IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS: Day 9 of 31

John Carpenter is one of those directors that really grew on me the more I watched his work.  Upon first viewing of the majority of his stuff, it can come off a little cheesy.  The dialogue is always a little hokey, the effects consists of practical rubber monster suits, and the soundtrack is usually comprised of 80's synth that he composed himself.  I remember the first time I watched a number of his movies, I wasn't a huge fan.  But somehow, I just felt the need to rewatch them.  Again and again... all those little things that used to take me out of the movie became things I looked forward to, and awaited their occurrence in other movies he's worked on.

Once you know what to expect out of Carpenter's films, there is something strangely comforting about his entire body of work.  Sure, most of them deal with the end of the world, or serial killers, or a dystopian future on the edge of ruin, but they all have them quirky charm to them.  And man, how that electronic keyboard has grown on me! 

One of my favorite John Carpenter films is In The Mouth Of Madness.  It's just such a great horror film, made for horror fans, by a horror fan.  It's dark. I mean, it's about the end of the world and the loss of sanity and rationality, but again, there's something "fun" about this flick.  It's not near as bleak as his previous two installments of his unofficial "End of the World Trilogy" (The Thing and Prince of Darkness (also amazing)).  Maybe it's because by the time the film comes to a close, the main character (Sam Neill) realizes it's just better to accept insanity, rather than be the last same man in a world full of crazy people (oh- spoiler).  Either way, the whole movie feels pretty upbeat, despite the dark subject matter.  But again, that's just kind of how Carpenter rolls, baby.

The storyline is about an insurance claims investigator (Neill), who is hired by a publishing company to locate their missing author, Sutter Kane.  Kane is an obvious facsimile for Stephen King, and even more obviously, H.P. Lovecraft.  In fact, the entire story is basically one big tribute to the horror master, and the film basically paraphrases his entire body of work.  Unimaginable creatures lurking outside the realm of man's domain.  Forces at work with greater power than one can understand.  Sights and tentacled monsters so awful they'll drive you mad (title).  This was Lovecraft's bread and butter.  His contribution to the horror genre can't be matched.  Except maybe by Poe. Maybe. Stephen King is definitely the only current genre author that has come close to being comparable, so it's kind of nice that this movie makes obvious references to both of them.  Even the titles of the books, and the locations the characters make their way to are direct references to Lovecraft.  So, to put it simply, if you like the shit in this movie, go buy a Lovecraft collection... go straight to the source.

Anyway, Sam Neill's character tracks the missing author to a fictional New England town straight out of his writing.  There he finds bizarre, possessed townspeople, an epic black church (as in, the church has black spires, not a black congregation) and enough slithering, slimy creatures to bring this into respectable creature feature-territory.  Neill's guide through the town, a woman the publisher sent with him, is convinced that Kane's writing has become real.  After all, his work has been known to have an effect on people (memory loss, dizziness, urge to grab an axe and chop people up in the middle of the street, headaches, etc.).  Neill spends the whole film denying that theory because it is impossible.  He's quick to note (many, many times) that we live in a rational world, and these things can't possibly exist.  However, the movie frequently poses the question that, our world is only rational because that's the point of view of the majority.  If the ratio suddenly shifted, and the insane people took the majority, would the rational be considered insane?  Something tells me, no, not really.  At least not in a literal stand point, but it's still an interesting thought experiment.  And as you would imagine, outside in the world, Kane's writing is driving everyone mad, thus preparing for an insanity-driven coup of the rational viewpoint. 

This is one of those movies with a lot of hallucinatory images, lots of false jumps, creepy people saying mysterious things and then walking away, etc.  It all fits in with the overall off-kilterness of the story though.  It helps you get into the frustrating mindset of a man losing his grip on reality, but still clinging to the idea that reality is reality; it can't be altered.  (spoiler- it can).


 Overall, this is a fun, fast-paced horror flick.  If you're a fan of horror novels, this should be a definite must-watch, and if you're a Lovecraft fanatic (either you've never heard of him or you love him), there's no way you shouldn't know about this.  Sam Neill brings an excellent performance as always, and the effects are great, in a dripping-rubber-monster-in-the-shadows kind of way.  You know, the things that all the recent CGI-laden films are missing.  But if you're a horror fan, you already know that too.

Carpenter is definitely one of those directors where I'll just go through a spurt where I'll crave all of his movies.  They've all got the same tone and feeling.  You could flip on any of them and instantly know you're watching a John Carpenter film.  There's only a couple other directors with as much to their body of work that I could say that about.  David Cronenberg would be another front-funner.  Both of them have a sort of comforting quality to their films (for me anyway) despite being about dark, gruesome things.  I guess it's just nice knowing what to expect.  If you want a cool protagonist, facing off against unimaginable evil, with an unflinching eye for great effects and gore, then look no further.  Oh, and the synth keyboard.  You're gonna get the synth too.