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In the Mouth of Madness

In the Mouth of Madness (1994)

tomatometer

22

Average Rating: 4.6/10
Critic Reviews: 9
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 7

No consensus yet.

audience

72

liked it
Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 22,643

My Rating

Movie Info

Hired to help locate a missing author, an insurance investigator discovers to his terror that the nightmarish events depicted in the writer's best-selling horror novels are coming true. Wishing to be both a horror film and a parody of the genre, John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness combines supernatural thrills with winking references. For instance, the vanished author, Sutter Cane (Jürgen Prochnow), is modeled on writers like Stephen King and Howard Phillips Lovecraft, from his great

R, 1 hr. 34 min.

Horror

Feb 8, 2000

New Line Home Entertainment

Cast

All Critics (37) | Top Critics (12) | Fresh (14) | Rotten (17) | DVD (12)

A thinking person's horror picture that dares to be as cerebral as it is visceral.

February 13, 2001 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | Comment
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

One wonders how In the Mouth of Madness might have turned out if the script had contained even a little more wit and ambition.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | Comments (2)
Chicago Sun-Times
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Cheesy horror celebrating the power of cheesy horror, while pretending to be appalled.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | Comment
San Francisco Chronicle
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A stylized collection of well-timed shockers, helped along by the contributions of its capable cast.

January 1, 2000 Comment
Film.com
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Confusing, weird, and not very involving.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: ReelViews | Comment
ReelViews
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Finely attuned to the disquieting realm of the irrational.

April 22, 2010 Full Review Source: Lessons of Darkness | Comment
Lessons of Darkness

best of the post-cold war carpenter movies

April 3, 2006 Comment

Not Carpenter's worst, but it tries.

July 8, 2004 Comment
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

Too all over the place to be effectively scary. I suppose it's an accurate portrait of insanity, but too hard to follow.

July 14, 2003 Comment
About.com

Kind of scary return to form for Carpenter.

March 4, 2003 Comment
Juicy Cerebellum

Carpenter can't establish the kind of welling dread that Lovecraft conjured, so he shifts to makeup and pyrotechnics.

February 28, 2002 Full Review Source: Goatdog's Movies | Comment (1)
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for In the Mouth of Madness

Soft like yellow baby poop.Apparently, the only thing worse than being stuck in a hack Sutter Cane story is being stuck in a hack John Carpenter movie.

October 6, 2007
brooklynspo

Super Reviewer

I enjoy this one very much. It didn't do to well at the box office and critics and fans alike have panned this. I've always had a feeling that over time, it would find its' audience and be appreciated. In the Mouth of Madness is a spooky movie influenced in part by H.P. Lovecraft, but make no mistake...this is all

March 26, 2008
DrBenway
El Hombre Invisible

Super Reviewer

    1. Axe Maniac: Do you read Sutter Cane?
    – Submitted by Greg A (3 months ago)
    1. John Trent: Every species can smell its own extinction. The last ones left won't have a pretty time of it. And in ten years, maybe less, the human race will just be a bedtime story for their children. A myth, nothing more.
    – Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)
    1. John Trent: It's Cane's story and it'll spread with each new reader. That's how it gets its power.
    2. Dr. Wrenn: What about the people who don't read?
    3. John Trent: (smiles) There's a movie.
    – Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)
    1. John Trent: (talks to a teenage boy reading a Sutter Cane book) Like the book?
    2. Young Teen: I love it.
    3. John Trent: (pulls out an axe) Good. Then this shouldn't come as a surprise. (Kills the teenager)
    – Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)
    1. John Trent: (about the new book) Have you read it?
    2. Paul: No. I never read Cane's work. I haven't got the stomach for it.
    3. John Trent: Pull it. Don't distribute it. Even if everything I've said is totally Looney Tunes...I know this book will drive people crazy.
    4. Paul: Well, let's hope so. The movie comes out next month.
    – Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

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