In the Mouth of Madness (1994)

I don't want to spoil anything so i'll keep this short. It's about an insurance investigator (Sam Neill) who seeks out to find a famous horror writer after his books seems to have a very odd effect on his readers, only to actually find the village in his novels. Suddenly it seems like his books are coming true. Now I'll stop there and leave the rest for you to see. This movie is both a tribute to the genre (and maybe a slight parody) and literally an existentialism story(you know what I mean when you finish the movie). This movie is scary, horrifying, intelligent, well written, well acted, and also somehow a bit funny. (Warning, this is not for the light hearted, freakiest thing I've ever seen, but still made me laugh somehow)

I can only say in conclusion Watch it!

Fmovies: This film is by far one of the best horror movies I've watched in a couple of months, and I watched a lot. This film succeeds in suspense and thrills, I actually jumped a couple of times. The plot was really good, there was an in-pending sense of doom.

The film moved along fast, and I wished it was a little longer, I didn't want it to end. Sam Neil is the most notable character, and I enjoy most of his work. The rest of the cast didn't have much to do. I loved the inclusion of monsters, even if they had a small part.

I think this film is severely underrated, and deserves a bigger fan base. Check this film out, it's worth your time and money.

31 Days Of Horror: Day 28

John Carpenter's In The Mouth Of Madness may just be one of the director's most underrated films. It's certainly one of his most effective and intelligent. It's got a story with in a story mentality to it, a handful of really gruesome practical effects, and a story worth telling. Sam Neill plays Trent, an insurance investigator hired by a book firm to locate a missing horror author who owes them an unpublished volume. The author in question is Sutter Kane (more than a few references to Stephen King are slyly dropped), played by classic villain actor Jürgen Prochnow, who's never been eerier, given a meaty, theatrical role to play here that he fits like a glove. Trent is led to a small, deserted New England town, where the weirdness really starts. Kane has, through his horrific novels, somehow tapped into an ancient, Lovecraftian evil from the dark recesses of the space between our dimension and others, and now it wants out. It's bringing his work to slimy, squirming life and bending the rules of reality for everyone in our world. It's a super fun concept that keeps you interested the whole way through, and visually puts on quite a show as well, giving us a parade of all sorts of impressive horrors. Charlton Heston shows up as the head of the book firm, David Warner as a sceptical psychiatrist, and wiry John Glover is priceless as the world's most awkward asylum doctor. Carpenter makes a bit of a departure from simplistic, single idea driven frights and tries his hand at high concept, large scale horror. The result is a highly unsettling, really fun piece that ranks with his best.

In the Mouth of Madness fmovies. I found this film terrifying. Sure there is no man in a stripy jumper coming to 'stab you up' and no one is tied to a chair and worked on with an angle grinder.

This film makes excellent use of those iconic every day objects that become scary in the correct context. (E.G Clowns, mannequins, Victorian prams or a child's ball bouncing down a stair case.) People who have seen this will know what I mean when I say the word bicycle.

Rather than physical peril this film uses assaults on your grasp of reality. mine obviously isn't that great as I find this movie petrifying.

The production of the film isn't great and there are more exciting films out there. But if you have some imagination, are a little romantic and like being scared without having to sit through some poor soul forced to spectate live at their own autopsy, then this deserves every one of its eight stars.

What a treat of a film this was. It is witty, intelligent, and scary. The basic plot premise is anything but basic as the line between reality and fantasy is almost indistinguishable through most of the film. What is going on? Who really knows...I'm not sure even director John Carpenter knows. But what we do get is a guessing game of what is real and un-real in a very stylish, sophisticated, almost bizarre fashion. The film opens in a mental asylum with protagonist Sam Neill being put in a padded cell whilst in a straight-jacket. The setting is larger than life. The characters around Neill are caricatures for the most part. John Glover plays a doctor(Doctor Saperstein...a possible homage to Rosemary's Baby) with complete camp. David Warner, another doctor, begins talking to Neill and asking him about what happened. The rest of the film then details what Neill did working with regards to a lost author named Sutter Cane. The plot is much more complicated than that and may take subsequent viewings to fully understand WHAT can be understood. The end result is at the very least a very gratifying one as Carpenter constructs a dream-like story that has obvious roots in both the fiction of H. P. Lovecraft and Stephen King. The acting is good all around...Neill is excellent as John Trent. He makes a very believable presence in a sea of un-reality. Julie Carmen is also very good in her role. Look for Charlton Heston as a publisher and Bernie Casey in a cameo as well. Kudos to Mr. Carpenter for bringing his visions of horror to the silver screen once again. This may be his best film...certainly his most thought-provoking and sophisticated.

The bizarre thing sometimes about writing and reading fictional books are they are always about heightened or different realities. Each of the characters that are written and involved in the action depending on how their written feel like regular people despite whatever role their suppose to play. In a way these things are practically creating a certain existence and when we read or write these stories we suspend our disbelief because depending on how much we enjoy the story we want to almost believe it's real.

This is my third favorite movie from my favorite movie director John Carpenter and it's also one of my personal favorite films in general; but also the last in his apocalypse trilogy (my favorite is "The Thing") It's one of those surreal horror films or just films in general you don't see often it's something that shows up on an occasional amount of years or could slip though the cracks. This isn't just a film it's an experience, because it thinks outside the box and beyond. It was also a little love letter and satire of H.P. Lovecroft stories which is cool because I'm a fan of his stories.

I like it's plot which it's a bit uncannily similar to the film "The Ninth Gate" but that's a different story. Anyway in format it seems like a simple tracking mission mystery but what makes those kinds of plots interesting is one thing always turns into another, and this film does that but takes a more radical approach because it screws with you perception of reality in the film and pulls the rug from under you when you least expect it to.

The protagonist despite unreliable is good, Insurance investigator John Trent played well by underrated actor Sam Neil. John is a cynic/realist and control freak. He loves to exercise disillusionment and his job supports it, but the thing about him is he has a low viewpoint on humanity in general probably due to the encounter of one scam artist too many in his profession. This fallible almost could make him unlikeable but what makes him likable at least to me is he always has a sense of humor, he's not afraid to satires on himself, this almost gives us a small sense of hope that he will be capable of doing what he should to combat evil. But as I've said he's an unreliable protagonist I like at times how you question this character's sanity because there are time it seems like he could be losing it, like when he cut the covers of the paperback copies of Sutter Kane. And just the simple fact these are forces that are forces beyond his control and understanding. The antagonist Sutter Kane is also great despite not being in the film that long he just has this presence where on the outside he seems like an ordinary guy (like most authors are) but you sense there is something supernatural about him, after all everything he's written has came true.

I love the unsettling feeling it gives you, once again John's trademark feeling of isolation, doom and dread which help successfully add to the feeling that the world could be ending. From all the weird crap that happens in the film you just aren't sure of anything. The special effects from K and B are great, I even like the town setting which are reminiscent of the Silent Hill video game series since it always takes place in a town with supernatural activity. We see some Chtulu like creatures, some street gang that look all messed up, and one scene that always gave me the creeps was the infamous boy on a bike scene, it was creepy because it