New Line Cinema released In the Mouth of Madness on 3 February 1995. It was first released in late-1994 in Italy. I’m not sure why. But the film did not perform particularly well. And I find this amazing. It’s one of my very favorite films!
I’m not a huge Lovecraft fan. His fiction is pretty boring. I think he is a lot like Philip K Dick. The movie industry took a man with relatively limited talent and created great art — far beyond what the original could ever imagine much less render.
What am I saying? Re-Animator is better than anything Lovecraft ever did. And so is The Last Lovecraft: Relic of Cthulhu. But In the Mouth of Madness may well be the best ever.
But what I love is not the Lovecraft aspects of Madness. All that works. But it works because it is in the background. Whenever the Old Ones are presented clearly on film, they just come off as angry cephalopods.
What makes In the Mouth of Madness great is the unreliable narrator. Even better: the unreliable narrator is a rationalist. He thinks he has a clear view of the universe. So he doesn’t deal well with learning that he’s just a character in someone else’s story.
There are other things to like. John Carpenter is a great director. A big part of that is that he lacks pretense. His films are directed clearly. And he works great with actors, who almost always give exceptional performances. Sam Neill has never been better than he is here. And the supporting actors are equally good.
And what about that ending?! Some people would hate it. But as John Trent sits there laughing himself to insanity, we are with him. What did we just see? We’ve thought about the Apocalypse. And now that we’ve been through it, we know we never had any chance to understand. Laugh until you cry!
In the Mouth of Madness (1994) poster via Wikipedia under Fair Use.
