In the Mouth of Madness (1995)
John Carpenter
"God's not supposed to be a hack horror writer!"
Welcome to part two of my series on "John Carpenter films I hadn't seen up to now." After a hiatus for some Dungeons and Dragons on Wednesday, I was ready for more Carpenter weirdness last night, and oh baby, what a beautiful journey it was.
This is a total departure from Prince of Darkness in terms of tone and style. This was directed by Carpenter, but he didn't write it. That was left up to Michael De Luca, who went on to write nothing else of significance, but has had a long and lucrative producing career. While Carpenter is a great writer, and explores weird and interesting things with his scripts, this was a much tighter story and had less of the bloat that Prince of Darkness suffered from in the first act.
There's so much to talk about here, let's dive right in.
What it's about: John Trent (Sam Neill) is an insurance investigator who is hired by a publishing company to locate their missing star author, Sutter Cane (Juergen Prochnow). Cane is like Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and John the Baptist all rolled into one in terms of the popularity and impact of his writing, so the publishing company is keen to locate him, or at least cash in on their insurance policy with him. Trent reads all of Cane's books and believes he's figured out a secret message as to the author's whereabouts. Believing this all to be a big publicity stunt, Trent and Cane's editor, Linda Styles, drive to a small town in the middle of New Hampshire to try and solve the mystery. Things get complicated quickly.
What's interesting: I'm just going to say it now: this movie fucking rules. If you've never seen it, which would not be a surprise, do not read any further because there's no good way to discuss this film without spoiling everything. And this is going to be more of a plot breakdown than anything. But if you don't mind having thing spoiled for you, keep on reading!
This is one of those great films that makes you feel like you're going crazy along with the main character. The film starts off in a bizarre insane asylum that looks like it was built by Terry Gilliam. Trent is being admitted against his will by men in white coats for crimes and events unknown to us. He appears terrified and desperate, and clearly unhinged. Sam Neill is an amazing actor, and this might be his best film. He's intense, charming, funny, and over the top in the best possible sense of the term.
We quickly get the sense that things are not as they seem, however, and a federal agent comes to speak to Trent and does not believe that he has gone insane. There are vague discussions of how bad things are getting "out there," implying that there is some sort of pandemic gripping the world. Trent's retelling of his tale is the vast majority of the plot of the film.
The main story begins with an introduction to Trent, insurance investigator extraordinaire, as he cracks open a random insurance fraud case with calm precision. As he and his boss sit down for a celebratory cup of coffee, an ax wielding maniac breaks the window at the diner, asks Trent if he reads Sutter Cane, and prepares to split him open before being gunned down by the cops.
These sorts of bizarre occurrences follow Trent around as soon as he is assigned to the case of the missing author. He and Styles drive for hours and hours through the dark highways of central New Hampshire and find nothing. About to pass out from exhaustion, Styles has a strange dream about the car taking flight and then passing through a tunnel, before the car ends up near the center of Hobb's End, the small town Cane uses in all of his stories, like Stephen King does with the fictional Derry, Maine.
As they investigate the town, they realize that every detail is just as Cane has written about them in his books. Characters from his stories seem to be the only inhabitants, which Trent takes to mean this is all part of the grand publicity stunt for Cane's new book. Still, there's something unsettling about how the townsfolk interact with these out-of-town city folk, and none of them seem to know who Sutter Cane is.
The story takes a beautiful twist when Trent investigates a dark byzantine church on the edge of town, and finds Sutter Cane inside. Cane discusses the magic of the town, his new book, and his ascension to becoming God.
Both Neill and Prochnow are fantastic here. Prochnow plays Cane as a quietly disturbed genius, while Neill makes Trent desperate for a reasonable explanation to all of the strangeness around him, before devolving completely into shrieking madness.
Here's the trick of the film: Prochnow really is God. Whether he's just a god or The God isn't totally clear, but he clearly wields some power over this small town at least. The townsfolk gather at the church to confront Sutter about leading all of their children away from their homes, but are quickly driven back by a pack of ravenous dogs that seem to form out of nowhere. One of the villagers later laments to Trent that he can't remember what came first, him or the book that Cane is writing. He then blows his head off, saying that he has no choice, because he's written this way.
As Trent tries desperately to unpack this mystery, and holds on to the shreds of hope that this is all a crazy publicity stunt, the town begins to change. The townsfolk transform into hideous monsters (for example, the old woman who runs the hotel Trent is staying at morphs into some kind of otherworldly demon, grows long prehensile tits and chops up her husband with an ax) and Cane's power appears to be growing. Cane invites Trent to deliver his new novel to the world, extending his grasp over all creation. As Trent tries to resist, a giant throbbing door behind Cane opens, spilling stygian interdimensional horrors into our world. This is some real Lovecraftian horror, and the practical effects on the nightmare creatures are outstanding.
As Trent's terrified panic hits its peak, he finds himself inexplicably on the highway outside of town, in broad daylight, still holding the manuscript to Cane's new book. A passing newspaper delivery boy (played by a very young Hayden Christensen!) denies ever hearing of the town of Hobb's End, and Trent makes his way back to civilization.
When he arrives at the publisher's office, Trent is told that he delivered the manuscript months ago, the book is a blockbuster best seller, and the movie adaptation is coming soon to theaters. Whoops.
Trent watches as civilization begins to crumble around him, with people being driven to madness due to Cane's writing. Not able to shake off the feeling that he may too be a character in this drama, Trent tries to break the continuity and gets thrown into a mental institution by pretending to be mad, catching us up to the beginning of the film.
Trent is turned out onto the streets, and we learn from background news broadcasts that a wave of madness has gripped the populace, and those who have yet to be exposed to Cane's book or movie are forced to hide underground. Trent, still desperate to understand his role in all of this, finds a movie theater and sits down to watch In the Mouth of Madness, and it is the exact film we all just watched, complete with a John Carpenter director's credit. Here, at the end of all things, while munching popcorn, he laughs uproariously and desperately. You've got to love an ending like that!
This film really has it all: outstanding performances, great practical effects, a twisting story that feels like its own sort of psychosis, and the genius vision of John Carpenter.
While a lot of Carpenter's films from the 90's fall below his work from the 70's and 80's in terms of vision, this feels different. He spent the 1980's studying the decay and degradation of the terrible Reagan years, shining a light on the paranoia, consumerism, and greed that was destroying our society. Here, Carpenter shows us that after all of the insanity of the 1980's, the fear and madness gripped us all tightly and turned us into misshapen husks screaming wordlessly into the void. And he was 100% right.
This is also an indictment of the studio system. Carpenter creates his worlds out of nothing, shaping emptiness into life, but his career is one of being beholden to the money men behind the scenes. No matter how important or special he believes his work to be, those with more money and power can reshape it or even destroy it. At the end, when we see Cane attempting to hold back the mutant nightmare creatures at the door, you can imagine Carpenter desperately trying to keep some MGM executive out of the creative process. But you can only do so much, even if you are God, because those stygian horrors are going to break through eventually.
Other films I thought of: Oddly enough, I couldn't stop thinking about Double Indemnity. The character of Trent seems anachronistic, and Neill plays him as Mr. Too Damn Smart, which reminded me of the Fred MacMurray character.
Miscellany: The head of the publishing company that sends Trent out to find Cane is played by Charlton Heston. It was a nice surprise to see him featured here, and Carpenter always knows the best way to use his actors. It's a small role, but it's great, and Heston plays him as equal parts greedy and disinterested. The world is tearing itself apart at the seams, and he's just interested in the bottom line.
Recommendation: YES YES YES YES YES
Remarkably Good
This is a total departure from Prince of Darkness in terms of tone and style. This was directed by Carpenter, but he didn't write it. That was left up to Michael De Luca, who went on to write nothing else of significance, but has had a long and lucrative producing career. While Carpenter is a great writer, and explores weird and interesting things with his scripts, this was a much tighter story and had less of the bloat that Prince of Darkness suffered from in the first act.
There's so much to talk about here, let's dive right in.
What it's about: John Trent (Sam Neill) is an insurance investigator who is hired by a publishing company to locate their missing star author, Sutter Cane (Juergen Prochnow). Cane is like Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and John the Baptist all rolled into one in terms of the popularity and impact of his writing, so the publishing company is keen to locate him, or at least cash in on their insurance policy with him. Trent reads all of Cane's books and believes he's figured out a secret message as to the author's whereabouts. Believing this all to be a big publicity stunt, Trent and Cane's editor, Linda Styles, drive to a small town in the middle of New Hampshire to try and solve the mystery. Things get complicated quickly.
What's interesting: I'm just going to say it now: this movie fucking rules. If you've never seen it, which would not be a surprise, do not read any further because there's no good way to discuss this film without spoiling everything. And this is going to be more of a plot breakdown than anything. But if you don't mind having thing spoiled for you, keep on reading!
This is one of those great films that makes you feel like you're going crazy along with the main character. The film starts off in a bizarre insane asylum that looks like it was built by Terry Gilliam. Trent is being admitted against his will by men in white coats for crimes and events unknown to us. He appears terrified and desperate, and clearly unhinged. Sam Neill is an amazing actor, and this might be his best film. He's intense, charming, funny, and over the top in the best possible sense of the term.
We quickly get the sense that things are not as they seem, however, and a federal agent comes to speak to Trent and does not believe that he has gone insane. There are vague discussions of how bad things are getting "out there," implying that there is some sort of pandemic gripping the world. Trent's retelling of his tale is the vast majority of the plot of the film.
The main story begins with an introduction to Trent, insurance investigator extraordinaire, as he cracks open a random insurance fraud case with calm precision. As he and his boss sit down for a celebratory cup of coffee, an ax wielding maniac breaks the window at the diner, asks Trent if he reads Sutter Cane, and prepares to split him open before being gunned down by the cops.
These sorts of bizarre occurrences follow Trent around as soon as he is assigned to the case of the missing author. He and Styles drive for hours and hours through the dark highways of central New Hampshire and find nothing. About to pass out from exhaustion, Styles has a strange dream about the car taking flight and then passing through a tunnel, before the car ends up near the center of Hobb's End, the small town Cane uses in all of his stories, like Stephen King does with the fictional Derry, Maine.
As they investigate the town, they realize that every detail is just as Cane has written about them in his books. Characters from his stories seem to be the only inhabitants, which Trent takes to mean this is all part of the grand publicity stunt for Cane's new book. Still, there's something unsettling about how the townsfolk interact with these out-of-town city folk, and none of them seem to know who Sutter Cane is.
The story takes a beautiful twist when Trent investigates a dark byzantine church on the edge of town, and finds Sutter Cane inside. Cane discusses the magic of the town, his new book, and his ascension to becoming God.
Both Neill and Prochnow are fantastic here. Prochnow plays Cane as a quietly disturbed genius, while Neill makes Trent desperate for a reasonable explanation to all of the strangeness around him, before devolving completely into shrieking madness.
Here's the trick of the film: Prochnow really is God. Whether he's just a god or The God isn't totally clear, but he clearly wields some power over this small town at least. The townsfolk gather at the church to confront Sutter about leading all of their children away from their homes, but are quickly driven back by a pack of ravenous dogs that seem to form out of nowhere. One of the villagers later laments to Trent that he can't remember what came first, him or the book that Cane is writing. He then blows his head off, saying that he has no choice, because he's written this way.
As Trent tries desperately to unpack this mystery, and holds on to the shreds of hope that this is all a crazy publicity stunt, the town begins to change. The townsfolk transform into hideous monsters (for example, the old woman who runs the hotel Trent is staying at morphs into some kind of otherworldly demon, grows long prehensile tits and chops up her husband with an ax) and Cane's power appears to be growing. Cane invites Trent to deliver his new novel to the world, extending his grasp over all creation. As Trent tries to resist, a giant throbbing door behind Cane opens, spilling stygian interdimensional horrors into our world. This is some real Lovecraftian horror, and the practical effects on the nightmare creatures are outstanding.
As Trent's terrified panic hits its peak, he finds himself inexplicably on the highway outside of town, in broad daylight, still holding the manuscript to Cane's new book. A passing newspaper delivery boy (played by a very young Hayden Christensen!) denies ever hearing of the town of Hobb's End, and Trent makes his way back to civilization.
When he arrives at the publisher's office, Trent is told that he delivered the manuscript months ago, the book is a blockbuster best seller, and the movie adaptation is coming soon to theaters. Whoops.
Trent watches as civilization begins to crumble around him, with people being driven to madness due to Cane's writing. Not able to shake off the feeling that he may too be a character in this drama, Trent tries to break the continuity and gets thrown into a mental institution by pretending to be mad, catching us up to the beginning of the film.
Trent is turned out onto the streets, and we learn from background news broadcasts that a wave of madness has gripped the populace, and those who have yet to be exposed to Cane's book or movie are forced to hide underground. Trent, still desperate to understand his role in all of this, finds a movie theater and sits down to watch In the Mouth of Madness, and it is the exact film we all just watched, complete with a John Carpenter director's credit. Here, at the end of all things, while munching popcorn, he laughs uproariously and desperately. You've got to love an ending like that!
This film really has it all: outstanding performances, great practical effects, a twisting story that feels like its own sort of psychosis, and the genius vision of John Carpenter.
While a lot of Carpenter's films from the 90's fall below his work from the 70's and 80's in terms of vision, this feels different. He spent the 1980's studying the decay and degradation of the terrible Reagan years, shining a light on the paranoia, consumerism, and greed that was destroying our society. Here, Carpenter shows us that after all of the insanity of the 1980's, the fear and madness gripped us all tightly and turned us into misshapen husks screaming wordlessly into the void. And he was 100% right.
This is also an indictment of the studio system. Carpenter creates his worlds out of nothing, shaping emptiness into life, but his career is one of being beholden to the money men behind the scenes. No matter how important or special he believes his work to be, those with more money and power can reshape it or even destroy it. At the end, when we see Cane attempting to hold back the mutant nightmare creatures at the door, you can imagine Carpenter desperately trying to keep some MGM executive out of the creative process. But you can only do so much, even if you are God, because those stygian horrors are going to break through eventually.
Other films I thought of: Oddly enough, I couldn't stop thinking about Double Indemnity. The character of Trent seems anachronistic, and Neill plays him as Mr. Too Damn Smart, which reminded me of the Fred MacMurray character.
Miscellany: The head of the publishing company that sends Trent out to find Cane is played by Charlton Heston. It was a nice surprise to see him featured here, and Carpenter always knows the best way to use his actors. It's a small role, but it's great, and Heston plays him as equal parts greedy and disinterested. The world is tearing itself apart at the seams, and he's just interested in the bottom line.
Recommendation: YES YES YES YES YES
Remarkably Good
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