From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Feb 13 18:16:31 1995 Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!news.funet.fi!news.eunet.fi!EU.net!howland.reston.ans.net!swrinde!sgiblab!pacbell.com!att-out!nntpa!not-for-mail From: webb+@cmu.edu (Jon A. Webb) Subject: REVIEW: IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS Message-ID: Followup-To: rec.arts.movies,rec.arts.sf.movies Summary: r.a.m.r. #03280 Originator: ecl@mtgp003 Keywords: author=Webb Sender: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Nntp-Posting-Host: mtgp003.mt.att.com Reply-To: webb+@cmu.edu (Jon A. Webb) Organization: School of Computer Science, CMU Date: Tue, 7 Feb 1995 21:35:47 GMT Approved: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com Lines: 66 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:2617 rec.arts.sf.reviews:717 IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS A film review by Jon A. Webb Copyright 1995 Jon A. Webb John Carpenter's "In the Mouth of Madness" Directed by John Carpenter Written by Michael De Luca With Sam Neill, Julie Carmen, Jurgen Porchnow, Charlton Heston IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS is one of those story-within-a-story movies, like THE LAST ACTION HERO and the last Freddie film. Given the only occasional success of these films, one wonders why they keep getting made; perhaps writers like the fun of writing, effectively, about themselves. The problem with this kind of movie is that it is very hard to motivate belief in the characters, because they are portrayed as being nothing more than a fiction. In the absence of belief there is no reason to care about what happens to them and hence no reason to care about the film. The result, in spite of whatever technical skill the director shows for horror films, is that the film falls flat. Another problem with the film is John Carpenter's failure to make any of his characters outside the central one three-dimensional. Sam Neill is the complete character here, and he is right up until the end, when he finally succumbs to the arbitrary manipulations of the script. Julie Carmen is okay through about half the film, when she starts acting odd. I suppose this is supposed to be the result of the book taking her over, or something like that, but it comes across as dull and strange. Charlton Heston and Jurgen Porchnow have small, inconsequential parts. I did like quite a bit of the film, though. John Carpenter is a real expert at making you jump; he excels at the technical aspects of horror film direction. And there's some oddness early on, when the Sam Neill character comes on to the Julie Carmen character and she turns him down. It's just a little creepy and unmotivated and you get the feeling something odd is going on, but you don't know what. I don't think that Carpenter intended the scene to play this way but it is effective in advancing the theme of the film nevertheless. The main technical problem underlying all of this is that making a film where you would actually care about the characters and plot would require too much background. You would have to be familiar with "Sutter Cain"'s novels, know about the plots the characters in the film think they're caught in, etc. This is far too much background for a feature-length film. I have, however, a solution. It would be for the filmmakers to drop the shallow and perhaps legally actionable (assuming King wasn't involved in this movie; somebody King did the production, so maybe I'm wrong) pretense that they're talking about someone other than Stephen King when they refer to the best-selling author of all these horror books and successful movies. Instead, they should've made a film where Stephen King really is the author and the town Sam Neill and Julie Carmen end up in is Castle Rock (not "Hobbe's End", which is a reference to "Crouch End," a Stephen King short story); let the dog the children are chasing be Cujo, and the children themselves those of the corn. Then those of us who follow Stephen King's prolific career would have familiar characters to care about and the fun of finding references to his novels and other films; the rest of the audience would at least have a few points of reference. It could have been a great, fun film instead of this technically good but in the end disappointing piece. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Feb 13 18:16:52 1995 Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!news.funet.fi!news.eunet.fi!EU.net!howland.reston.ans.net!swrinde!sgiblab!pacbell.com!att-out!nntpa!not-for-mail From: JBERARDINELL@delphi.com (berardinelli,james) Subject: REVIEW: IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS Message-ID: Followup-To: rec.arts.movies,rec.arts.sf.movies Summary: r.a.m.r. #03281 Originator: ecl@mtgp003 Keywords: author=Berardinelli Sender: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Nntp-Posting-Host: mtgp003.mt.att.com Reply-To: JBERARDINELL@delphi.com (berardinelli,james) Organization: - Date: Tue, 7 Feb 1995 21:45:49 GMT Approved: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com Lines: 76 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:2618 rec.arts.sf.reviews:718 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 (jberardinell@delphi.com) From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Feb 13 18:17:07 1995 Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!news.funet.fi!news.eunet.fi!EU.net!howland.reston.ans.net!swrinde!sgiblab!pacbell.com!att-out!nntpa!not-for-mail From: grossy@netcom.com (Eric Grossman) Subject: REVIEW: IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS Message-ID: Followup-To: rec.arts.movies,rec.arts.sf.movies Summary: r.a.m.r. #03282 Originator: ecl@mtgp003 Keywords: author=Grossman Sender: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Nntp-Posting-Host: mtgp003.mt.att.com Reply-To: grossy@netcom.com (Eric Grossman) Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Tue, 7 Feb 1995 21:48:45 GMT Approved: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com Lines: 52 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:2619 rec.arts.sf.reviews:719 IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS A film review by Eric Grossman Copyright 1995 LOS ANGELES INDEPENDENT An intelligent horror film is one of the most rare treasures a movie-goer can find. A genre with enormous potential to engage our minds as well as manipulate our emotions is most often just an excuse to thrill teenage boys with sliced organs and buckets of fake blood. Fortunately, John Carpenter, the director of HALLOWEEN, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, and THE THING, has once again given the horror film a much needed creative infusion with his new film, IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS. John Trent (Sam Neill) is a cynical private investigator who is hired by book publisher Jackson Harglow (Charlton Heston) to find Sutter Cane (Jurgen Prochnow), an hugely successful novelist whose work is known to have a disturbing, psychological effect on some of its readers. Cane had disappeared only days before his latest novel was to be finished and his frenzied fans have already begun rioting in the streets. Skeptical that he is being used as part of a publicity stunt, Trent nevertheless decides to take the case. After a few sleepless nights reading Cane's previous fiction, he deduces that author has hidden himself away in Hobbs' End, a village that is not on any New England map. Trent and Cane's editor, Linda Styles (Julie Carmen) travel to the town where the true "horror beyond description" begins. Owing a great deal to the works of H. P. Lovecraft, an early Twentieth Century author who, next to Edgar Allan Poe, is considered to be the horror genre's most influential writer, MADNESS is about indescribable terror. Creating suspense and tension on a cerebral level, Carpenter and screenwriter Michael De Luca have succeeded in alluding to the horror more often than showing it, and when the "things" in the dark are revealed, it is in such a way that enacts genuine fright, not simple revulsion or laughter. Neill is perfectly cast in his difficult role as Trent. He employs the right amount of humor and sarcasm to create a likable character who we care about as he leads us on a macabre journey where the reality we take for granted is ever changing. Julie Carmen gives a sharp performance as Styles, Cane's tough editor who discovers that she knows a little too much about the village of Hobbs' End. In addition to Heston and Prochnow, the supporting cast includes fine performances from David Warner and John Glover. Powerful imagery, sharp editing and better than average special effects create moments that are real nail-biters. This is the best horror film I've seen in years. It's great to see John Carpenter back in true form. Movies like this should be seen on a big screen with a good crowd. If you like mystery and a good scare, don't miss this one, or who knows how many years you'll have to wait for the next one.