Written by Michael De Luca, John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness blends fantasy and horror into a journey of terror for the protagonist that ends nowhere but on the insanity freeway.
The plot unfolds as a series of convoluted flashbacks of insurance investigator John Trent (Sam Neil) as he sets out to investigate the disappearance of horror fiction writer Sutter Cane (Jürgen Prochnow) whose novels seemingly turn readers into psychos. With Cane’s upcoming novel titled “In the Mouth of Madness” creating a buzz, Trent starts experiencing bizarre and scary events that could either be the figment of his imagination or his gateway to insanity.
Dark fantasy becomes the medium of horror in the movie as visuals of murderous psychos, acting alone or in a mob in the otherwise abandoned town, keep Trent on the run. The horror part of the story is more on the psychological side as it becomes obvious before long that Cane’s tales have got into Trent’s head. Given that Trent’s institutionalization is shown at the beginning, it only becomes a question of what drove him to insanity. Whether it takes away from the intensity of scares in the movie depends on the audience’s taste.
Charlton Heston as the publishing company’s director and David Warner as the psychiatrist evaluating Trent appear fine in their supporting roles. One can, however, make a case against the character of Linda Styles (Julie Carmen) – Cane’s editor at the publishing company – for contributing little if anything to the story. On the contrary, Trent traveling alone to the town could have added to his paranormal exhaustion with greater vulnerability and self-doubt.
The Carpenter and Neil fandom aside, In the Mouth of Madness is average on the horror side and a little above average on the dark fantasy scale.
