In the Mouth of Madness (1995)

Directed by: John Carpenter | 95 minutes | fantasy, horror, thriller | Actors: Sam Neill, Julie Carmen, Jürgen Prochnow, David Warner, John Glover, Bernie Casey, Peter Jason, Charlton Heston, Frances Bay, Wilhelm von Homburg, Kevin Rushton, Gene Mack, Conrad Bergschneider, Marvin Scott, Katherine Ashby

Director John Carpenter has been a big name in Hollywood for years. His breakthrough came with ‘Halloween’ in 1978 and went on to make films such as ‘The Thing’, ‘Christine’ and ‘Escape from New York’. Every now and then he has made a trip to action films, but his great passion is really with the horror film.

‘In the Mouth of Madness’ is about an insurance agent, John, who is tasked by a publishing house to track down a missing writer. This writer, Sutter Cane, is extremely popular for his horror stories. Suspecting the publishing house has been up to a publicity stunt, John teams up with Cane’s editor, Linda, to search for Cane. According to John, Cane is in a small town called Hobb’s End, somewhere in New England. Once there, it turns out that some rather strange things are going on and it starts to look more and more like John and Linda have ended up in a story by Cane, titled In the Mouth of Madness.

Writer Sutter Cane is clearly modeled after Stephen King, the names alone show a lot of similarity. In addition, the story is set in New England, in the state of New Hampshire to be precise and King’s stories are always set in the state of Maine, bordering New Hampshire. Another similarity is the impact the books have. Well, Cane’s books literally drive people insane and incite them to gruesome murders, it won’t get that far with the average Stephen King reader, but it can’t be denied that King’s books are extremely exciting and can really grab you as a reader.

‘In the Mouth of Madness’ is a good horror film, mainly because of the intelligent script. It’s something different than a bunch of young people who are slaughtered one by one by something or someone in a dark location. John first comes across as a tough, confident man who will wash this piggy for a while. He therefore goes in search of Cane without fear, but once he arrives in town, reality turns out to be different than he thinks. Carpenter has played well with the dividing line between fantasy and reality and does an excellent job of conveying the madness and bewilderment that John is dealing with. John is excellently played by Sam Neill, as a somewhat arrogant insurance agent he comes across convincingly, but when he is going crazy, he also knows how to represent the insanity in a good way. Linda is played by Julie Carmen and her performance is rather on the flat side and that also applies to the chemistry between John and Linda which is almost non-existent. Which is very unfortunate.

This is actually the only downside. Furthermore, ‘In the Mouth of Madness’ is an excellent horror, the story is very ingenious, the tension is well built and John Carpenter has put some nice elements into the story. In the beginning, for example, a man is visible who is in a mental asylum and to calm the patients some quiet music is played. The man hears the music and then sighs with a pained face: “Oh no, not even The Carpenters…”

The book that Sutter Cane has written and which world John and Linda actually find themselves in is called In the Mouth of Madness, everyone who reads this book goes insane and commits the most horrific murders. Not reading the book is also possible, as John suggests at one point, but fortunately Sutter Cane’s maddening story has also been made into a film by John Carpenter, entitled…’In the Mouth of Madness’. So watch at your own risk…