In the Mouth of Madness

This article is about the film. For other uses, see In the Mouth of Madness (disambiguation). "Sutter Cane" redirects here. Not to be confused with Sutter Kain.

In the Mouth of Madness
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	John Carpenter
Written by	Michael De Luca
Produced by	Sandy King
Starring	Sam Neill Julie Carmen Jürgen Prochnow Charlton Heston
Cinematography	Gary B. Kibbe
Edited by	Edward A. Warschilka
Music by	John Carpenter Jim Lang
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release dates	December 10, 1994 (1994-12-10) (Italy) February 3, 1995 (1995-02-03) (United States)
Running time	95 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$8 million
Box office	$8.9 million (domestic)

In the Mouth of Madness is a 1994 American supernatural horror film directed and scored by John Carpenter and written by Michael De Luca. It stars Sam Neill, Julie Carmen, Jürgen Prochnow, David Warner and Charlton Heston. Neill stars as John Trent, an insurance investigator who visits a small town while looking into the disappearance of a successful author of horror novels, and begins to question his sanity as the lines between reality and fiction seem to blur. Informally, the film is the third installment in what Carpenter refers to as his "Apocalypse Trilogy", preceded by The Thing (1982) and Prince of Darkness (1987).

In the Mouth of Madness pays tribute to the works of author H. P. Lovecraft in its exploration of insanity, and its title is derived from the Lovecraft novella At the Mountains of Madness. Distributed by New Line Cinema, In the Mouth of Madness received mixed reviews upon release.

Plot

In New York City, insurance investigator John Trent escapes an attack by an axe-wielding man with deformed pupils. John investigates a claim by book publisher Arcane, concerning the disappearance of acclaimed horror author Sutter Cane before the impending release of his latest work, In The Mouth of Madness. Arcane director Jackson Harglow assigns Sutter's editor, Linda Styles, to assist John. Linda tells John that Sutter's less stable fans experience disorientation, memory loss, and paranoia after reading his books, but he dismisses the claims as an elaborate publicity stunt.

John realizes Sutter's book covers reveal a map to the fictional town of Hobb's End, New Hampshire, the setting of Sutter's works. John and Linda drive toward the area. While he sleeps, Linda witnesses surreal events, including passing a young cyclist who later appears as an elderly man claiming that he is not allowed to leave, and the road being replaced by clouds. They abruptly arrive in Hobb's End. John and Linda explore the town, encountering landmarks from Sutter's novels, and rest at the local hotel, staffed by one of his characters, Mrs Pickner. John believes the experience to be staged, but Linda admits that only Sutter's disappearance was faked. The pair travel to the church, which Sutter's books describe as built atop a site of ancient evil predating mankind, filled with pain and suffering beyond comprehension. Linda seemingly predicts the arrival of enraged townsfolk who demand Sutter return their children.

At the hotel, Linda claims that events are occurring as written within In The Mouth of Madness, which depicts the end of everything. Linda returns to the church and confronts Sutter, who exposes her to his incomplete manuscript, which drives her insane. Sutter admits that he believed his stories were fictional, but learned that "they" were guiding him. Disoriented, Linda returns to the hotel and warns John against reading the manuscript. Mrs Pickner and Linda transform into monsters, causing John to flee in his car. He is cornered by a mob of mutated townsfolk and takes shelter in a bar where one of the residents commits suicide, stating he was written to do so. John leaves Hobb's End, but is repeatedly teleported back to the center of town. After crashing his car, John awakens inside the church with Linda and Sutter.

Sutter explains that the vast number of people who believe in his work have made their narratives real, blurring the lines between reality and fantasy, and enabling the return of the "old ones". Sutter claims that he wrote Hobb's End and John into existence, and that it was his agent who attacked John, having read extracts that depict John returning the finished manuscript to Arcane and ending the world. John refuses to believe he is a fictional character, but Sutter instructs him to follow a tunnel back to reality with the manuscript. Sutter tears himself apart, opening a portal for the old ones. Linda refuses to escape with John because she has read the ending, and John flees, pursued by inhuman monsters. He suddenly awakens on a country road.

John destroys the manuscript and returns to Arcane, where Jackson says he has no knowledge of Linda. Jackson tells John that he delivered the manuscript months earlier and In the Mouth of Madness has been published, with a film adaptation due soon. Sometime later, a disheveled John encounters a Sutter fan with mutated eyes and murders him with an axe, leading to John's confinement in a mental asylum.

Having recounted his story to a doctor, John states that humanity will become extinct and just a myth "they" tell to their children. At night, John hears inhumans sounds and screams before his cell door is ripped open. He discovers the asylum abandoned, and overhears a radio broadcast announcing that an epidemic of extreme violence and mutated humans has affected all civilization, with entire cities lost. John visits a cinema and watches the In the Mouth of Madness movie. As he sees his previous actions play out on screen, including himself affirming "this is reality", John begins laughing and crying hysterically.

Cast

Sam Neill (pictured in 2010), Julie Carmen (2009), and Jürgen Prochnow (2012)

• Sam Neill as John Trent
• Julie Carmen as Linda Styles
• Jürgen Prochnow as Sutter Cane
• David Warner as Dr. Wrenn
• John Glover as Saperstein
• Bernie Casey as Robinson
• Peter Jason as Mr. Paul
• Charlton Heston as Jackson Harglow

In addition, Frances Bay plays Mrs. Pickman, while Wilhelm von Homburg appears as Simon. Hayden Christensen makes his film debut, briefly seen as a paper boy.

Production

Michael De Luca wrote the script in the late 1980s and one of the first directors he offered it to was John Carpenter, who initially passed on the project. New Line Cinema later announced production in 1989 with director Tony Randel to direct. Later, Mary Lambert was also attached to direct. Finally, Carpenter signed on as director in December, 1992, and filming took place from August to October, 1993. The film had a budget of approximately $8 million.

The town scenes in Hobb's End were filmed on Main Street Unionville, and the exterior of the Black Church is actually the Cathedral of the Transfiguration. Both are located in Markham, Ontario. The rest of the film was shot on location in Toronto, Ontario due to its unique mix of "New York skyscrapers and New England remoteness" according to Carpenter.

The visual effects for the film were done by Industrial Light & Magic, and the practical effects (including creature prosthetics and animatronics) were done by the KNB EFX Group. It took seven weeks for KNB to create all the practical effects for the film, the biggest of which was an "eighteen-foot Wall of Monsters" that was mounted on rollers and operated by a crew of twenty-five people. "We had under seven million [dollars] to spend on the picture", Carpenter said in 2001. "It was tough. The monsters had to be outrageous Lovecraftian demons, but in H.P. Lovecraft's novels, they are always so horrible that they are beyond description, that they are too terrifying to see. So how do you visualize something like that? Well, very, very quickly. They also had to be slightly cartoonish since Sam Neill spends most of the movie ridiculing horror only to discover it's all too real."

Influences

In the Mouth of Madness pays tribute to the work of seminal horror writer H. P. Lovecraft, with many references to his stories and themes. Its title is a play on Lovecraft's novella, At the Mountains of Madness, and insanity plays as great a role in the film as it does in Lovecraft's fiction. The opening scene depicts Trent's confinement in an asylum, with the bulk of the story told in flashback, a common technique of Lovecraft. Reference is made to Lovecraftian settings and details (such as a character who shares the name of Lovecraft's Pickman family). Sutter Cane's novels have similar titles to H.P. Lovecraft stories: The Whisperer of the Dark (The Whisperer in Darkness), The Thing in the Basement (The Thing on the Doorstep), Haunter out of Time (The Haunter of the Dark/The Shadow Out of Time), and The Hobbs End Horror (The Dunwich Horror), the latter also referencing Hobbs End underground station from Nigel Kneale's Quatermass and the Pit.

The film also can be seen as referencing Stephen King, who, like Lovecraft, writes horror fiction set in New England hamlets. In fact, the characters even directly compare King (unfavorably) to Sutter Cane within the film itself. Linda Styles tells Trent early in the film, "You can forget about Stephen King, Cane outsells them all!"

The film's main theme, heard during the opening credits, was inspired by the Metallica song "Enter Sandman". Carpenter had originally wanted to use the song, but was unable to secure the rights and instead composed his own theme, with the help of composer Jim Lang and guitarist Dave Davies of The Kinks.

Release

Box office

In the Mouth of Madness premiered at Germany's Fantasy FilmFest on August 10, 1994 and was released in the United States on February 3, 1995. For its worldwide release, the film opened at the #4 spot and grossed $3,441,807 in 1,510 theaters in its first weekend. It fell to #7 in its second week before leaving the top 10 in week three. The film ended up grossing $8,924,549 on a budget ranging from $8 million to $14 million, making it a box-office failure.

Critical reception

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, In the Mouth of Madness holds an approval rating of 60% based on 50 reviews, with a weighted average rating of 5.8/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "If it fails to make the most of its intriguing premise, In the Mouth of Madness remains a decent enough diversion for horror fans and John Carpenter completists." On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 53 out of 100 based on 17 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Critics generally commended the film on its technical aspects, particularly its special effects, acting, and directing, but perceived it as being too complicated, confusing, pretentious, and underwhelming. Roger Ebert gave the film two out of four stars, saying that the film has an intriguing premise, but squanders it by relying on hackneyed jump scares and gore, taking the form of "a horror house movie, in which the protagonists creep along while creatures leap at them." Gene Siskel gave the film the same rating, as did James Berardinelli, who said the film "comes close to doing something interesting but gets cold feet" and is "confusing, weird, and not very involving", comparing the film to buying an exotic sports car only to drive it slowly. Lisa Schwarzbaum, writing in Entertainment Weekly, gave the film a C rating, remarking that "much of it [is] bloatedly self-indulgent and a small part wicked funny", with only a smattering of successful moments.

In fully positive reviews from the time period, Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called it "a thinking person's horror picture that dares to be as cerebral as it is visceral". John Hartl of the Seattle Times also gave the film a positive review, saying it's "a stylized collection of well-timed shockers, helped along by the contributions of its capable cast." The Chicago Reader gave it three stars, calling it "a must see". In a later review, Chris Stuckmann also awarded the film with an "A," noting its ambition, creativity, and originality alongside Carpenter's direction. Reel Film Reviews gave the film three out of four stars.

French magazine Cahiers du Cinéma listed the film as #10 on its 1995 Top 10 List.

Awards

Award	Category	Nominee(s)	Result
22nd Saturn Awards	Best Horror Film	In the Mouth of Madness	Nominated
	Best Make-Up	(K.N.B. EFX Group Inc.)	Nominated
Fantasporto	Critics' Award	John Carpenter	Won
	Best Film		Nominated

Home media

Following the early VHS releases, a Blu-ray version of the film by New Line Cinema was released in 2013. In 2016, the film was re-released on DVD by Warner Archive Collection. In 2018, Shout! Factory re-released the film under its Scream Factory sub-label as a Collector's Edition Blu-ray.

External links

• In the Mouth of Madness at IMDb
• In the Mouth of Madness at AllMovie
• In the Mouth of Madness at Rotten Tomatoes
• In the Mouth of Madness at theofficialjohncarpenter.com