The body count was high, the casualties are heavy (In the Mouth of Madness, 1994)

As the fisherman’s wife said, “give me more tentacles”

Every now and then I get in a horror movie slump, where I go through my list of movies yet film after film is just…ehh.  However, I know I have to push through it because eventually I watch a film that makes my brain explode with happiness; a film so good I actually am motivated to write about it. What is this film with the ability to overpower my well-practiced procrastination skills? It is ‘In the Mouth of Madness’ (1994, directed by John Carpenter).

Insurance agent John Trent is hired by a publishing company to find the whereabouts of bestselling author Sutter Cane. Meanwhile those who have read his novels have become axe wielding maniacs. Trent along with editor, Styles travel to a small town; where things start to eerily resemble the plot of Sutter Cane's most recent novel and eventually descend into an epic Lovecraftian nightmare. That is all I’m going to say about the plot because once you get caught up in the various twists and turns its literally as exciting as reading a great fantasy novel.

This is how we did our eyeliner in the 90s

The first thing about this movie I will say is that it has been made with immense attention to detail and purposeful craftmanship. I'd expect no less from John Carpenter but it is still worth mentioning just how well ‘In the Mouth of Madness’ is filmed. All the various elements of production: writing, acting special effects, film techniques-each commendable in their own right-are brought together to create literally one of the best films I have ever seen.

The film also gets META AS FUCK which it honestly manages to pull off really well. I could sit there watching the protagonist sitting in a theatre watching the same movie I am and just totally buy it. ‘In the Mouth of Madness’ is a pleasure to watch with a beautiful warm colour palette that gets exploited in probably one of the best uses of colour in cinematography that I can think of (you will know the scene I mean when you see it.)

Sam Neill is an amazing actor and a main contender for leading actor of the horror genre (can you call that a scream king?) with equally impressive performances in Possession (1981) and Event Horizon (1997).Neill is such an expressive actor! He is perfect for “am I going insane?” roles with his ability to use his entire body to act, not to mention his amazing facial expressions.

Watching his performance in this film, I can honestly see nobody else in the part. He was also charming as hell as the chain smoking John Trent. Well, actually the character is a smug fucking asshole; but Sam Neill pulls it off so well that he is a charming, smug fucking asshole.

Did I say tentacles enough?

The practical effects in this are great; there are some awesome animatronics/ people it suits used to create some awesome and epic Lovecraftian monsters. Every movie can be made better with the addition of tentacles and there is some awesome tentacle action going on in the epic last quarter or so of the movie. Literally the only thing that could have made it better would have been MORE TENTACLES. Also, there is a creepy as hell scene which rivals The Exorcist's backwards down the stairs crawl.

I would highly recommend this little movie from maybe not the most noteworthy years of John Carpenter’s filmography. I’m going to go ahead and say it is now in my list of favourite movies ever. I give it 10/10

Also reading this in the credits made me horror nerd-out