‘In the Mouth of Madness’: 25 Years and Strange Aeons Later

in the mouth of madness
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Lovecraft is having a sort of renaissance on the big screen as of late, with tropes and direct adaptations cosmically whirring in our subconscious. And why wouldn’t they? Lovecraftian themes live in the contamination of the mind, and the deep interdimensional possibilities of our cosmos. Between society’s crazed antics blurring our ideas of sanity and Marvel promoting the crossover possibilities of a “multiverse for every medium,” horror audiences are ripe and ready for the return to stories by one Howard Phillips Lovecraft

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It’s been less than two weeks since the limited release of Richard Stanley’s Lovecraft adaptation Color out of Space, and according to his interview on Postmortem with Mick Garris, this won’t be his last Lovecraft adaptation. SpectreVision has enticed the excitedly unique director into a Lovecraftian trilogy, tackling The Dunwich Horror and a third, as of yet unnamed, Lovecraft story (due to copyright acquisitions, it’s all very hush-hush…one might speculate, however, that a very infamous Great Old One may be involved…).

It’s been 25 years since Stanley was unceremoniously fired from The Island of Dr. Moreau, the last studio feature he worked on before 2020. Around the same time Stanley was wandering around Australia in a Dick Smith dog mask, horror icon John Carpenter was finishing his ode-to-Lovecraft and what some might say was also Carpenter’s last great filmic accomplishment. A testament to literary madness and interdimensional terror, In the Mouth of Madness was released on February 3rd, 1995. 

Revisiting the story of John Trent, a skeptical insurance investigator who has been charged with finding cash-cow horror writer Sutter Cane for Arcane Publishing, there’s enough significance and nuance that the film holds an ageless quality. At the time of its release, In the Mouth of Madness was revered for its technical style, special FX (provided by KNB), and acting talent, however was panned for a convoluted story. But the script, penned by Michael De Luca in the early ’80s, may have just been about 25 years before its time. The film’s narrative boasts inexorable themes that hold up a mirror to the very culture of storytelling.

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In the Mouth of Madness is the story of John Trent, portrayed with a patient fervor by the enigmatic Sam Neill. Told almost entirely in flashback, Trent recounts his tale surrounded by crosses of black crayon in the midst of an unknown cataclysm happening beyond asylum walls. His task was to locate Sutter Cane (Jürgen Prochnow)- the world’s best-selling horror author- who has gone missing with the deadline of his final novel on the horizon. The search leads Trent and editor Linda Styles (Julie Carmen) to Hobb’s End, an apparent ghost town that soon unravels in a psychic, monster-clad narrative of Cane’s own creation. As Trent struggles to accept the fraying edges of the world, the characters of Cane’s latest book pull on the threads as reality dissolves and Cane’s final novel breaks the fabric of dimensions. And once the world reads the final work of Sutter Cane, the insane become the majority. The great old beasts rip into our reality, intent on destruction.

In the Mouth of Madness borrows many tropes and ideas from the Lovecraft world without directly adapting one of his stories, breathing new life into the strange eons we had gone without new Lovecraftian work. The Pickman Inn, a name borrowed by the short story Pickman’s Model; the titles of Cane’s previous work (The Whisperer in the Dark, Haunter out of Time, etc.) all slightly tweaked titles of actual Lovecraft stories (The Whisperer in Darkness, Haunter of the Dark, and The Shadow out of Time), and the strange monsters themselves – gleaned from the mind of the author to grandiose and grotesque effect. Sure, Stuart Gordon and Brian Yuzna had successfully adapted several of Lovecraft’s works, but In the Mouth of Madness was a wholly new experience, playing with the idea of an author’s ability to shape the reality of his or her readers.

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In the Mouth of Madness is the third film in what would come to be known as Carpenter’s Apocalypse Trilogy. In the company of The Thing (1982) and Prince of Darkness (1987), In the Mouth of Madness tackled themes of world-ending phenomenon taking place in mundane, sparsely populated locale. Carpenter is well-known for his love of the cosmic horror writer which is probably what drew him back to the project after many years of De Luca’s script being passed around Hollyweird. As Den of Geek writer Mark Harrison astutely points out, if The Thing represents the breakdown of the individual, and Prince of Darkness the breakdown of God, then In the Mouth of Madness captures the destruction of reality with terrific practical effects and mind-bending story. 

The film also boasts a myriad of talent, with veterans such as Charlton Heston portraying the CEO of Arcane Publishing. On set, he would often share his own stories of the “great, golden age” of cinema, much to the cast and crews’ enjoyment. Grandmother-for-life Frances Bay offers a frighteningly bipolar performance as the sweet, yet sinister, Mrs. Pickman. David Warner sandwiches the narrative in a brief but storied appearance as Dr. Wrenn, the concerned psychiatrist interviewing Trent in the aftermath of cosmic turmoil. John Glover cameos as Saperstein, the eccentric warden to the asylum with a penchant for music by The Carpenters (a nod almost too perfect to ignore, considering John Carpenter and Jim Lang composed the heavy metal-influenced score for the film). And a quick bite from a fair-haired mailboy who would later grow up to be known as Anakin Skywalker, aka Hayden Christensen.

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What makes the film so special comes from audience interpretation. While being subsequently influenced by their knowledge of Lovecraft’s work, the gift of the intertextual is how a work can stand alone without an audience’s previous knowledge of the interconnected texts. In the Mouth of Madness works on a 3D chess board, storytelling on a base level that expands the more a viewer knows of the lore. It’s not necessary to be familiar with Lovecraft to feel the heated excitement of a cephalopodic Mrs. Pickman, chopping her husband to bits in the basement. Or the horrifying implication of a limping dog with a missing leg and the bloodied faces of the town’s children. It operates on multiple levels. Or, one might think, in multiple dimensions. 

With talent and tentacles oozing from the ether, In the Mouth of Madness is a unique entry into the ’90s meta-horror cannon. 

It’s what really grinds the film into its audience: this idea of intertextuality – interpreting its own narrative through the work of another text. It was the driving force behind the success of Wes Craven’s Scream (1994), and, at the time, it contextualized a whole horror sub-genre for a new generation. Yet where Scream succeeded, In the Mouth of Madness received mixed reviews and dropped quickly from #4 at the box off to #7 after its first week of release. One might wonder what would happen if this intellectual juggernaut were released today, in the time of elevated horror and our upcoming Lovecraft-issaince. 

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I would think, with today’s cinema increasingly relying on intertextual narratives, that my previous argument stands. In the Mouth of Madness was 25 years before it’s time. And this being its 25th anniversary, it’s ripe for rewatch.

The themes are heavy, and play through to a truth that storytellers have the power to shape our world. They provide a discourse that permeates water coolers and leaks into our real-world emotions. Even more connected now, our favorite storytellers tweet ideas, host podcasts, Instagram photos of their dogs. There are blurred lines between fiction and reality, stories and truth, and ultimately the ability of influencers to F– with us. As our world becomes more and more post-truth, the more the themes of In the Mouth of Madness resonate. Whether you know it or not, you’re living in your own novel that you’re constantly writing through Facebook, Twitter, pentagram, and so many others platforms. 

I wonder what Lovecraft would tweet if he could…though, I seriously doubt he could keep it to below 280 characters.

New Line Cinema

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