt thousands of kids will run around beating up people with their wands and brooms, and madly ask... "Do YOU read JK Rowling???!!" ;-)