In The Mouth Of Madness

Reality is not what it used to be.

Believe it or not this movie has been on the list for several Halloween seasons and I'll be damned if I didn't hear quite a bit of good praise since before even this show began for it. It pretty much had me from John Carpenter and Sam Neill in a semi-Lovecraft story regarding an insurance fraud investigator hired to track down a missing author of a world famous horror series, and as the movie progresses it just gets weirder and strongly metaphysical in a perfect case of life is stranger than fiction. And yeah it takes it's time over the course of 90 minutes to unfold this story but does more than enough to grab your attention and make you almost begrudgingly watch it till the end even when you know it's not exactly gonna be a happy ending. Sam Neill goddamn it man I miss you, upon hearing of his extremely untimely passing this year I knew in my heart of hearts I'd finally have to talk about this movie and true to his professional form turns in a very strong performance, starting off as a logical and highly skeptical investigator named John Trent that gets broken down more and more until the wild ending. I certainly wish I could say all but this is one of those movies where the more blind you are going in the better the experience is. Julie Carmen as a publicist named Styles (Very twee.) who joins the investigation kinda was throwing me off at points but as we near the end the puzzle pieces start snapping into place, and she does have this subdued ethereal beauty to her at points I must say. I'm almost positive this is my first Jurgen Prochnow movie and wow what a first time, he's not seen all that much as the illusive author Suttor Cane but whatever screentime he does have is memorable and effectively off putting. And I gotta shoutout David Warner, Charlton Heston, and John Glover in the cast who all have bit parts but I'd be a lying sack of shit if I ever said I wasn't happy to see them here! Production wise it's more a lowkey Carpenter affair, shot very nicely with appropriate mood and atmosphere, has a wee bit of special effects, but the horror aspect all comes from the psychological side of things as would be typical for a lovecraftian style story that might not dig under your skin but certainly would make you question reality even for a second. Are you the dreamer or the dream? That's always been the type of horror that has the most prolonged and heavy impact on me, it's not the blood soaked monsters or haunting scenery, it's the simplest question of what is real and what's not? I mean I'm sitting in my chair cross legged writing this waiting for my dinner to be done, but I could in actuality be in a bathtub in a white room raving about chocolate syrup and beavers for all I really know. And that's the kind of existential dread and mental terror the movie puts front, so to me this is one of the most effective horror films I've ever seen when I start thinking about it, but I can absolutely see other people walking away just liking it and considering it a minor gem in John Carpenter's career. I give it 3 stars, 7.5/10, and the strangeness will continue for a cult beloved werewolf film next time.