In the Mouth of Madness
by John Carpenter
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: David Warner, Jürgen Prochnow, John Glover, Julie Carmen, Sam NeillDirector: John Carpenter
Brand: NEW Line Home Video
Cinematographer: Gary B. Kibbe
Editor: Edward A. Warschilka
Producer: Artist W. Robinson
Producer: Michael De Luca
Writer: Michael De Luca
Producer: Sandy King
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 95 minutes
Published: 2000-02-01
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: Part 3 of John Carpenter's "Apocalypse Trilogy"
Summary: 5 Stars
According to John Carpenter, "In the Mouth of Madness" is the capstone of his "Apocalypse Trilogy" - Part 1 begun in 1981 with his masterful reinvention of 50's B horror classic "The Thing," where a long-frozen, world-conquering alien "force" is unthawed in Antarctica, with potentially global-annihilative results.
Part 2 according to Carpenter came six years later, with his "heady, post-graduate-minded Einsteinian horror classic," - PRINCE OF DARKNESS, a wonderfully inventive, thoughtful, if not entirely "logical" (well, isn't that the point of the "horror" genre anyway? "Abandon all logic, all haven, all hope for salvation ... Ye who [foolishly] enter here!"). In "Prince," Carpenter once again designs a "modern" world, not unlike "The Thing," only set in sunny, mostly upscale California, with a team of university physicists, radiologists, mathematicians, linguistics scholars, philosophers and a priest (underplayed brilliantly, as usual, by the incomparable, late Donald Pleasance) - pitted against a "secret which can no longer be kept" - namely, "Satan's son," trapped for over 7 million years inside of a weird, metallic cistern, which, creepily enough, "can only be opened from the inside." Triggered by a super nova perhaps (we're never entirely sure), Satan's son, having been buried in the Middle East long ago after his father was somehow, "banished to the darkside," is now awakening, and proceeds to slice, dice, and "water gun" its way through the team of stalwart scientists. Here again we see shades of "The Thing," with the scientists on the short end of the "magic wand" to repel it.
Now enter Part 3 - "In the Mouth of Madness" - the FINALE! Because the end is TRULY nigh. Whereas in parts 1 and 2, the "unspeakable beast" only wreaked "local havoc" (with major caveats), NOW we are, as a race - WHOLLY DAMNED!! And Carpenter makes no ambiguity of our fate. As John Trent (Sam Neill) muses ruefully from the sanctum of his padded cell to his pychiatrist (David Warner): "Every species can smell its own extinction. The last ones left won't have a pretty time of it. In ten years, maybe less, humanity will be nothing more than a bedtime story to 'them,' a myth they tell to their children..."
"ITMOM" is a difficult film in that so much of it is ... ostensibly random, "diaboli dictu;" many of the scenes underline incredulity, and the plot is ostensibly, almost irrelevant. What IS relevant is that the world is going to hell, and everyone who reads "Sutter Cane" (a not-so-subtle play on "Stephen King") SPEEDS along the return of "nameless, shambling things; The Old Ones" ala H.P. Lovecraft.
Carpenter piles on "the works" without worry of logic or storytelling coherence, because - as we're told - "reality isn't what it used to be anymore." It sure isn't. As Trent is on a bus back to Manhattan, Sutter Cane mysteriously appears in the seat next to him, and - because Cane is "God" now (self prescribed) - it is axiomatic that he can do anything. So he says to Trent, "Did I ever tell you that my favorite color is blue?" Cut to the next scene, where Trent wakes up, and the entire bus and passengers are gelled in a blue filter. Naturally, Trent screams and is awakened by his fellow passengers, who try to comfort him, "Hey mister, it's okay. You just had a bad dream."
Lots of clever tropes infuse "Madness" throughout, although this 3rd installment, by DESIGN, is THE LEAST easy to take of the 3 "apocalypses." Nevertheless, the brilliance of Sam Neill (remember him as grownup Damien from "Omen 3?") more than carries this finale. In fact, "In the Mouth of Madness," or so I have discovered for my own viewing purposes, has a FAR GREATER appeal to me NOW, on DVD, than when I first saw this film back in 1993 at the Theatre. Dark spirits only know why?
But it can't be coincidence that Carpenter laid out his trilogy - very numerologically NEATLY so. Every film, from "The Thing" to "Madness," was made 6 years apart (1981, 1987, 1993) - 666! Or, more correctly, 66... unless Carpenter's oevre up until "The Thing" might be considered his "first 6." Another trope. Another mystery. Another thing to make us go, "hmmmmmm ...".
But to be certain, as Sutter Cane (well rendered by Jurgen Prochnow) tells Trent, "My first books were something. But this next one is going to drive the whole world ABSOLUTELY MAD!" And the addition of late cinematic maven Charlton Heston as Arcane Publisher Jason Harglow, is revealing. Remember Heston's earlier career when he was in such apocalyptic roles as "The Planet of the Apes" could inspire? Coincidence here? In Carpenter's able horror-craft hands, we would do well not to question "The Master."
This one is for PURE HORROR ENJOYMENT strictly! Abandon ALL logic. The scientists and wonks from Parts 1 and 2 are probably all dead by now anyway. "Do YOU read Sutter Cane?"
Summary of In the Mouth of Madness
IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS - DVD MovieThe 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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