Au coeur de la démence

"In The Mouth of Madness" is one of John Carpenter's better flicks. It features the usually bland Sam Neill in a surprisingly good and likable performance, and is packed with oodles of intriguing concepts and spiffy details. The music is good (it was cowritten by Carpenter) and the movie has a great look. There are also lots and lots of ginchy make-up effects, and while some are better than others (the kid who turns into an old man looks like a kid wearing a Spencer's Gifts Old Man mask and fright wig), but the sheer abundance of them make this unique.

Neill plays John Trent, a no-nonsense insurance investigator who loves his job and has disdain for most of humanity- but with a sense of humor. He's sent to find a missing mega-selling author Sutter Caine (Jurgen Prochnow, in a role that would have been kick-ass if played by Stephen King), whose books are a nation-wide craze. Trent ends up in Hobb's End, a town right out of Caine's books (literally) where the morbid tales of fiction are becoming reality.

The movie, although muddled in places, too repetitive (on purpose), and too reliant on flash forwards, has lots of things to say about the perception of reality and it interesting and entertaining.

The supporting cast is good: John Glover and David Warner are psychiatrists, a subdued Charleton Heston is a publisher, and Bernie "Revenge of the Nerds" Casey is Trent's boss, but the highlight is Frances Bay as the sweet Mrs. Pickman. She provides the film's high points and ends up looking like something from the director's "The Thing". The weak link in the cast is the leading lady, Julie Carmen, who delivers every line like she just chugged a case of Nyquil. In addition to her lousy acting, she's dressed in ugly outfits and has a kind of "in-your-face" ugliness. In one scene there is a special effects dummy head in place of Carmen's and the dummy head out-acts her.

This is not as great as "The Thing" but better than "They Live" as far as John Carpenter's paranoid, reality-bending flicks go, and is worth checking out.

I knew about this movie, and knew it was a movie heavily influenced by Lovecraft, but oddly enough I have never gotten around to watching it before now in 2023. Which is rather odd, given my fascination with Lovecraftian writing, horror movies and John Carpenter movies.

And boy, have I been missing out on a rather interesting and entertaining movie experience here. Writer Michael De Luca put together a very enjoyable and entertaining script, where the audience follows John Trent's (played by Sam Neill) descent into madness. And it is done in a very good way, where we as the audience feel like we are right there alongside him. And wow, this was indeed a very Lovecraftian themed movie.

There were lots of nice little details that were tributes and nods towards H. P. Lovecraft and his work throughout the movie, which was something I found very interesting and a nice touch for director John Carpenter to have in the movie.

The acting performances in "In the Mouth of Madness" were good, and Sam Neill really carried the movie quite well with his performance. But there are other familiar performers on the cast list as well, with the likes of Jürgen Prochnow, David Warner, John Glover, Bernie Casey, Peter Jason, Frances Bay, Wilhelm von Homburg and even Charlton Heston. So you are in capable hands here.

Visually then I found "In the Mouth of Madness" to be rather impressive. The movie starts out subtle and then John Carpenter gradually piles on the effects and reveals more and more of the monstrosities and otherworldly things that start to manifest and take form.

It was really a great mistake on my account that I never got around to watching "In the Mouth of Madness" before now in 2023. If you enjoy Lovecraftian-themed movies, then this is definitely a movie you don't want to miss out on.

My rating of "In the Mouth of Madness" lands on an eight out of ten stars.

This film is by far one of the best horror movies I've watched in a couple of months, and I watched a lot. This film succeeds in suspense and thrills, I actually jumped a couple of times. The plot was really good, there was an in-pending sense of doom.

The film moved along fast, and I wished it was a little longer, I didn't want it to end. Sam Neil is the most notable character, and I enjoy most of his work. The rest of the cast didn't have much to do. I loved the inclusion of monsters, even if they had a small part.

I think this film is severely underrated, and deserves a bigger fan base. Check this film out, it's worth your time and money.

Insurance investigator John Trent (Sam Neill) is hired by a publisher to find missing horror novelist Sutter Cane (Jurgen Prochnow) before his new novel is released. Following clues hidden in the covers of Cane's books, Trent and editor Linda Styles (Julie Carmen) drive to a small town in New England. There they discover that Cane has unleashed a powerful evil on the world and it may be too late to stop it.

Considered by many to be John Carpenter's last great movie. I'm hard-pressed to disagree with that. I think it's the last one that really feels like a Carpenter film. Fans of his will probably know what I mean. Here he crafts a number of creepy images and scary moments that are very effective. If you are a fan of his previous horror films, I think you will like this one. Sam Neill starts out a little rough but he gets better as the film progresses. His American accent is strained at times but it's never too distracting. Jurgen Prochnow is perfectly cast and brings a presence to the role of Sutter Cane that the movie depends upon. Julie Carmen is the weak link in the cast. Neither the way her part is written nor how she acts it is impressive. She has a colorless personality and I just couldn't care what happened to her. It reminds me somewhat of some of the odd performances in Prince of Darkness, which was also part of Carpenter's so-called Apocalypse Trilogy, along with this movie and The Thing. It's an entertaining movie, particularly for Carpenter fans. Not perfect and far from his best but very good nonetheless.

As someone who has read all of Lovecrafts books I can assure you that this movie has a strong Lovecraftian vibe to it. And even the title seems to be some sort of homage to Lovecrafts work, I presume (In the mouth of madness -> Innsmouth ?) Or maybe I'm just over-interpreting things. Who knows?

With that being said I really enjoyed the movie. It was refreshing and different. Sometimes the prospect of "not knowing what's real or not" is even scarier than straight up gore or monsters. After all the fear of the unknown is the ultimate essence of true horror. This movie had plenty of it so I can't complain.