In the Mouth of Madness

This article is about the John Carpenter film. For the Luni Coleone album, see In the Mouth of Madness (album).
In the Mouth of Madness

Theatrical release poster
Directed by John Carpenter
Produced by Sandy King
Written by Michael De Luca
Starring Sam Neill
Julie Carmen
Jürgen Prochnow
David Warner
Charlton Heston
Music by John Carpenter
Jim Lang
Cinematography Gary B. Kibbe
Edited by Edward A. Warschilka
Distributed by New Line Cinema
Release dates
  • February 3, 1995 (1995-02-03)
Running time
 95 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $8 million[1]
Box office $8.9 million (domestic)[1]

In the Mouth of Madness (also known as John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness) is a 1995 American Lovecraftian horror film directed and scored by John Carpenter and written by Michael De Luca. It stars Sam Neill, Julie Carmen, Jürgen Prochnow, David Warner and Charlton Heston. Informally, the film is the third installment in what Carpenter calls his Apocalypse Trilogy, preceded by The Thing and Prince of Darkness.

Plot

Dr. Wrenn (David Warner) visits John Trent (Sam Neill), a patient in a psychiatric hospital, and asks Trent to recount his story:

After exposing an arson-fraud scam, Trent, an insurance investigator, has lunch with a colleague who preps him on his next assignment, investigating a claim made by New York-based Arcane Publishing, regarding the disappearance of their most popular and profitable author, Sutter Cane. In the midst of their conversation, Trent is attacked by a disheveled, bloodied man wielding an axe, who asks him if he reads Sutter Cane's books, and Trent notices that the man has strangely altered eyes. Before the man can kill Trent, he is shot dead by two police officers.

Trent later meets with Arcane Publishing director Jackson Harglow (Charlton Heston), who tasks him with investigating the disappearance of popular horror novelist Sutter Cane (Jürgen Prochnow), and recovering the manuscript for Cane's latest novel, In The Mouth of Madness. Harglow informs him that Cane has been missing for two months, and that the only person to have read any part of the novel is Cane's agent, who is revealed to be the man who attacked Trent earlier. He also introduces Trent to Cane's editor, Linda Styles (Julie Carmen).

Linda explains to Trent that Cane is their most successful author, and that Arcane is desperate to find him, since In The Mouth of Madness promises to be his biggest book yet. She also tells him that Cane's books are known to cause disorientation, memory loss, and paranoia in "less stable readers." Trent remains skeptical, convinced that the disappearance is merely an elaborate publicity stunt. As he begins the investigation, however, Trent experiences strange dreams and has several unsettling encounters; he is threatened by a police officer who is brutally beating a homeless man in an alleyway, and is later approached by a young man who tells Trent that "he sees you". While examining Cane's books, Trent notices a series of red lines on the covers that, when cut out and aligned properly, form the outline of New Hampshire and mark a location alluded to be Hobb's End, the fictional setting for many of Cane's works.

Trent shows his findings to Harglow and Linda, and suggests that Cane may be hiding at the location marked on his map. Harglow decides to send both Trent and Linda to find the town. During the drive, they discuss the appeal of Cane's books. As they drive deep into the night, Linda begins to experience bizarre phenomena while driving, and they inexplicably arrive at Hobb's End in broad daylight. Trent and Linda search the small town for any sign of Cane, and begin encountering people and landmarks described as fictional in Cane's novels, including a hotel run by an elderly woman named Mrs. Pickman. When they visit a Byzantine church on the edge of town, they witness an altercation between a group of townspeople and Cane himself. The people demand that Cane give their children back; he appears from within the church and sics a pack of dogs on them. Despite this, Trent still believes that everything is being staged, but Linda disagrees with him. She admits to Trent that Arcane Publishing's claim was indeed a fraudulent stunt to promote Cane's book, but tells him that the exact replica of Hobb's End was never part of the plan. She tries to seduce Trent to convince him to help her discover the truth behind what is happening, but he rejects her, whereupon she steals his car keys. Trent converses with Mrs. Pickman, who appears tired and on edge, until he spots Linda fleeing in his car. As Trent chases after her, Mrs. Pickman is revealed to have her husband shackled to her ankle.

Linda heads to the church to confront Cane. She finds him in the depths of the church, and he allows her to finish reading In The Mouth of Madness, which drives her insane. She embraces and kisses Cane passionately. Meanwhile, Trent goes to a bar in town and meets a man named Simon, who was part of the mob at the church. Simon warns Trent that Cane has released something evil from within the church and tells him to leave town immediately. Trent instead goes back to the hotel to wait for Linda; she returns in a frenzied state, telling him that she has seen the ending of the book. He goes in search of Mrs. Pickman, only to discover that she has murdered her husband and transformed into a hideous, tentacled monster. Trent runs for his car and attempts to flee Hobb's End, only to be stopped by a mob of monstrous-looking townspeople who have apparently captured Linda. He retreats into the bar and again encounters Simon, who commits suicide with a shotgun, claiming that Cane "wrote me this way." Trent again attempts to escape Hobb's End, only to be repeatedly teleported back to the center of town. After crashing his car, Trent awakens inside the church with Linda and Cane, who explains that the widespread belief in his stories has freed an ancient race of monstrous beings that will reclaim the Earth. Cane also reveals that Trent is one of his characters, who must follow Cane's plot and return the manuscript of In The Mouth of Madness to Arcane Publishing, ushering in the end of humanity.

After giving Trent the manuscript, Cane tears his face open, creating a portal to the dimension of Cane's monstrous masters. Trent looks into the portal as Linda narrates his actions from the manuscript. As the monsters emerge from the portal, Trent flees down a long tunnel. Linda gives him the manuscript, but stays behind, flatly stating that she has already finished the book and has no further part to play. Trent continues running and suddenly finds himself lying on a country road, apparently back in reality and still in possession of the manuscript. During his return to New York, Trent destroys the manuscript. Back at Arcane Publishing, Trent relates his experiences to Harglow. Harglow claims complete ignorance of Linda; he says that Trent was sent alone to find Cane, and that the manuscript had already been delivered months previously. In The Mouth of Madness has been on sale for weeks, with a film adaptation in post production. On the streets, Trent confronts a teenager who is reading the book, and whose eyes have been altered in the same fashion as Cane's agent. Trent asks the young man if he is enjoying the book; when the dazed reader says that he is, Trent says that "this shouldn't come as a surprise" and kills him with an axe, leading to his arrest and commitment to the psychiatric hospital.

After Trent finishes telling his story, Dr. Wrenn judges it a meaningless hallucination. In the night, the asylum is attacked by the monsters, and all the staff and patients are slaughtered, save for Trent. He finds his cell door open, and departs the asylum as a radio announces that the entire world has been overrun by the monsters, and that outbreaks of suicide, mass murder and grotesque mutations are commonplace. Trent goes to see the In the Mouth of Madness film and discovers that he is the main character. As he watches his previous actions play out on screen, including a scene where he insisted to Linda "This is reality!", Trent begins laughing hysterically before breaking down crying, finally accepting that he was a character in the book all along.

Cast

Production

Michael De Luca wrote the script in the late 1980s and one of the first directors he offered it to was John Carpenter,[2] who initially passed on the project. New Line Cinema later announced production in 1989 with director Tony Randel attached to direct.[2] Later Mary Lambert was also attached to direct.[2] A few years later, Carpenter signed on as director in December 1992 and filming took place from August to October 1993.[2]

The exterior of the Black Church seen in Hobb's End is actually the Cathedral of the Transfiguration. It is a Slovak Byzantine Rite Roman Catholic former cathedral located in Markham, Ontario.[3]

Influences

The film pays tribute to the work of seminal horror writer H. P. Lovecraft, with many references to his stories and themes. Its title is a play on Lovecraft's novella, At the Mountains of Madness, and insanity plays as great a role in the film, as it does in Lovecraft's fiction. The opening scene depicts Trent's confinement to an asylum, with the bulk of the story told in flashback, a common technique of Lovecraft's. Reference is made to the Old Ones of the Cthulhu Mythos, and to Lovecraftian settings and details (such as a character that shares the name of Lovecraft's Pickman family). As read on-screen, Sutter Cane's writings even incorporate direct passages from his work.[4] Sutter Cane's novels have similar titles to H.P. Lovecraft stories : The Whisperer of the Dark (The Whisperer in Darkness), The Thing in the Basement (Thing on the Doorstep), Haunter out of Time (The Haunter of the Dark/The Shadow Out of Time), etc.

The film can also be seen as a reference to Stephen King, who, like Lovecraft, writes horror fiction set in New England hamlets.[5][6] King is mentioned towards the beginning of the movie; it is suggested that Cane's work is more frightening than King's and that he outsells King.

Release and reception

In the Mouth of Madness was released in December 1994 in Italy, and February 3, 1995 in the U.S. In the U.S., it grossed $3,441,807 in its first weekend, and $8,946,600 total during its run.[1] It was a financial disappointment, but it did earn enough to cover the film's budget.

The film received mixed critical reaction, with 17 positive reviews out of 34 tallied by Rotten Tomatoes for a score of 50%.[7] It was ranked the 10th best film of 1995 by Cahiers du cinéma.[8]

In their book Lurker in the Lobby: A Guide to the Cinema of H. P. Lovecraft, Andrew Migliore and John Strysik write: "No film reviewed in this book is so strongly divisive as In the Mouth of Madness. This is a film people either love or hate – there seems to be no in-between. The film's weakness is the generic rock soundtrack composed and performed by director John Carpenter, and the disjointed script that apparently left the actors as confused as the plot. The film's strength is its Lovecraftian themes and the concept that the writer, Sutter Cane, is changing reality through his writings."[9]

A Blu-ray Disc of the film by New Line Cinema was released on October 15, 2013.[10]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "In the Mouth of Madness (1995) – Box Office Mojo". BoxOfficeMojo.com. Retrieved 2010-01-03.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Wilson, William S. (2015-02-03). "Newsploitation: In the Mouth of Box Office Sadness". Video Junkie. Retrieved 2015-02-03.
  3. ↑ "In the Mouth of Madness production still". theofficialjohncarpenter.com. Retrieved 2010-08-06.
  4. ↑ One of Sutter Cane's quotes is pulled directly from Lovecraft's work. Compare Lovecraft's original: "I did not shriek, but all the fiendish ghouls that ride the nightwind shrieked for me as in that same second there crashed down upon my mind a single and fleeting avalanche of soul-annihilating memory." (HP Lovecraft The Outsider). And Sutter Cane's: "Trent's eyes refused to close, he did not shriek, but the hideous unholy abominations shrieked for him, as in the same second he saw them spill and tumble upwards out of an enormous carrion black pit, choked with the gleaming white bones of countless unhallowed centuries." 'Stygian' and 'Carrion black pit' are phrases that recur repeatedly in Lovecraft stories.
  5. ↑ Chris Hicks (1995-02-07). "Deseret News: In the Mouth of Madness Review". Deseret News. Retrieved 2010-01-03.
  6. ↑ Frazer, Bryant. In the Mouth of Madness
  7. ↑ "In the Mouth of Madness Movie Reviews, Pictures". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2010-01-03.
  8. ↑ Cahiers du Cinema/ Top Ten Lists 1951-2009 -> 1995. Retrieved June 14, 2010.
  9. ↑ Andrew Migliore & John Strysik, Lurker in the Lobby: A Guide to the Cinema of H. P. Lovecraft, Night Shade Books, February 1, 2006, ISBN 978-1892389350
  10. ↑ "High-Def Disc News → 'In the Mouth of Madness' Dated for Blu-ray". High-Def Digest. 2013-06-13. Retrieved 2013-08-03.

External links

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