In the Mouth of Madness (1994)
Average Rating: 5/10
Reviews Counted: 32
Fresh: 15 | Rotten: 17
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 4.6/10
Critic Reviews: 9
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 7
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 23,271
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
Feb 3, 1995 Wide
Feb 8, 2000
New Line Home Entertainment
Watch It Now
Cast
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Sam Neill
John Trent -
Julie Carmen
Linda Styles -
Jürgen Prochnow
Sutter Cane -
Charlton Heston
Jackson Harglow -
David Warner
Dr. Wrenn -
John Glover
Saperstein -
Frances Bay
Mrs. Pickman -
Tom Bell
Farmer -
Conrad Bergschneider
Axe Maniac -
Bernie Casey
Robinson -
Peter Jason
Paul -
Gene Mack
Guard #2 -
Sean Roberge
Desk Clerk -
Deborah Theaker
Municipal Woman -
Wilhelm von Homburg
Simon -
Dennis O'Connor
Cop -
Ben Gilbert
Young Teen -
Sharon Dyer
Homeless Lady -
Garry Robbins
Truck Driver -
Marvin Scott
Reporter -
Carolyn Tweedle
Nurse -
Kevin Zegers
Kid -
Hayden Christensen
Paper Boy
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All Critics (37) | Top Critics (13) | Fresh (15) | Rotten (17) | DVD (12)
A thinking person's horror picture that dares to be as cerebral as it is visceral.
Top CriticOne wonders how In the Mouth of Madness might have turned out if the script had contained even a little more wit and ambition.
A stylized collection of well-timed shockers, helped along by the contributions of its capable cast.
Confusing, weird, and not very involving.
Hardly terrifying, but where Carpenter fails in that device he makes up for in ambitious leaps of mind-boggling and odd entertainment.
Finely attuned to the disquieting realm of the irrational.
best of the post-cold war carpenter movies
Not Carpenter's worst, but it tries.
Too all over the place to be effectively scary. I suppose it's an accurate portrait of insanity, but too hard to follow.
Kind of scary return to form for Carpenter.
Carpenter can't establish the kind of welling dread that Lovecraft conjured, so he shifts to makeup and pyrotechnics.
This is terror at its most delicious.
The names are big, but the payoff is small.
After awhile, the redundancies begin to hamper the narrative, and it becomes rather tiresome.
Limp performances and ludicrous special effects remove this study of reality from any sense of it.
Great fun to watch, with even the requisite cheap shocks doling out a good jolt.
A fun, clever horror picture, full of creepy crawlies, things that go bump in the night, and references to everyone from H.P. Lovecraft to Dario Argento.
Horrormeister John Carpenter (of Halloween fame) is back in fine form as a master of suspense and ghoulish fantasy.
Audience Reviews for In the Mouth of Madness
When renowned horror writer Sutter Cane (Jurgen Prochnow) makes a sudden disappearance, strange things begin to happen. His ability to describe evil, literally, starts to come to life and effect everyone in society. To investigate his mysterious disappearance, Insurance investigator John Trent (Sam Neill) is sent to a little East Coast town called Hobb's End. However, this little town is actually a figment of Cane's imagination and Trent soon finds himself questioning his own sanity as he is drawn further and further into the dark recesses of Cane's twisted mind.
As always with Carpenter, the concept and premise is one of sheer brilliance and it possesses more than few references to real life horror writers Stephen King and H.P. Lovecraft but unlike his previous efforts there is something amiss here. Maybe it's because Carpenter doesn't actually write the script himself or even compose the soundtrack with the idiosyncratic and atmospheric style that fans of his will be accustomed to. Despite the excellent premise, I found that the films major issue was a lack of drive. It didn't catch me the way it did when I first seen it. Also, it suffers from a failure to bring a depth to any character other than Sam Neill's investigator. Sutter Cane is a very intriguing antagonist with a lot of potential but he features very little and when he does appear, the films budget is tested in order to realise it's horror. All in all, this struck me as an attempt from Carpenter to appeal to a wider audience and as a result sacrificed the very style that made him a unique filmmaker to begin with. That's not to say that this is a poor film. It's not. It's very cleverly constructed and for the most part, very well delivered. Carpenter is a master at his build up and construction of atmosphere, meanwhile, cleverly unravelling the mystery. However, the film takes a little too long to get going and just when it's hitting it crescendo, it feels rushed and over a bit too soon.
For the most part, Carpenter does well to blur the lines between fantasy and reality but ultimately it doesn't quite come together as obscurity and pretentiousness creep in. It's a great attempt, but Carpenter has delivered better.
Mark Walker
Super Reviewer
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- Axe Maniac: Do you read Sutter Cane?
-
- 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.
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- John Trent: It's Cane's story and it'll spread with each new reader. That's how it gets its power.
- Dr. Wrenn: What about the people who don't read?
- John Trent: (smiles) There's a movie.
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- John Trent: (talks to a teenage boy reading a Sutter Cane book) Like the book?
- Young Teen: I love it.
- John Trent: (pulls out an axe) Good. Then this shouldn't come as a surprise. (Kills the teenager)
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- John Trent: (about the new book) Have you read it?
- Paul: No. I never read Cane's work. I haven't got the stomach for it.
- 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.
- Paul: Well, let's hope so. The movie comes out next month.
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- Sutter Cane: (on the bus with John Trent) I'm not going anywhere. I'm God now. You understand?
- John Trent: God's not supposed to be a hack horror writer.
- Sutter Cane: But maybe I can help you believe. Look around when you wake up. Did I ever tell you my favorite color was blue? (Everything on the bus turns blue)
- John Trent: (frightened) Aaaaahhhhhhh!
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Movie: ID: 13576 Title: In the Mouth of Madness Release Date: 1995-02-03 00:00:00.0 MPAA: 4 Status: 1
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Foreign Titles
- L'Antre de la folie (FR)
- En la boca del miedo (ES)
Apparently, the only thing worse than being stuck in a hack Sutter Cane story is being stuck in a hack John Carpenter movie.