August 4, 2018
Written by: Michael De Luca
Starring: Sam Neill, Jürgen Prochnow, Julie Carmen
Budget: $8,000,000
Quote: Every species can smell its own extinction. The last ones left won't have a pretty time with it. In ten years, maybe less, the human race will just be a bedtime story for their children. A myth, nothing more
Trivia: The Sutter Cane character is clearly based on John Carpenter's friend Stephen King, even referencing King's New England roots, with Hobb's End filling in for King's Castle Rock. Carpenter directed a film version of King's Christine (1983).
I've been on a John Carpenter kick for a bit now and one of his most beloved films that I have never seen is In the Mouth of Madness. Starring the younger doctor (the Dinosaurs came from birds guy) from Jurassic Park (Sam Neill), In the Mouth of Madness is a horror film that belongs in the H.P. Lovecraft cosmic horror tradition. It is bleak, depressing, full of despair, and absent of any clear narrative. Upon watching, one gets that feeling that they are experiencing the same madness that the characters are dealing with in the film. Madness, reality, sanity, and insanity are all subjective terms in the universe this film creates. Directed by John Carpenter, this film has some of the best practical effects anyone could ask for!
The film begins with John Trent (Sam Neil) who has committed a horrific crime and is now institutionalized. He goes forth to tell his story. He began as an insurance fraud specialist whose parent company insures the world's most popular writer, Sutter Cane, a horror novelists. Cane has a devoted fan base who often times experience memory loss and paranoia while and after reading his novels. Cane recently disappeared and now it is John Trent's job along with Cane's editor Linda Styles (Julie Carmen), to find him. Trent originally thinks the disappearance and odd behavior of his readers is just a publicity stunt. Even when Cane's publicist tries to murder him with an axe while he's having lunch at a cafe. Eventually Trent discovers a secret map hidden his Cane's novel covers which leads him to the supposed fictional town of Hobb's End.
While on his way, Trent and Styles experience weird circumstances, including deja vu and the hitting of an elderly person on a bicycle with their car who immediately gets up and runs away. Eventually they make it to Hobb's End where they meet Sutter Cane who shares with them his new novel In the Mouth of Madness which causes Julie to go mad become a religious devotee of Cane and he tasks Trent with delivering the novel to the world which will bring down the destruction of the human race.
What makes In the Mouth of Madness such a great film is its disorienting use of time. Time repeats, characters go through the same scenes over and over which no one (the characters or the viewer) sure if this is simply deja vu or they are really repeating the same thing or more likely, that the character has gone insane and is just imagining this? What's starts out as a fairly clear linear narrative begins to bend and curve and loop until if asked to explain the film, it becomes an almost impossible task. It is the inability to comprehend reality that is the definition of insanity.
Being a John Carpenter film, almost all the special effects are practical (no computers) and amazing! There is this great scene where Linda's Style's character does this upside down crab walk while her head remains upright and then turns its body around to scamper away like a dog with her head now upside down. This scene is reminiscent of the crab walk down the stairs in the Exorcist Director's Cut. There are also some great monsters that Trent sees while trying to escape Hobb's End. The monsters are these giant mutant insect type of creatures that chase Trent. Even the brief use of CG is done carefully and to great effect. Towards the end of the film, the harbinger of the apocalypse, Sutter Cane, annihilates himself by ripping apart the paper fabric of the reality of which the novel existence he has created exists. If it sounds confusing, basically he tears apart himself like he's a piece of paper. What is left being is this great practical effect created paper background.
SPOILERS: Do Not Read If You Do Not Want The Ending Spoiled
I love H.P. Lovecraft's cosmic horror which goes beyond the slasher horrors (that I do love so much) and brings forth a universal despair from which no hope can be realized. The idea that we, as a human race and as individuals, were doomed before we even existed is a disturbing thought. One that is probably true given that all species eventually go extinct and that all of us will one day die. It is this truth which lingers at the back of both our individual and collective minds that makes H.P. Lovecraft stories and inspired films so painful. In the movie, Cane's final novel was meant to bring forth a race of monsters to exterminate humanity.
When Trent eventually gets back to reality and, despite all his attempts at destroying the book, delivers the book to the world dooming the human race. While locked in the asylum he hears an attack outside his cell and is let out. After leaving he sees the aftermath of the attack with blood smeared everywhere and not a soul to be seen. A radio news broadcast announces the mass suicides, homicides, and deaths from the various monsters. Trent wanders into a theater where he watches the film adaptation of In the Mouth of Madness. Noticing himself on the screen, he begins hysterically laughing and the laughter turns to sobs. Are these tears over the realization that exists within the narrative? Does he have a reality outside of the story? Or are these tears over the realization that he brought forth this annihilation of humanity? Or are these tears over the possibility that none of this exists and that he is quite possibly still locked in an institution have delusions?
Dark, confusing and deeply depressing, In the Mouth of Madness is a brief view into madness from which few people escape.
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