31 Days of Horror: Day 6- In the Mouth of Madness (1994)

Despite the gruesome creatures, flying limbs and buckets of blood, horror as a genre can feel pretty stale. For every excellent film there is a dozen forgettable or terrible ones. And there are so many that it takes a lot of wading through the rubbish to get to the interesting stuff. For each day in October I’m going to recommend a different horror film or film about horror. For the most part they won’t be the accepted classics. My selections range from the genuinely excellent to the delightfully strange with a few that are more fascinating than they are great. Hopefully there will be something for everyone and you’ll find something new to give you a scare or maybe a laugh. This is my 31 days of Horror and today I’m talking about: In the Mouth of Madness.

There was a period in the 70’s and 80’s where John Carpenter made a slew of amazing films. In one decade he made Escape From New York, The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China, Prince of Darkness and The Thing that are excellent films held up as classics. Then the 90’s came and for whatever reason he stopped making good films for the most part, culminating in the complete failure Ghosts of Mars. In this lesser period there is one film that stands out as being somewhat flawed but very much a Carpenter great and that is In the Mouth of Madness.

Sam Neil stars as ruthless insurance claim investigator John Trent who is charged with finding out the whereabouts of mysterious horror writer Sutter Cane. Cane’s latest novel is flying off the shelves but seems to be having some sort of affect on the minds of its readers. His next book is due but he can’t be found so Trent attempts to track him down. As he gets closer to Cane reality and fiction start to blend and the horrors of Cane’s novels seem to become all the more real.

In the Mouth of Madness marked the end of Carpenter’s “Apocalypse Trilogy” after The Thing and Prince of Darkness. All three films deal with different forces that could destroy civilisation. The Thing’s antagonist is aliens, Prince of Darkness’s is the Devil and In the Mouth of Madness’s is madness itself (also kind-of trans-dimensional beings). All three films are also in a way updates of older stories but done in a completely new way. The Thing was a remake of Howard Hawk’s The Thing From Another World and Prince of Darkness drew a lot from stuff like Quatermass and the Pit. In the Mouth of Madness was very much inspired by the work of H.P. Lovecraft and is probably the best film representing the themes of his work. The Apocalypse Trilogy is one of the most interesting and unique trilogies of all time and In the Mouth of Madness makes for a fittingly strange end.

Carpenter has always been a master at creating memorable images and amazing creatures (using practical effects). The story of In the Mouth of Madness contains so much craziness that it allows him to go all-out in both of these categories. There is no singular monster to run from and from scene to scene the threat or fear is derived from something completely new. From axe-wielding maniacs to horrendous creatures from the beyond, there are a myriad of amazing Carpenter creations. As it deals with madness and a man questioning his sanity there are so many creepy little moments. The film is relentlessly imaginative with almost every scene having something that makes us question the reality of the story. As Trent gets closer to the truth his grip on reality begins to wane and the film becomes even crazier. Lovecraft’s work has never been very successfully adapted because what he writes is so hard to visualise on film. The creatures of his stories are meant to be unfathomably horrible to the point that they induce madness. In the Mouth of Madness is one of the few films to really attempt to put these types of creature to the screen. Even though Carpenter isn’t completely successful the fact that he tried makes the film special. It really tries to envisage a mental state in a very literal way. His visualisation of madness does not completely capture the phenomenon but it’s a wonderful attempt.

Sadly, it doesn’t come together quite as well as the previous two films in the Apocalypse Trilogy. It’s still an excellent film but just feels a step below Carpenter’s best work and a lot of that is due to the script. There is nothing really memorable about characters beyond the performances the actors give and the dialogue can be pretty clunky at times. In general it is Carpenters eye for visuals and the endless series of spooky happenings that elevate the film to being great. Due to how dense the story is it has to jump from moment to moment pretty quickly in a way that helps and hinders the film. In one way it provides a constant stream of imaginative creations and somewhat reflects the unstoppable decline of Trent’s sanity. But it never allows for an exploration of what is happening as much as it just presents what is happening. Given how interesting some of the film’s concepts are it is a disappointment to see them dealt with at such a surface level. Certainly it’s ambitious but it bites off a bit more than it can chew.

In the end it’s a flawed but brilliant horror film, it has its issues but the good aspects outweigh the bad. Sam Neil is always entertaining especially when he gets to act crazy (just look at these images, Neil is in a different state of madness in each one), plus it’s nice to see Charlton Heston even if he doesn’t have much to do. What really makes the film so worth seeing is Carpenter. He’s on the top of his game when it comes to creating iconic visions and some of it is so grotesquely beautiful. There is a sense that it is a little less complete than his best films but there’s nothing else like it, it’s wonderfully surreal and it’s still a brilliant watch.