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A fantastic tagline ('Lived any good books lately?') and a well-made, chilling composited effect image of horrific elements springing from a book's pages make up this poster for John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness
Our protagonist is an insurance company investigator, who gets locked up in a padded cell, seemingly insane. What made him so? He was on a mission to locate the world's best-selling horror author, but said author's disturbing fiction led to a town that doesn't exist ...
In the Mouth of Madness is written by Michael De Luca (Dark Justice (1991-93)) and directed by New-Yorker master filmmaker John Carpenter (Dark Star (1974)), whose 13th feature it is.
Winding, dark and strange, In the Mouth of Madness has good monster effects but also becomes involuntarily funny along the way. Julie Carmen (Killer Snake (2004, short)) is really bad as the character Linda Styles, and Sam Neill (Rams (2020)) fails to carry this post-modernist-enthused deconstructionist invention.
Related posts:
John Carpenter: Cigarette Burns (2005, TV movie) - Carpenter burns out in weird, tiresome TV movie
Dario Argento: An Eye For Horror (2000, TV documentary) - Great bio-doc of master filmmaker Dario Argento (interview subject)
Escape from L.A./John Carpenter's Escape from L.A./Escape from Los Angeles (1996) or, Snake Plissken in Crazy-World!
Christine (1983) or, Bad Plymouth!
Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) - Evil masks ravage in Wallace's under-appreciated horror (uncredited writing)
Top 10: Best future-set movies
Escape from New York (1981) - Carpenter introduces Kurt Russell as action star in dystopic dream
Top 10: Best first-of-franchise movies
Halloween (1978) - Carpenter's haunting slasher classic
Top 10: The best action movies and TV-series reviewed by Film Excess to date
Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) - Solid action guerilla film-making
Watch a trailer for the movie here
Cost: 8 mil. $
Box office: In excess of 8.9 mil. $ (North America alone)
= Uncertain but likely a big flop (projected return of 1.87 times its cost)
[In the Mouth of Madness premiered 10 August, Fantasy FilmFest, Germany) and runs 95 minutes. De Luca wrote the script in the late 1980s. Carpenter has himself stated that it was given a 7 mil. $ budget, but as it is listed as 8 in several places, it must have gone over budget by a million. Shooting took place from August - October 1993 in Ontario, including in Toronto. The film opened #4, behind holdover hit Legends of the Fall and fellow new releases Boys on the Side and Jerky Boys, to a 3.4 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd weekend and grossed 8.9 mil. $. The film's international gross numbers are regrettably not reported. If it had a subdued reception internationally, a 15 mil. $ final gross is likely, which would rank the film a big flop. Roger Ebert gave it a 2/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Carpenter returned with Village of the Damned (1995). Neill returned in Country Life (1994). In the Mouth of Madness is fresh at 60 % with a 5.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of In the Mouth of Madness?
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