In the Mouth of Madness (1994)

For today's "Halloween Movie Marathon" entry, I decided to watch a movie a friend handed to me just today when we met up to see Real Steel. I had already planned on seeing John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness at some point this month, but having it handed to me certainly made the decision easy for me.

My exposure to this film is no more than a single picture from the movie, but when I saw it, I knew I had seen that image before. Not that I'd see the film, but it was like hearing a line a dialogue quoted from a movie. Then again, considering the theme of this film, maybe I'm actually going mad. Hit the jump to find out for yourself.


The movie opens as a man is brought into an insane asylum. He struggles and yells that he's not crazy, and he is identified as John Trent. When a man from the city comes in to see him, we enter a flashback to find out what happened to him.

John Trent (played by Sam Neill) is an insurance claims agent who is prized for his ability to root out fraudulent claims. He's been assigned to the case of a missing horror writer to see if it's being faked as a publicity stunt. He's sent out to find the writer, Sutter Cane, because his new book is due out soon, and fans are actually starting to riot at bookstores with each new delay. He isn't sent alone, the chief editor of Cane's novels, Linda Styles, is sent with him and they take turns driving to where they think he might be.

During the middle of the night, while Linda is driving and John is asleep, a bunch of strange things happen, and suddenly they come out of a covered bridge into the bright mid-day sun. If that isn't weird enough, they seem to have found themselves in Hobb's End, the town that only exists in Sutter Cain's books! Too bad those books describe people turning into monsters and the end of the world.

John Trent is brought into the asylum at the start of the film

If I thought The Amityville Horror was weird, this movie just took the prize. Amityville was weird in that it seemed to be an amalgam of two films that hadn't even come out yet. This movie is weird just because it's freaking crazy! People get twisted and mutated into hideous creatures, roads lead back to where you just left from, and reality in general bends and twists in impossible ways. No wonder they start to think John is crazy after he tells his story. As he says himself when asked if he actually believes what he's said, "Well if I don't, what's my option? That I'm crazy." I loved this line. Either he believes it's real and he's sane, but sounds crazy to everyone around him, or he has to admit that it was all in his head, thus seeming crazy to himself. It's a lose-lose situation.

"Do you read Sutter Cain?"

I really liked the creepy effects and creatures in the movie. You never see them for very long, just a split-second here and there, but it seems to work. You're never quite sure what you saw, thus giving that fleeting glimpse into the mind of John. While the effects are certainly a little dated, it just doesn't seem to matter all that much with horror films, as I'm finding out, because you have to suspend your disbelief so much from the very beginning.

The themes of madness are undeniable. Every single thing about this film is about going crazy. People going crazy, the world going crazy, even you as the viewer get a quick taste of it at the very end, but I won't spoil that. So much of this movie just made me think of H.P. Lovecraft stories. They even mention "the old ones" at one point! Apparently there are quite a number of references to Lovecraft stories as well as Stephen King in the film. That just makes it even cooler!

John Trent has done some redecorating to his padded cell

I easily recommend this movie if you like creepy, messed up psychological horror. It will bend your mind as you see John's reality bend, and then completely snap. The ending is crazy, but really cool too. There's not much else I can say that isn't just me spouting off more about how mad this movie is. The title certainly doesn't lie. Definitely check it out if you like horror. This one has a lot going for it!