Product Details

• Actors: Sam Neill, Jürgen Prochnow, Julie Carmen, David Warner, John Glover
• Directors: John Carpenter
• Writers: Michael De Luca
• Producers: Artist W. Robinson, Michael De Luca, Sandy King
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: New Line Home Video
• VHS Release Date: August 18, 1998
• Run Time: 95 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (175 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303494366
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #86,031 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The mind-bending worlds of author H.P. Lovecraft have long interested horror directors, but the films have rarely successfully captured his nightmarish mix of madness and mythology. John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness is not directly based on Lovecraft's work, but screenwriter Michael De Luca draws his inspiration from Lovecraft's Cthulu mythology and then adds his own ingenious twists. John Trent (Sam Neill), an insurance investigator recently fitted for a straightjacket, tells his story to a psychiatrist. Hired to track down the missing pop-horror phenomena Sutter Cane, a Stephen King-like author whose fans are literally made for his books, Trent finds the supposedly fictional Hobb's End. He watches the town collapse into madness, murder, and monstrous transformations: the fantastic horrors of Cane's novels played out in front of his eyes. "Reality isn't what it used to be," deadpans one zombielike townsperson. In fact, it is how Cane writes it--but is he Devil, dark oracle, or simply a preacher in the service of an evil that grows stronger with every soul his books convert? The script never quite gets a grip on the blurry relationship between fact and fiction, but those details fade in the face of Carpenter's demented imagery, shiver-inducing twists, and dark wit. It's more eerie mind game than straight-out horror, a portrait of a world gone mad, and Carpenter relishes every hallucinatory moment. --Sean Axmaker

From The New Yorker

John Carpenter's return to his favored terrain, the horror movie, is only a partial success-an awkward mix of the creepy and the silly. Sam Neill plays an investigator sent to find a man named Sutter Cane, the author from hell. Cane's junk novels sell by the million and drive his readers mad; half the population, apparently, is coming apart at the seams. It's a fine, provocative topic, fringed with Carpenter's political exasperation: any country that can go ape over a cheap potboiler-or a cheap politician-has got serious problems. But the outcome is nowhere near as cool, or as solidly scary, as his best work. (And Julie Carmen, as Neill's sidekick, is no Adrienne Barbeau.) Once the film tries to suggest that everything is happening inside Cane's imagination, it loses steam; Carpenter is surely not the man to tell us that fantasy is stronger than fact. What about the weirdo in the white mask coming up the stairs in "Halloween"? He looked pretty real. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

75 of 79 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great work by Carpenter and Cast, July 15, 2003

By 

Tony R. Tucker (Crewe, VA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: In the Mouth of Madness (DVD)

Before I get into my review of the film itself, let me say that one of the other reviewers is quite correct. The commentary on this DVD is hands-down the most mind-numbing exercise in boredom ever. "So, you used a soft focus back lighting here to deepen the shadows, right?" "yep". Not a real quote from the commentary, but it gives you a taste of the tedious nature of their conversation.

The movie, on the otherhand is anything but boring. I had been a Carpenter fan for quite some time when I went to see this in the theater. Most of Carpenter's films seemed to be centered around a certain atmosphere. IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS is wrapped around a concept. If enough people believe something, does it become reality?

Sam Neill plays John Trent, an insurance investigator who specializes in smoking out con artists. He is hired to find Sutter Cane (played with relish by Jurgen Prochnow), the world's leading author. The search leads to a town that shouldn't exist; Hobb's End, a town featured prominently in Sutter Cane's books.

What follows is a mixture of John Carpenter atmosphere, H.P. Lovecraftian madness, and deep concepts. Even if you don't want to think that much, you can still enjoy the film for it's terrifying beauty, disturbing images, and great performances by a fine cast that includes Charlton Heston and Bernie Casey. Although not taken directly from any one H.P. Lovecraft story, the locations and creatures are probably the best depiction of Cthulhu-type content ever filmed. Even the title of the movie sounds very much like "In The Mountains of Madness", a Lovecraft story. It does a fine job of honoring Lovecraft's work without copying any of his ideas directly.

If I was grading the film by itself it would definately get 5 stars, but I am rating the DVD as a whole. I must take off a star for the horrible commentary track. The DVD comes in a paper case with a plastic snap lock. Hopefully someone will release a deluxe edition of this picture and add some meaty extras, but until then, get this DVD if you enjoy a good scare.

One of John Carpenter's last truly scary films. An all-around gem.

33 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Carpenter's Tour de Force, December 27, 1999

By 

David M (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In the Mouth of Madness (DVD)

Much more than a simple horror movie, In the Mouth of Madness takes the viewer on the twisted tale of insurance fraud investigator John Trent (Sam Neill) sent to find world famous pulp horror writer Sutter Cane (Jurgen Prochnow of Das Boot, Dune). Carpenter's cinematic style reaches its pinnacle in this wild ride and his self-composed score completes the masterpiece. Full of outstanding introspective scenes juxtaposed with Carpenter's trademark wit, ITMOM delves into the core of reality and, more importantly, the perception of reality. What is reality but what the mass populus believes it to be? Sutter Cane's twisted books have become more believable than the Bible in the world of ITMOM and John Trent finds himself an unwitting pawn of Cane's warped apocalypse. A visually astounding, thought provoking movie that is not to be missed.

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite horror movie bar-none, November 4, 2006

By 

Matthew N. Hunt "Kas-ka Los'" (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: In the Mouth of Madness (DVD)

If you're a horror fan this is the movie for you. If you're like me and you love supernatural horror more than slasher horror, than this is THE movie for you. Scares and a deep, strong story, through and through. A superb ending. Can't be beat. This should be in any horror fans library to watch whenever you they can.