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)
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