In the Mouth of Madness
by John Carpenter
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: David Warner, J?rgen Prochnow, John Glover, Julie Carmen, Sam NeillDirector: John Carpenter
Brand: Warner Brothers
Cinematographer: Gary B. Kibbe
Editor: Edward A. Warschilka
Producer: Artist W. Robinson
Producer: Michael De Luca
Writer: Michael De Luca
Producer: Sandy King
DVD: 2 Sides, Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 2.35:1
Running Time: 95 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-02-08
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: New Line Home Video
Movie Reviews of In the Mouth of Madness
Movie Review: The kind of story that does not translate to film very well.
Summary: 1 Stars
Ostensibly, John Carpenter's "In the Mouth of Madness" sounds like a great concept for a horror movie. John Trent, played well by Sam Neil, is contracted by a publishing company to go look for a writer named Sutter Cane who has disappeared. What Trent finds is a Twilight Zone alternate reality that is based on and controlled by Cane's writing. Trent attempts to stop Cane's world from becoming our reality, but the question is: can it be stopped?
The basic plot behind "In the Mouth of Madness" inheres in Trent's world of common sense and skepticism. Trent's skepticism of the entire situation reflects the audience's opinion at the beginning of the movie, and as the movie progresses and Trent becomes convinced of Cane's strange power, so should the audience, at least in theory. However, "In the Mouth of Madness" does not work as it should...not at all.
The imagery and visuals that Carpenter uses to manifest the perverted world of Cane's writings are rather unimaginative and mundane in relation to what is actually supposed to be going on. In other words, you can't set up a situation for Armageddon, and then have Fragile Rock-like manifestations to administer the horror behind the evil. Perhaps this is a matter of opinion, but the whole concept behind Carpenter's "In the Mouth of Madness" should have been based mostly in the imagination of the audience with some subtle and dark visualizations rather than in silly manifestations that would not even scare a five year old. Consequently, the movie goes downhill fast after its initial success at setting up what could have been a reasonably interesting concept for a horror movie.
In theory, "In the Mouth of Madness" sounds great, and it would probably work much better as a novel than as a movie. However, in this movie, once the veil is uncovered to the audience, they are not likely to like what they see, beyond a few a hand-covered laughs at the absurdity of it all.
Summary of In the Mouth of Madness
A best-selling author's newest novel is literally driving readers insane. When the author inexplicably vanishes a special investigator hired to track him down crosses the barrier between fact and fiction and enters a terrifying world from which there is no escape. Directed by horror legend John Carpenter (Vampires).Running Time: 95 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre:?ACTION/ADVENTURE/THRILLERS UPC:?794043490729The mind-bending worlds of author H.P. Lovecraft have long interested horror directors, but the films have rarely successfully captured his nightmarish mix of madness and mythology. John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness is not directly based on Lovecraft's work, but screenwriter Michael De Luca draws his inspiration from Lovecraft's Cthulu mythology and then adds his own ingenious twists. John Trent (Sam Neill), an insurance investigator recently fitted for a straightjacket, tells his story to a psychiatrist. Hired to track down the missing pop-horror phenomena Sutter Cane, a Stephen King-like author whose fans are literally made for his books, Trent finds the supposedly fictional Hobb's End. He watches the town collapse into madness, murder, and monstrous transformations: the fantastic horrors of Cane's novels played out in front of his eyes. "Reality isn't what it used to be," deadpans one zombielike townsperson. In fact, it is how Cane writes it--but is he Devil, dark oracle, or simply a preacher in the service of an evil that grows stronger with every soul his books convert? The script never quite gets a grip on the blurry relationship between fact and fiction, but those details fade in the face of Carpenter's demented imagery, shiver-inducing twists, and dark wit. It's more eerie mind game than straight-out horror, a portrait of a world gone mad, and Carpenter relishes every hallucinatory moment. --Sean Axmaker
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