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 Devil’s Advocates

Devil’s Advocates
Devil’s Advocates
In the Mouth of Madness In the Mouth
Michael Blyth

DEVIL’S ADVOCATES is a series devoted to exploring the classics of horror

of Madness
cinema. Contributors to Devil’s Advocates come from the worlds of teaching, Michael Blyth
academia, journalism and fiction, but all have one thing in common: a passion for the
horror film and for sharing that passion.

Somewhat overlooked upon its initial release in 1995, John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness
has since developed a healthy cult reputation. But far more than simply a fan-favourite, this
closing instalment of the acclaimed director’s self-described ‘apocalypse trilogy’ (following The
Thing [1982] and Prince of Darkness [1987]) stands today as one of his most thematically
elaborate and stylistically audacious pieces of work.

In the Mouth of Madness

The story of an insurance investigator drawn into the supposedly fictional universe of a best-
selling horror novelist, In the Mouth of Madness is an extension of many recurring themes
found in Carpenter’s filmography – the end of the world, the loss of free will, a distrust of mass
industry and global corporations, the cataclysmic resurgence of ancient evil – as well as an
affectionate homage to the works of H.P. Lovecraft (and horror literature more broadly) and a
self-reflexive celebration of the horror genre which predates the Scream-inspired postmodernist
boom of late 1990s genre cinema. Whilst numerous books and essays have been written about
Carpenter’s work, surprisingly little has focused exclusively on In the Mouth of Madness, a film
which today feels more prescient, more essential and more daringly complex than ever. Michael
Blyth’s Devil’s Advocate seeks to redress this imbalance, at last positioning this underappreciated
masterpiece as essential Carpenter.

Michael Blyth is a film programmer for the BFI London Film Festival and BFI Flare: London
LGBTQ+ Film Festival. This is his first book.

Michael Blyth

Auteur Publishing
www.auteur.co.uk
DevilsAdvocatesbooks
DevilsAdBooks

ISBN: 978-1-911325-40-6

Cover photograph: © New Line Cinema

Devil’s Advocates

DEVIL’S ADVOCATES is a series of books devoted to exploring the classics of

horror cinema. Contributors to the series come from the fields of teaching, academia,
journalism and fiction, but all have one thing in common: a passion for the horror film
and a desire to share it with the widest possible audience.

‘The admirable Devil’s Advocates series is not only essential – and fun – reading for
the serious horror fan but should be set texts on any genre course.’
Dr Ian Hunter, Professor of Film Studies, De Montfort University, Leicester

‘Auteur Publishing’s new Devil’s Advocates critiques on individual titles... offer bracingly
fresh perspectives from passionate writers. The series will perfectly complement the
BFI archive volumes.’ Christopher Fowler, Independent on Sunday

‘Devil’s Advocates has proven itself more than capable of producing impassioned,
intelligent analyses of genre cinema... quickly becoming the go-to guys for intelligent,
easily digestible film criticism.’ Horror Talk.com

‘Auteur Publishing continue the good work of giving serious critical attention to
significant horror films.’ Black Static

DevilsAdvocatesbooks

DevilsAdBooks
Also available in this series Forthcoming
Antichrist Amy Simmonds Daughters of Darkness Kat Ellinger
Black Sunday Martyn Conterio The Devils Darren Arnold
The Blair Witch Project Peter Turner House of Usher Evert van Leeuwen
Candyman Jon Towlson The Fly Emma Westwood
Cannibal Holocaust Calum Waddell It Follows Joshua Grimm
Carrie Neil Mitchell Psychomania I.Q. Hunter & Jamie Sherry
The Company of Wolves James Gracey Scream Steven West
The Curse of Frankenstein Marcus K. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
Harmes Lindsay Hallam
Dead of Night Jez Conolly & David Bates
The Descent James Marriot
Don’t Look Now Jessica Gildersleeve
Frenzy Ian Cooper
Halloween Murray Leeder
Ju-on The Grudge Marisa Hayes
Let the Right One In Anne Billson
Macbeth Rebekah Owens
Nosferatu Cristina Massaccesi
Saw Benjamin Poole
The Shining Laura Mee
The Silence of the Lambs Barry Forshaw
Suspiria Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre James Rose
The Thing Jez Conolly
Witchfinder General Ian Cooper
 Devil’s Advocates

In the Mouth of Madness

Michael Blyth
Acknowledgments
Firstly, I would like to thank John Atkinson at Auteur for his generous support and undying patience
– and for saying yes to this thing in the first place. I would also like to express my gratitude to
Duncan Carson and Daniel Cockburn, for sharing both their precious time and their infinite
wisdom with me.

But mostly, I would like to thank David Edgar, who never, ever imagined he would spend so much
time talking about this film. I couldn’t have done it without you, David – thank you for being the
smartest person I know.

First published in 2018 by

Auteur, 24 Hartwell Crescent, Leighton Buzzard LU7 1NP
www.auteur.co.uk
Copyright © Auteur 2018

Series design: Nikki Hamlett at Cassels Design

Set by Cassels Design www.casselsdesign.co.uk
Printed and bound in Great Britain

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying
or storing in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use
of this publication) without the permission of the copyright owner.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN paperback: 978-1-911325-40-6

ISBN ebook: 978-1-911325-41-3
Contents
Introduction: ‘Maybe He’s Too Sophisticated For You?’.......................................................................... 7

Chapter 1: ‘It’s Just a Matter of Time’.............................................................................................................13

Chapter 2: ‘Do You Like My Ending?’..............................................................................................................19

Chapter 3: ‘All Those Horrible, Slimy Things’.............................................................................................35

Chapter 4: ‘You Can Forget About Stephen King’..................................................................................53

Chapter 5: ‘The New Bible’.................................................................................................................................67

Chapter 6: ‘Isn’t He the Guy Who Writes that Horror Crap?’.......................................................77

Chapter 7: ‘This One Will Drive You Absolutely Mad’.........................................................................91

Conclusion: ‘This is a Rotten Way to End It’...........................................................................................105

Bibliography...............................................................................................................................................................107
 In the Mouth of Madness
Introduction: ‘Maybe he’s too
sophisticated for you?’
John Carpenter has always been a little ahead of his time. It seems an odd thing to say
about a filmmaker whose work so often looks to the past for inspiration, be that in his
frequent homages to old-school Hollywood Westerns, or affectionate nods to the tinfoil
kitsch of vintage science fiction B-movies. But it is not so much the films themselves that
boast prophetic qualities, rather the fact that it seems to take everyone else a bit of time
to catch up with his vision. Of course, I am referring to the often genre-phobic critical
establishment who time and time again tore into Carpenter’s films upon their initial
release, only to turn around years later and herald them as bona fide celluloid classics. A
case in point is Vincent Canby’s scathing review of The Thing (1982), originally published
in the New York Times. Canby vented:

The Thing is a foolish, depressing, overproduced movie that mixes horror with science
fiction to make something that is fun as neither one thing or the other. Sometimes it
looks as if it aspired to be the quintessential moron movie of the 80’s. (Canby, 1982)

It is hard to fathom that Canby’s opinion was representative of an overwhelmingly

negative critical consensus toward The Thing at the time, but then critics do have a
habit of backtracking – particularly when it comes to recognising the cultural value of
popular horror cinema. Today the film is regarded a classic – and not just a cult classic,
but a genre institution that demonstrates the artistic and intellectual capacities of sci-fi
and horror. Not only is it a regular fixture in lists of the ‘greatest sci-fi movies’ or ‘most
terrifying pictures ever made’, but also the continued topic of academic and literary
study. Rather impressive for a ‘quintessential moron movie’.

Now widely regarded as the defining text in the slasher sub-genre, even Carpenter’s
game-changing Halloween (1978) was met with suspicion amongst horror-shy critics
when it first emerged. For every review that gave praise to Carpenter’s technical skill
and handling of suspense, another would label it an innocuous slice of horror trash,
worthy only of derision. Pauline Kael at the New Yorker fell regrettably into the latter
camp, lamenting the film’s ‘pitiful, amateurish script’ (Kael, 1979), before ultimately labelling

7
Devil’s Advocates
it a mindless exercise in repetition, ‘stripped of everything but dumb scariness’ (ibid.).

Meanwhile, fan-favourite Prince of Darkness (1987), a film about which critical opinion
has changed markedly over the years (and continues to do so with increasing rapidity),
was met with similar hostility when it debuted almost a decade after the release of
Halloween. In a particularly snooty Washington Post review, Richard Harrington said
simply ‘The [sic] Prince of Darkness stinks’ (Harrington, 1987), and, poking fun at the evil
green goo at the film’s centre, argued that ‘it too deserves to be shut up in a canister for 7
million years’ (ibid.).

The list of bad reviews for Carpenter films now deemed as classics could go on (and
on), but it was by no means just the critics who gave him a needlessly hard time;
audiences too seemed reticent to embrace his creations. Rather surprisingly, many of his
most beloved films – Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), The Fog (1980), Christine (1983) and
Big Trouble in Little China (1986) among them – failed to attract cinema-goers, initially
proving to be financial flops, which took a toll on Carpenter’s perceived commercial
credibility.

Still, there is no use in dwelling on the past, and while much of Carpenter’s work may
not have opened to rave reviews or round the block queues, time has largely redressed
the balance and ensured that many of his once overlooked masterworks are now
rightfully regarded as such. But while Carpenter’s films have a history of taking time
to warm up, there is one particular outing that is yet to receive the full recognition it
deserves: In the Mouth of Madness.

When the film opened in 1995 it received a response sadly all too familiar for
Carpenter: one of general indifference. In a largely lacklustre review, Roger Ebert said
‘One wonders how In the Mouth of Madness might have turned out if the script had
contained even a little more wit and ambition’ (Ebert, 1995). Flagrantly disregarding the
film’s conceptual scope and narrative complexities, Ebert’s review was representative of
a frustratingly predictable critical refusal to engage with the film on an intellectual level
– much like Pauline Kael, he seemed closed off to the idea that a horror movie could
offer something smart, something other than ‘dumb’ scares. While In the Mouth of
Madness has collected its fair share of admirers along the way, it has not received
anywhere near the critical and academic reassessment afforded to other Carpenter

8
 In the Mouth of Madness
classics, and

classics, and therein lies the reason for this book – to reappraise and reclaim a film still
undervalued by horror fans and critics alike, and rightly position it as one of John
Carpenter’s most accomplished and compelling pieces of work.

In their book on the director, Colin Odell and Michelle LeBlanc offered a hopeful
thought, arguing that, ‘Of all the genres, horror is the swiftest in reacting to new trends, as
well as plundering its rich heritage, so there’s a possibility that In the Mouth of Madness’
complexity may well be re-evaluated’ (Le Blanc and Odell, 2011: 25).

Well, let’s give it a try.

I intend to begin proceedings by giving some context as to the cinematic horror

landscape at the time In the Mouth of Madness was first released (arguably one of
the biggest lulls that the genre has ever seen), possibly explaining why the film was
so unfairly neglected in 1995. As the passing of time continues to uncover the many
nuances of Carpenter’s film, not to mention establish it as a formative text in the
evolution of the postmodernism boom in contemporary horror cinema at the turn of
the century, it could be argued that the film was the unfortunate victim of an era that
just did not care for horror, and its lack of initial success simply a matter of bad timing.

Next, I will place the film specifically within the context of Carpenter’s wider
filmography, exploring not only how it incorporates and builds on many of the ideas that

9
Devil’s Advocates
he has explored throughout his career, but also the ways in which it differs and stands
apart from his other works. In the Mouth of Madness marks the climax of the director’s
self-named ‘Apocalypse Trilogy’, preceded by The Thing and Prince of Darkness, whilst it
also speaks to his wider eschatological preoccupations, as well recurring Carpenterian
themes around the loss of free will, a paranoid distrust of mass industry and global
corporations, and the cataclysmic resurgence of an ancient evil. But while the themes
of the film are classic Carpenter, artistically it represents a departure from some of his
most recognisable stylistic trademarks, namely his editing, camerawork and use of music.

From there I will go on to discuss how In the Mouth of Madness serves as a direct
tribute to the writings of H.P. Lovecraft, examining how his influence shapes the
narrative structure and conceptual ideologies of the film. Comparing it to other
cinematic adaptations of Lovecraft’s work, I will argue that Carpenter’s film displays
a rare understanding of Lovecraftian ideologies, offering up a rich cinematic
conceptualisation of his distinct brand of cosmic horror, despite not being based on
any one specific Lovecraft text. Throughout this chapter I intend to not only examine
the different ways Carpenter makes explicit reference to numerous Lovecraft works,
but suggest why the scribe’s writing style has proved so problematic for filmmakers
to translate to the screen, and how Carpenter tackles this problem in a number of
imaginative and intelligent ways.

More than just a tribute to Lovecraft, In the Mouth of Madness is also heavily indebted
to the work of Stephen King, and in Chapter 4 I will look at the ways King’s fiction, and
his own celebrity persona, informs Carpenter’s film. I will position the film within the
broader context of the gothic literary tradition, before exploring the ways in which it
subverts the traditional idea of the literary adaptation, not just in terms of narrative, but
also in the many visual tricks it employs to represent the written word on screen.

Then I will explore religion as a common motif employed throughout the film. As
with many Western horror films, Christianity serves as a theological foundation, but
Carpenter’s film also draws interesting parallels with the Church of Scientology. I intend
to explore the ways in which the character of novelist Sutter Cane represents an L.
Ron Hubbard-like figure; a writer of science-fiction whose work has taken on religious
significance among devoted followers.

10
 In the Mouth of Madness
Next, I will discuss the various modes of self-reflexivity evident in the film, and how they
are used to create meaning and subvert audience expectations. In the Mouth of Madness
is not only a tribute to Lovecraft and an homage to King, it is also a film in which
Carpenter references and critiques his own body of work and his position as purveyor
of the horrific and macabre. By blurring the lines between fantasy and reality, and in turn,
the lines between sanity and madness, In the Mouth of Madness becomes a film about
the very nature of horror and highlights the ways in which the genre is perhaps the
most consistently reflexive of all cinematic forms.

Lastly, I plan to explore the film’s ontological concerns by focusing on its radical (and
unnerving) aesthetic and philosophical disorientations: the non-linear presentation of
time, cyclical narratives and visual repetition, and the fundamental distrust of perception
(seeing as believing and seeing as deception).

11
 In the Mouth of Madness
Chapter 1: ‘It’s just a matter of
time’
When considering the critical and commercial responses to In the Mouth of Madness
when it was released in 1995, it is important first and foremost to look at the cinematic
climate of the time, and ask if the state of the horror genre was in some ways indicative
of (and responsible for) the lacklustre response with which it was initially met.

It is often acknowledged among horror fans that the early 1990s was not the strongest
period in the genre’s history. In fact, it has been argued that the first half of the decade
represented one of the most significant lulls that US horror cinema has been witness
to, with the volume of film production, box office takings and overall audience interest
hitting an all-time low. Of course, such lulls can only ever really come after a boom, and
the previous decade had been a highly prolific and profitable time for the genre. But
while the 1980s were littered with innovative horror classics, it is also recognised as
the era of the sequel, a time when the franchise reigned supreme and horror cinema
became less about striving for new ideas than the increasingly cynical (but lucrative)
expansion of those which had come before. Michael, Jason and Freddy, would you please
stand up.

If the 1980s was the decade of the sequel, it was the slasher craze that served as the
primary catalyst. While stalk and slash precursors such as Bob Clark’s Black Christmas
(1974) or Mario Bava’s perverse eco-shocker A Twitch of the Death Nerve (1971) (aka
A Bay of Blood) paved the way, it was Carpenter’s Halloween that perfected the model.
Setting his mayhem within an exclusively teenage milieu, Carpenter struck box office
gold, and, crucially, set the rules (if only inadvertently) that would define the highly-
profitable horror sub-genre for years to come. Hot on Carpenter’s heels, and with
its eye firmly on the same box office gold, Sean Cunningham’s Friday the 13th (1980)
emerged, streamlining Carpenter’s original formula (ditching character development and
upping the gore quote along the way) to create a box office behemoth. And of course,
Wes Craven threw his own homicidal pop-culture icon into the mix, in the form of
hypnagogic child killer Freddy Krueger, when his imaginative riff on the slasher formula A
Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) captured the imaginations of bloodthirsty filmgoers.

13
Devil’s Advocates
What would follow over the course of the 1980s was, to many, a sustained exercise
in diminishing returns. In an attempt to cash in on the popularity of their originators,
sequels for the three predominant franchises were churned out at regular intervals,
leaving many cinema-goers disillusioned by the directions in which they were headed.
Carpenter himself worked on both the first two Halloween sequels, before completely
removing himself from the ongoing franchise. With this in mind, one might consider
the reflexive (even critical) In the Mouth of Madness his rumination on the business of
horror and the cynical commercialisation of the horror franchise. But more on that
later…

Countless other body count movies emerged during this time, ranging from the good
– Happy Birthday To Me (1981), The Burning (1981), Slumber Party Massacre (1982),
Sleepaway Camp (1983), to the bad – Don’t Go in the Woods (1981), Pieces (1982), Nail
Gun Massacre (1985), to the downright bizarre – Crazy Fat Ethel 2 (1987) anyone? – but
by the end of the decade the boom had been reduced to merely a whimper, and in its
desperate attempts to keep fresh blood flowing, the sub-genre had drifted dangerously
far from the simplicity and elegance of Carpenter’s iconoclastic trend-setter.

So here we were at the beginning of a new decade: the 1990s. Both Halloween and
A Nightmare on Elm Street had hit number five in their respective series, while Friday
the 13th had accumulated an unprecedented eight entries, what with Jason having just
recently (albeit tepidly) taken Manhattan. And while such well-established franchises
limped slowly toward their graves, the output of some of the genre’s former directorial
superstars was not looking much sprightlier. The 1970s had witnessed the emergence of
a new generation of horror filmmakers who established themselves outside of the main
studio system. But while early commercial success and critical acclaim came quickly for
Carpenter’s peers, few of these figures could parlay their initial success into subsequent
creative or commercial hits. Tobe Hooper, for example, the man behind The Texas Chain
Saw Massacre (1974), found unexpected mainstream success in the early 1980s with the
Steven Spielberg-produced family shocker Poltergeist (1982), but struggled in the latter
half of the decade, with films such as Lifeforce (1985) and Invaders From Mars (1986)
proving critical and financial flops (although both have gone on to achieve a degree of
cult status, particularly the sci-fi sauciness of the former). But those disappointments
were nothing compared to the horrors of the 1990s, during which Hooper made a

14
 In the Mouth of Madness
series of missteps, including Spontaneous Combustion (1990), Night Terrors (1993) and
The Mangler (1995). George A. Romero was also facing problems of his own. Having run
into difficulties working for a major studio, the devoutly independent Romero embarked
on a seven-year hiatus following bad experiences on both Monkey Shines (1988) and
The Dark Half (1993). Perhaps for the likes of Hooper and Romero, who had produced
their most iconic works independently, subsequent collaborations with big studios
proved an awkward fit, resulting in a somewhat compromised or even diluted version
of what had come before? And as if this wasn’t bad enough, beloved purveyor of the
perverse David Cronenberg had all but ditched the horror genre with the advent of
the new decade in favour of his idiosyncratic new brand of psychological dramas. And
let us not forget William Friedkin’s much-touted return to horror, The Guardian (1990), a
preposterous nanny-from-hell shocker which offered little to rival the glowing reputation
of his acclaimed The Exorcist (1973).

Faced with the whimpering tail end of a commercial boom and relentless critical
dismissal, horror cinema attempted a makeover of sorts, pointedly targeting the
thirtysomething young professional market, as opposed to the gore-hungry teen crowd.
Following in Cronenberg’s footsteps, the genre moved towards the classier terrains
of the ‘psychological thriller’ (albeit in more palatable ways than the outré Canadian
auteur), and yuppie peril films like The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992), Pacific Heights
(1990) and Single White Female (1992) made a killing at the box office. Elsewhere the
scuzzy disreputability of the slasher genre gave way to a return of the gothic, with a
stream of big budget studio adaptations of literary horror classics such as Bram Stoker’s
Dracula (1992) and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994). Meanwhile the likes of Misery
(1990), The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Wolf (1994) all boasted high production
values and A-list stars, nudging the genre towards mainstream acceptability and awards
season friendliness.

That is not to say that there was a complete drought of interesting and unapologetic
genre films during the early part of the decade. Wes Craven proved that not all of
horror’s heavyweights were down and out when he injected the Freddy franchise with
a much-needed dose of intelligence and originality in the form of Wes Craven’s New
Nightmare (1994) (a film we will return to later on in this book). Other notable works
from the period included Bernard Rose’s adaptation of a Clive Barker short story,

15
Devil’s Advocates
Candyman (1992), Barker’s own sophomore directorial endeavour Nightbreed (1990),
Richard Stanley’s ingenious slice of techno terror Hardware (1990) and William Peter
Blatty’s The Exorcist III (1990), an unexpectedly effective entry in the series, especially
considering the widely accepted disaster that was the second instalment. However, while
these films were met with a degree of critical acclaim, with the exception of Candyman,
they did not prove commercially successful, hitting the radars of only the most dedicated
genre connoisseurs.

John Carpenter himself recognised the genre’s descent into mediocrity. Speaking to
Fangoria in the run-up to the release of In the Mouth of Madness, he said:

It’s a really bad time for horror… A lot of techniques have been stolen by mainstream
action pictures… What horror has to do, as far as I’m concerned, is turn a new
corner and come up with something fresh. So I think we’re all waiting for a redefining
of the horror film… We need a 2001. We need to do for horror what 2001 did for
science fiction. (Carpenter in Rowe, 1995)

For many, that new corner was turned in the latter half of the decade when meta-
slasher Scream (1996) and, a few years later, found-footage faux documentary The Blair
Witch Project (1999) hit big, refreshing the flagging genre and once again proving horror
cinema as a legitimate commercial viability. Expanding on the self-reflexivity of New
Nightmare, Wes Craven’s Scream featured a line-up of genre-savvy teens who had grown
up watching the director’s own Freddy flicks, as well as Carpenter’s iconic Halloween and
the countless slashers like Prom Night (1980) and Terror Train (1980) which followed in
its wake. No longer did audiences need to roll their eyes at the well-worn genre clichés
on display, because the characters on screen were doing the eye-rolling for us. While
Scream drew from familiar horror narratives, The Blair Witch Project had its sights set on
formal innovation, with its vérité approach giving birth to the found-footage trend. In
reality, neither Scream nor The Blair Witch Project were doing anything particularly new.
Cine-literate victims had already scoffed their way through the likes of unsophisticated
early slasher parodies Student Bodies (1981) or Return to Horror High (1987), or even
the aforementioned New Nightmare, in which Craven’s characters existed in a world
where the Elm Street franchise was an everyday part of popular consciousness. Likewise,
the debt of The Blair Witch Project can be traced as far back as Ruggero Deodato’s

16
 In the Mouth of Madness
anthropological exploitationer Cannibal Holocaust (1980), or as recently as pseudo-
documentary The Last Broadcast (1998), in which a film crew run into trouble in their
search for the Jersey Devil. While neither Scream nor The Blair Witch Project were exactly
ground-breaking, they hit at just the right time to take the world by storm and double-
handedly revive the genre from near extinction.

In many ways In the Mouth of Madness anticipated the winking self-reflexivity of Scream,
creating a world in which its characters are aware of the tropes and conventions
of the horror genre. But while Scream achieved this by having its characters make
direct reference to films that had come before, In the Mouth of Madness was a more
sophisticated think-piece on horror, exploring the deep philosophical and socio-political
implications of a then unfashionable genre. It is not hard to see why the relative
simplicity of Scream proved such an appealing prospect for audiences: it replicated the
fun of the slasher with an added knowingness that was hip and easy to understand,
presenting a playful and ultimately uncomplicated brand of postmodernism. In the
Mouth of Madness did not have hot teens or a (soon to be iconic) masked killer, but
instead featured middle-aged protagonists and a plot centring on literary intrigue. And,
crucially, it was trying to lure audiences down a much deeper rabbit hole, philosophically
speaking. In the Mouth of Madness was just not sexy enough, and its observations about
horror too cerebral for it to be the corner-turning movie to end the horror drought
of the early 90s. It may well have been met with more open arms had it emerged in a
post-Scream world when horror could be cool, relevant and, most importantly, clever.
Perhaps in a more enlightened landscape, audiences and critics might have taken a bit
more time to unpack the complicated pleasures of Carpenter’s film?

Furthermore, not only did In the Mouth of Madness debut during the closing moments
of this significant horror depression, it came at a time when no one was expecting great
things from its director. This was Carpenter’s first feature film since the disappointing
Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992), which had been widely panned (even by Carpenter
standards) upon its release. The following year he worked with Tobe Hooper on the
enjoyable, if slight, TV anthology horror Body Bags (1993), which caused barely a ripple.
It would be fair to say that by the time In the Mouth of Madness arrived the wider
mainstream was not exactly waiting with baited breath for the next John Carpenter
joint.

17
Devil’s Advocates
But while In the Mouth of Madness debuted at an inauspicious time for horror, a time
which almost dictated it would fail, interestingly, the film is in and of itself a call to
arms for the beleaguered genre. This tale of a missing horror novelist, whose writing
is reported to have severe side effects for its readers, was a veritable love letter to
Carpenter’s cherished genre, and his own personal plea to be taken seriously as a
filmmaker. The film was a meditation on the importance of horror as one of the world’s
most nimble forms of storytelling, and a warning on what could result should the genre
not be given the respect it deserves. Sadly, while the timing was somewhat perfect, no-
one was listening.

As such, In the Mouth of Madness is about as close as Carpenter might get to a lost film.
It is the one that got away, the film that deserves to be mentioned in the same breath
as Halloween or The Fog or Escape from New York (1981), but for one reason or another,
rarely is. Numerous books have been written on Carpenter’s career, countless chapters
in a multitude of academic journals explore his filmmaking style and offer theoretical
readings of his work, and of course there are the texts which focus purely on individual
Carpenter films (two of which have already emerged as part of this Devil’s Advocates
series in the form of Jez Conolly’s exemplary study of The Thing and Murray Leeder’s
exhaustive reading of Halloween). Yet in amongst this treasure trove of commentaries
devoted to Carpenter’s oeuvre, surprisingly few dwell on In the Mouth of Madness,
which seems to merit little more than the occasional footnote. That may well have been
down to timing, but, if anything, the years have been kind to this particular film, which
feels more prescient, more essential and more daringly complex than ever. The time has
finally come to take a long, hard look inside this mouth of madness. Open wide…

18
 In the Mouth of Madness
Chapter 2: ‘Do you like my ending?’
Given that John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness can be a somewhat elusive beast,
narratively speaking – rife with inset narratives and disorienting false turns – a plot
summary might be useful before we begin to unpack the film’s many pleasures and
complexities. So, for those of you in need of a quick recap, here we go…

Synopsis
We begin with a man named John Trent (Sam Neill) being dragged, kicking and
screaming, into a high security psychiatric institution. Thrown inside a padded cell, Trent is
visited by Dr Wrenn (David Warner), to whom he recounts the strange events that led
to his incarceration.

In an extended flashback, we learn that Trent is an insurance fraud investigator. After

surviving a seemingly random attack by an axe-wielding maniac, Trent is hired by Arcane
Publishing to locate missing horror novelist Sutter Cane (Jürgen Prochnow). At a
meeting with company director Jackson Harglow (Charlton Heston), Trent is told how
Cane’s hugely successful work has been known to have psychotic effects on unstable
readers, and that his recent attacker was Cane’s former agent. Harglow assigns Cane’s
editor, Linda Styles (Julie Carmen), to accompany Trent in his search for the absent
writer.

As Trent immerses himself in Cane’s literature for research purposes, he begins to

experience nightmares which bleed into his waking life. Meanwhile, he notices a pattern
on the artwork of Cane’s books, which form a map of Hobb’s End, the fictional location
of Cane’s stories. Concerned Cane’s disappearance is all part of a publicity stunt, Trent,
along with Styles, sets out to find Hobb’s End. As they drive through the night the pair
encounter a series of bizarre visions, before inexplicably arriving in the supposedly
fictional town, which appears exactly as Cane describes it in his novels.

Trent and Styles check in to a local inn, run by a sweet old lady who claims to have
never heard of Cane. The pair visit a huge Byzantine church, like the one described in
Cane’s novel The Hobb’s End Horror, where they encounter a gang of angry townsfolk,

19
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