In the Mouth of Madness (1994) Starring Sam Neil, Julie Carmen & Jurgen Prochnow Directed by John Carpenter Written by Michael De Luca

I know more than a few people who site In the Mouth of Madness (ItMoM) as the scariest movie they know. Of course, this will vary from viewer to viewer, but the scope and quality of this horror flick is one that cannot be argued. This is the final installment in John Carpenters’ ‘Apocalypse Trilogy’, and as the final chapter it can only be about one thing: the end of the world.

John Trent (Sam Neil) is an agent hired to track down high profile horror author Sutter Caine (Jurgen Prochnow, of Dune fame) and acquire his latest novel transcript. It seems Caine is almost past his contracted deadline, and he’s packed up and left town; since Caine outsells Stephen King, and is the most prolific author of all time, this new novel is a must have for his publisher, played by Charlton Heston. Trent is teamed up with a fiery representative of the company, Linda (Julie Carmen) to find where the elusive author has dashed off to.

Of course, what makes Caine so popular, and makes this story so horrifically interesting, is that Caine’s books tend to drive their readers insane, some faster than others. Even as Trent reads his first few books, getting the feel for his quarry, he begins to suffer from nightmares and hallucinations. Undaunted, and eternally skeptical, Trent continues his investigation, itself filled with evil portents.

Ultimately, Trent and Linda are led to Hobb’s End, a town referenced in many of Caine’s stories (think Castle Rock in Stephen King’s work) but not on any map. As the pair tour the town, looking for clues, Linda is shocked to discover that the town, and its many peoples are exactly like those in Caine’s novels. More disturbing though, is that their presence seems to have triggered the events that occur in those stories, murder, mayhem, and monsters. When they finally find Caine, he’s typing away furiously on his manuscript, events in town happening faster and faster, the world now seeming to move as he types. Is he in tune with the horrifying events going on around him? Or has Sutter Caine become some kind of god, his keystrokes punching out the fate of the world?

Trent and Linda have to work fast to figure out the mystery of Sutter Caine. His book is about the end of humanity, and he’s almost done writing. Of course, in a story as twisted at ItMoM, the end is only the beginning.

First off, kudos to Carpenter for continuing to use H.P. Lovecraft as an inspiration for his stories. I’m a sucker for the Cthulhu Mythos and the devastating tales of the Great Old Ones, and the world rending monsters that Caine is summoning up in his works here are enough to win me over. That aside though, ItMoM is a great work of horror because it works as a standard scary flick, with monsters and gore and creepy children, but also on a meta-fictive level; that is, it knows it’s a fiction, and plays with that notion, looping scenes around to toy with the theatre audience, playing with the notion that the screenwriter is God of a fictive world…even having the characters see their own movie play out before them.

It’s a movie that shifts from monster to psychological thriller, from personal to epic and back again and does so nearly seamlessly, in a way that masterfully throws the audience off, keeps them on their toes, and generally disturbs the bejeezus out of them. If that weren’t enough, Sutter Caine makes about the single coolest exit of all time about ¾ through the movie.

Its one of the greatest shames of mankind that this movie, even after Sam Neil’s notable turn in Jurassic Park, has been seen by so few. It’s a rare gem of Carpenter’s that looks amazing, and has a solid concept, not falling into the cheese trap of, say, They Live.

Find it, watch it, be amazed, and possibly frightened. But steel yourself beforehand, this one’s been known to make people go mad…

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