Subject: REVIEW: IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS

From: [email-masked] (berardinelli,james)
Date: Tue, 7 Feb 1995 21:45:49 GMT

IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS
		       A film review by James Berardinelli
			Copyright 1995 James Berardinelli
 
RATING (0 TO 10):  5.7 
 
Date Released: 2/3/95 
Running Length: 1:35 
Rated: R (Violence, gore, language, general weirdness) 
 
Starring: Sam Neill, Julie Carmen, Jurgen Prochnow, Charlton Heston, 
          David Warner 
Director: John Carpenter 
Producer: Sandy King 
Screenplay: MIchael De Luca 
Cinematography: Gary B. Kibbe 
Music: John Carpenter and Jim Lang 
Released by New Line Cinema 
 
     The commercials for IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS remind us that John
Carpenter is the man behind arguably the best modern horror film,
HALLOWEEN.  However, despite what the marketeers might wish us to
believe, the pictures have little in common except for a few
well-orchestrated scares.  HALLOWEEN was creepy, atmospheric, cunningly
scripted, and frightening.  IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS is confusing,
weird, and not very involving.

     It's easy to sit back and impassively be impressed by some of what
IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS attempts to do.  Without gratuitous sex or
gore, the film works to create an intelligent horror experience that
mixes nightmares, reality, and fantasy.  This is a tactic employed by
the far better WES CRAVEN'S LAST NIGHTMARE, and here it feels a bit
like a retread.  Also, in pursuit of all his nifty ideas and
mind-bending twists, writer Michael De Luca forgot to fashion
believable characters.  Despite a magnificently-entertaining
performance by Sam Neill, his John Trent never really connects on any
level with the audience.

     In trying to be inventive and unique, the story occasionally
manages instead to annoy and confuse.  There's too much of the
dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream and other similar stuff going on.
A little of this might have created a nice sense of ambiguity, but
Carpenter overdoes it.  As a result, his story gets buried too deeply
beneath the overriding question of whether Trent is real and insane or
a fictional character who's the only one aware of what's going on.

     The uncertainty about Trent's identity arises because of a case
he's on.  As a hardboiled insurance investigator, he's used to dealing
with cons, but the case of the missing Sutter Cane (Jurgen Prochnow) is
like nothing he's previously done.  Cane is a tremendously-popular,
bestselling horror author whose books not only sell out as quickly as
they arrive in stores, but have been known to provoke extreme reactions
in some readers.  Take Cane's agent, for example, who goes after Trent
with an axe because of a passage in the latest book, IN THE MOUTH OF
MADNESS.

     Anyway, Cane has disappeared and, accompanied by his editor, Linda
Styles (played without flair by Julie Carmen), Trent is charged with
the task of locating the missing author.  The trail, which grows
increasingly bizarre, takes the pair to the deserted town of Hobb's
End, New Hampshire.  At this point, we're reminded of sleepy Castle
Rock in NEEDFUL THINGS.  A little later, when we get a look at Cane's
back, THE PUPPET MASTERS springs to mind.

     Admittedly, an intellectual horror story is infinitely preferable
to a gory slasher flick, but IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS falls a step short
of being a worthy entry.  The final, missing ingredient--whether it's a
hero we can really root for, a more engaging script, or a better
actress as Linda--leaves Carpenter's latest firmly grounded in
mediocrity.  And, looking back to HALLOWEEN, we know he's capable of
rising far above that.  Maybe his next film, a remake of VILLAGE OF THE
DAMNED, will remind us of the kind of great horror the director can
give us.

- James Berardinelli ([email-masked])