In the Mouth of Madness (1995)

WTF?

This is a real good movie 3star but the 1star above is for this terrible dealer. I ordered this movie many months ago and still havent recieved it. May 31, 2008

It's The End Of The World As We Know It...

I spent much of my youth reading the works of H.P. Lovecraft. His delightfully overblown style and ability to bring darkness into (brief) focus kept me turning those pages. The stories always seemed to come down to: A) Man discovers horrible truth about elder gods / old ones. B) His mind is torched by the experience. C) The world is doomed. The End. Simple and right to the point. Most film versions of Lovecraft nightmares have been less than frightening, even dull. Well, John Carpenter has put together a successful homage to H.P. with IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS. insurance-fraud investigator, John Trent (Sam Neill from Omen 3: The Final Conflict, Jurassic Park, and Dead Calm) is the normal, rational man caught within the horrific, ever-tightening noose of building insanity. He finds his sanity of little use when confronted by things that defy description. While not based on any true Lovecraft tale, ITMOM is definitely Carpenter's tribute to the master of slithery, utterly evil universe destroyers! We are treated to glimpses and hints of terrors so immense that seeing them in their entirety would surely splatter our brains! Reality bends in on itself, until we, like Trent, can no longer tell fact from fiction. From the axe-wielding, mutated maniacs, to the black church of unspeakable blasphemies, Hobbs End is a town located only in the shadowy, uneasy realms of accursed slumber (how's that for overblown!). If you are a Lovecraft lover, you will be pleasantly chilled... May 22, 2008

In the Mouth of Madness - If enough people believe it, it's true!

In the Mouth of Madness was a really exciting and very strange film that resounded with my film taste and personal interests. In retrospect, I rate it at four stars, but I enjoyed watching this film on my first viewing to the tune of five stars. It was very entertaining while dealing with some interesting questions concerning reality. Can reality be influenced in any objective way if enough people believe in something?

The film also had great story elements including: a world class horror writer whose imagination and writing are affecting the belief systems of his fans, a creepy New England town where reality has been altered by belief systems, world wide killing sprees commited by fans of the writer, an unbelieving and skeptical private investigator commited as insane, and ultimately the final scene featuring Sam Niel in a movie theater watching himself during one of his finest acting moments.

Sam Neil delivered one of his best performances and the musical score by John Carpenter was excellent. The pace, camera angles, composition, and most of all, story were excellent. I reduced my rating to four stars because I didn't like that much of makeup work. I don't think this affected my appreciation of the story and think this film was one of John Carpenter's finest.

John Carpenter has made some excellent films that start off with a good premise that the ending of the story can not live up to (like Prince of Darkness or They Live). In the Mouth of Madness was not one of these. From the beginning to the end the story became increasingly strange and at the very end, strangest of all. At last, a John Carpenter film whose ending lived up to a good premise. I absolutely loved it. April 16, 2008

Great John Carpenter film, one of my favorites.

In The Mouth Of Madness was definitely one of Carpenter's best films and its one of my absolute favorites I thought it was an underrated gem and a great horror film, the film however wasn't a hit at the boxoffice cause it was released at the wrong time during the mid 90's which at that time horror films just weren't that popular. John Carpenter is considered to be one of the best and most prolific horror directors out there but during the 90's his career was abit uneven and his films were either a hit or miss but I consider this film to be a hit. The film was also inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft successfully capturing the nightmarish world of the mythology but not directly based on his stories, I wouldn't say it was a scary film but it does have a dark and creepy atmosphere especially when Sam Niel's character arrives at Hobb's End which is a small fictional town created by the evil horror writer Sutter Cane (nice performance by Jurgen Prochnow). There are some great scenes in this film that were simply mind blowing and it also has a great plot twist, John Carpenter was able to capture the madness and apocalyptic vision that happens later on. The story's about a new and highly successful horror writer named Sutter Cane, his fans have been obsessing over his books to the point that it creates mass hysteria. Sutter Cane's books obviously have a huge effect on its readers but its soon found out that the writer has disappeared. John Trent brilliantly played by Sam Niel is a special investigator for insurance companies that tracks insurance fraud done by people is soon sent out to investigate the disappearance of Sutter Cane by Cane's publisher played by Charlton Heston, he soon agrees and goes along with Cane's editor played by Julie Carmen at first he thinks that its some sort of publicity stunt by then he would find out the horrible truth. Trent was able to find the whereabouts of Cane by piecing together the covers of Cane's novels and discovers a town in New England called Hobb's End. As soon as they both arrive in the town they start having bizarre and horrifying visions and is not clear whether it is real or not and they just don't know what to expect, the special fx and gore scenes were brilliant they had some truly memorable scenes like the weird little zombie kids and slimy monsters. The story sort of crosses the barrier between fact and fiction and enters a terrifying world where there is no escape, the music was great and is highly effective and really compliments the mood and atmosphere. The opening and ending credits uses a hard rock instrumental track done by Carpenter but the rest of the film uses a moody synthesizer, I highly recommend this excellent horror film and two thumbs up!. April 6, 2008

"Reality is not what it used to be"

For years I have vaguely remembered seeing a film as a teenager about a writer going mad in a fictional town he made. I remember enjoying the film a lot, and after a little digging on the internet, I found out this "In the Mouth of Madness" had to be the very one. Turns out, it is also a very Lovecraftian film, and unlike most films that get that tag, this one is the real deal, in many ways. Sam Neill, one of my favourite actors, is John Trent, a private investigator that specializes in insurance fraud, hired to find the most popular author of horror novels in the World, Sutter Cane. Cane has disappeared just before delivering the final parts of his latest book; "In the Mouth of Madness", and hence, his publisher, played by Charlton Heston, wants either him or his unpublished book back.

After a little digging, Trent finds out that Cane probably has gone to a supposedly fictional town originating in his books; Hobbs End, that turns out to be quite real. The film begins as in so many tales by Lovecraft by a visit to the main character who is being questioned in an asylum, apparently quite mad. The film is in other words Trent's tale from the cell, and he's got quite a story to tell. Apart from the rock music at the credits before and after, the music in the film is extremely fitting for making that eerie atmosphere a film of this type requires. Increasingly bizarre incidents happen around and directly with Trent, and he starts to question reality has he knows it.

Of the many films in existence that claims to be based on the work of H. P. Lovecraft, this is one of the few that doesn't directly claim to do so, but still manages to capture the feeling that his stories can convey. I have little doubt that apart from a few issues (a bit excessive focus on gore, female characters and so on) this is a film that Lovecraft probably would enjoy himself. The idea that a writer can change reality is also very intriguing, as it is very true, in more ways than most people think, that reality is what we think it is. One should therefore be careful what one imagines, it just might come true, and that is the essence of this film, which must be one of the better films of its genre to come out of the 90's. It reminds me in many ways of another excellent film; "Jacob's Ladder", and if you enjoyed that, you'll love this.

4,5 stars and highly recommended. March 30, 2008

More reviews at Amazon.com ...