In the Mouth of Madness

is a 1994 American supernatural horror film directed and scored by John Carpenter and written by Michael De Luca. It stars Sam Neill, Julie Carmen, Jürgen Prochnow, David Warner and Charlton Heston. Neill stars as John Trent, an insurance investigator who visits a small town while looking into the disappearance of a successful author of horror novels, and begins to question his sanity as the lines between reality and fiction seem to blur. Informally, the film is the third instalment in what Carpenter refers to as his "Apocalypse Trilogy", preceded by The Thing (1982) and Prince of Darkness (1987).[2]In the Mouth of Madness pays tribute to the works of author H. P. Lovecraft in its exploration of insanity, and its title is derived from the Lovecraft novella At the Mountains of Madness. Distributed by New Line Cinema, In the Mouth of Madness received mixed reviews upon release, but has since garnered a cult following.

`In The Mouth of Madness' is probably Carpenter's last great film, but it's definitely not an unqualified success: uneven and inconsistent, it is saved by some wonderfully atmospheric sections that make up for the weaker elements in the movie.Sam Neill is John Trent, a fraud investigator sent to investigate the disappearance of Stephen King-a-like Sutter Cane (Jurgen Prochnow), a man whose horror novels are having a disquieting effect on the psyche of the world. Tracking him down to a town that shouldn't exist, Trent is plunged into a maelstrom of evil from which there may just be no escape.First, the weaker points. The first half of the film is not fast-paced, but instead of a slow-burn build up of tension and menace, contains one or two fairly cheap shocks and hammy moments. The framing sequence with Neill in an asylum is probably the weakest part of the movie, hampered by Neill's inability to act convincingly insane or dangerous. He's much better as the urbane cynic he portrays for the bulk of the film, but even then I can't help feeling there must have been actors more suited to the role than him. In fact, the acting in general is not the film's strong point: Carpenter refers to this as the third part of an `Apocalypse' trilogy begat by `The Thing' and continued with `Prince of Darkness', but doesn't have access here to the compelling, intense cast of the former nor the endearing oddball players of the latter. Julie Carmen is fairly insipid as Neill's sidekick (though her character does get one of the best and most literally twisted scenes in the film) and Jurgen Prochnow is merely passable as the author who now does the bidding of Great Old Ones. (The exception is the always-wonderful David Warner, though he is rather underused, with a fairly minor part.)But... at round about the halfway mark, the film starts to turn into something special. In fact, the exact moment is pretty easy to pinpoint. It's when Neill encounters his landlady in her `real' form that the movie kicks into high gear and really starts to become disturbing (in the best possible way.) Indeed, the sequence in which Neill flees the hotel while blasphemous abominations start to emerge is irresistibly reminiscent of what for me remains the most terrifying moment in Fulci's equally Lovecraftian `The Beyond': Lisa's flight from her own hotel and the appearance of shambling shadows at each of the windows. Neill's frantic and futile attempts to escape the fictitious town in which he is trapped becomes the stuff of explicitly Cthulhoid nightmare, culminating eventually in a sequence in which Neill is pursued by ungodly horrors (is that Shub-Niggurath?) just as unpleasant as any of the Thing's manifestations. And given that I regard `The Thing' as one of the greatest horror films of all time, that's high praise indeed.The DVD itself is strong: the picture looks great and there's a Carpenter commentary, though maybe not his most enthralling. Overall though, this is definite must-have, despite its faults, though probably not the best starting point for a Carpenter virgin: it strikes me as very much a film for the Carpenter fan.(And on a random note, I can't help but feel that video game `Condemned 2' owes this film rather a lot.)

Another Carpenter classic that I think is criminally overlooked, if you love cosmic horror this film is one of the best.

The always-trustworthy John Carpenter brings us his version of H P Lovecraft's cosmic horror with a few name and setting changes. Not the scariest of films but the fundamental conceit, that of a secretive author engineering the arrival of strange, alien horrors into the world through books is a strong one and serves as backbone for one of my favourite films.

Felt like an assembly of bits other films. Good news is that those are great films. Has some effective scenes & was genuinely unnerving at times.

Deliberately disjointed and thoroughly strange, Sam Neil’s descent into madness in this lovecraftian horror film is a joy. A hidden gem of John Carpenter’s film catalogue that will keep you intrigued then hooked from start to finish.Do you read Sutter Cane?

All month I have been reviewing John Carpenter movies on another profile. I eventually got to In the Mouth of Madness and as I had never seen it before I thought, I need to get this one. It sounded interesting and the trailer was good. I was expecting a balls-to-the-wall grim horror, but this movie has some fascinating moments, sharp jagged editing and some real laugh-out-loud jokes and scenes that I'm sure at the time were shocking. I loved the story and how bonkers this film is. I went to watch Dr Strange and the Multiverse of Madness a couple of days before and this movie was also edited like crazy with similar things happening. It is worth a watch, get some popcorn in and enjoy!

I’m a big fan of John Carpenter and this is a worthy part of his back catalogue. I saw this when I was younger and remember being a little disappointed with it. I suppose when you have such absolute classics as The Thing, The Fog, They Live and Halloween it’s easy to see this as a poor relative. However, after ordering the upcoming remasters of The Fog and Prince of Darkness I felt this needed a revisit. I really enjoyed it. Perhaps it’s because I’m older and can appreciate Sam Neil’s performance a lot more, together with the heavy references to Lovecraft and chambers. The whole idea of a novel that, by the very reading of it, shows the reality behind our world and the subsequent madness, works well. Yes, it’s beginning to look a little dated but that really didn’t bother me. Yet, its not as good as other movies I’ve mentioned and perhaps that’s because Carpenter directs only - though this was the case with The Thing, Lancaster’s script was phenomenal. Overall, if you are a Carpenter or cult horror fan, In the Mouth of Madness is definitely worth a visit.