ROX-TV takes a closer look at John Carpenter’s “In the Mouth of Madness”

Welcome back to the ROX-TV movie review. There is no real set rhyme or reason to this series. Sometimes we decide to shift gears from music to movies. Why? Just because we can. ROX-TV believes in bringing the readers a variety of interesting items from different perspectives all the time. It just so happens that Thursday is the day for a second look at John Carpenter’s wicked film “In the Mouth of Madness”. The film was released in America on February 3rd, 1995 and debuted at #4, earning just under 3.5 million dollars, in that first weekend. The film slipped a bit the following week to #7, and eventually disappeared from the the top ten list by week three. The movie ended up earning roughly 8.5 million dollars before it was all said and done. Although the budget was listed between eight and fourteen million dollars, any way you chopped it up, it was considered a “box office failure” by the end of the year.

I’ve owned this movie for a number of years and have watched it somewhere north of two hundred times conservatively. The movie provides such a great atmosphere, that I would literally put it on whenever I was home alone or in the mood to be swept up completely by an all encompassing film. (What I mean by that is this movie had the ability to make me feel comfortable, almost cozy in an odd way….but was packed with moments of edginess and uncertainty. There were real feelings of “scary” tucked into this piece, and the story line wasn’t stupid either. I could put it on to address almost any mood, because it seemed to encompass so many).

This was the kind of movie that a person could put on and get drunk to, high to, or just provide a little background noise to help people forget that they were home alone in a spooky house. I’ve used this movie for so many things and even now, I can put it on and relax….no matter how many times I’ve re-watched it. I do this with horror movies that I like, but not all of them can stand up to that kind of intense exposure. I guess that’s why I’m talking about “In the Mouth of Madness” today and not some chintzy piece off the wire.

In all the years I’ve watched the movie, there is nothing to complain about. I will admit that the introduction sounds a little dated because of the original musical score that accompanies the opening, but so what? If the only thing wrong with a 95 minute movie is the “oh so nineties rock solo” than we are doing ok. I have watched some movies that were shit from start to finish, so a two minute jam is doable. Dated? Yes. Totally terrible? Not really.

After “the opening” things settle down a bit and the story slowly rolls in like spooky fog off the lake. The ride can officially begin and it does. The rain starts to fall and the thunder sounds off in the distance. The story picks up with a free lance insurance investigator named John Trent (played by Sam Neill) being brought to a psychiatric hospital for unspecified treatment. A short time later a “Doctor Wrenn” comes to the hospital to speak with John in regards to an unknown situation that’s getting worse by the hour. Dr. Wrenn acknowledges that he’s there to “find out” if Trent is “one of them”. Although neither doctor really explains themselves further, it is implied that something bad is happening.

I find it interesting that the movie is vague at certain points about certain items, such as the disaster that brought Dr. Wrenn to the hospital in the first place. It reminds me of a few things, most notably, the elusive Carcosa. The place was a fictional city in a short story called “An Inhabitant of Carcosa” by Ambrose Bierce (1886). What strikes at my curiosity is the town, which isn’t really defined very well and only described in retrospect after its destruction. I would never have known that until I came across “The King in Yellow” which was written by Robert Chambers in 1895 and contains several horror stories within its pages. Carcosa is mentioned several times within the “The King in Yellow” and is in reference to an ancient and mysterious place. Much like the church in the T.M.O.M. movie, and will be later described. H.P. Lovecraft, another famous horror writer, loved Chamber’s work so much, he incorporated “Carcosa” into some of his material, which was later built upon by Lovecraft’s followers in the shared fictional universe “Cthulhu Mythos”. The place was said to have “black stars on a bright sky”…”Twin black stars”…”The lake of Hali”…”black soaring towers”….and “wet winds”.

Oddly enough, I wouldn’t have known about horror authors Bierce, Chambers, or H.P. Lovecraft until I had watched the amazing “True Detective: Season 1” from HBO. “Carcosa” and the “Yellow King” were both used extensively in the plot line. When I decided to look a little further into the matter, I fell down a rabbit hole, chasing the infamous and mysterious “Carcosa” through three authors and a hundred year time line. It’s obviously not always that exciting and deep, but sometimes in the literary world and in real life, a person can push on a door….which gives way to another secret passage. I love that type of thing and suggest anyone bored with the wasted social media black hole, instead re-focus on what came before, back in time when most things were real. Being illiterate is the first step towards mental slavery. Once that happens, your fucked. So anyway back to the movie….

The vagueness of the the initial story line is interesting and leaves room for the imagination to fire up. Eventually we will get more of the story, but for a brief time, the unknown reigns supreme. Dr. Wrenn wants to speak with John Trent about how he ended up at the mental institution. John responds to Dr. Wrenn and says “your waiting to hear about my them aren’t you, every paranoid schizophrenic has one…a them, a they, an it. You want to hear about my them don’t you? And so it begins….

In an ode to H.P. Lovecraft, the movie follows a common theme Lovecraft use to incorporate into his works, in where the story at hand is often told in flashback mode. Trent begins telling Dr. Wrenn about his job as a insurance fraud investigator, and the story slowly slides in the back door, within moments the viewer is efficiently taken back in time with John Trent in a seamless transition. After solving a slam dunk insurance scam, John is offered another job by his “employer”. John is a freelancer, and is offered a permanent job with the firm, but John refuses. “Robbie” the firm owner then offers an opportunity to work on a new case that could cost the firm “millions” of dollars.

Sutter Cane, a hot and in demand author has gone missing, and the publishing house Arcane has filed an insurance claim. Although Robbie says the claim would cost him millions, initially the particulars remain unknown. It seems odd that the publishing house would have their writer “insured” for millions, as if they knew that he’d eventually vanish or how a company could buy insurance against “vanishing” to begin with. I understand the concept of life insurance well enough, a person dies and there is a pay out. Beyond that, it’s a bit of a mystery and probably explains why I’m a writer and not an insurance expert.

It seems that the police turned up nothing when the writer unexpectedly disappeared two months earlier. The publisher (played by Charlton Heston) goes on to explain that two weeks “ago” Sutter Cane’s agent received a partial copy of the new material with no return address. The agent apparently went crazy after reading the new material and then tried to kill John Trent during his diner meeting with Robbie only a few scenes before. The publisher wants Sutter Cane located if possible and also the rest of the book.

John is introduced to a woman named “Linda Styles” who becomes his contact person and side kick from the publishing company, for the duration of the creepy adventure. Trent agrees to move forward with the odd project of finding Sutter Cane and picks up the author’s books in an attempt to see what the fuss is all about. The material seems to have an odd effect on the readers which is almost like a pre-curser to insanity. The darker lighting and the music adds to the chilliness of this part of the movie and provides great atmosphere.

Early on John Trent thinks the whole situation is a scam of some kind, a set up, and he is determined to figure out how it all works. As John slowly drifts into the reading, he starts to realize that there is something there, and that the books “get to you in a way”. Undeterred by the bad omens and reports of fans losing control, he continues to read the back story and starts having terrible dreams.

Things are happening in these dreams which are definitely not good, but the full reality is obscured with confusion and a lack of information. During a long point of introspection, something catches John’s eye, and it happens to be the covers of the books. There appears to be a pattern involving lines that run through and around the individual covers. John decides to cut them out and when he arranges the pieces, it forms a bizarre map. After doing his homework, he identifies the map with a section of New England. The town John is looking for and where Sutter Cane is possibly located is a place called “Hobb’s End”. The publisher wants to send John and Linda to investigate in person.

The odd thing is that they really don’t know where they are going exactly, and the town Hobb’s End doesn’t show up on any maps. Regardless, the duo press forward into a “lost voyage”. The trip appears to be going nowhere and progress isn’t really getting made. Linda and John get to know each other a little better during the drive to nowhere and talk about Sutter Cane. Linda tells John that she “likes being scared” and that “Cane’s work scares her”. John doesn’t seem to understand what the big deal is until Linda tells him that the only reason it doesn’t scare him is because “at the moment, reality shares your point of view”. “What scares me about Cane’s work, is what might happen if reality shared his point of view” Linda tells John.

John argues that they are talking about fiction and that none of it is real, which makes it hard for him to get worked up over the details. Linda counters and says “Sane and Insane could easily switch places, if Insane were to become the majority…..you would find yourself locked in a padded cell, wondering what happened to the world”. John shrugs off the true statement with ease and says what all people who eventually succumb to their own ignorance say….”that wouldn’t happen to me”. Linda reminds him “ah it would if you realized everything you ever knew was gone, it would be lonely being the last one left”.

I find this conversation to be very interesting and in a scary way, it does make sense. What if public opinion suddenly shifted faster than you’d ever seen it, perhaps so quick you didn’t even notice, and then all of a sudden, things don’t make sense anymore. People all around not making sense. The world is no longer running in the way that you knew  did, at one time. That’s a scary thing if you think about it, not so much the particulars, but to be in a position where you were so busy in your life, until that one day, when you stopped to look around….and nothing was as it appeared or even was at one time. I think that this type of thing could totally happen to people, and maybe its going on right now, but with all the distractions in the world today, the core changing is missed or overlooked. How often have you, the reader out there, stopped to take a good look at your surroundings or even had a conversation with a stranger or someone outside of the echo chamber? Perhaps it would be wise, to have a look around or speak with some new people, the next time the opportunity arises…..you never know.

Mental illness is a crazy concept and is scary, because the world is uniquely viewed by all of us from our own perspectives in our heads. If things started to get spooky or “different”, people who aren’t used to coping with the temporary loss or changing of the senses through lets say drugs or alcohol, would probably be scared out of their minds. I guess if someone was lucky, the change would be gradual enough as to not cause massive alarm, but who knows? You ever heard someone say “That is driving me crazy”? I’m not sure about you, but it makes me wonder sometimes. I believe in listening to people and I take their words very seriously, regardless of tone. I’m going to let you in on a secret, people really say what they mean most of the time. A joking tone shouldn’t instantly discredit a statement or idea. Humans have a tendency to use humor and tone in such a way to minimize the very real nature of their statements and the things going on in their heads (in my opinion….in my own head ha!)

So the duo pushes on into the night, but not before switching drivers, so Trent can get some sleep. This is when shit gets really interesting, not that the ride hasn’t been up until this point, but there comes a point in every movie, when there is no going back. The line has been crossed, the deed has been done, whatever the threshold is and Linda and Trent find their way to the point of no return. Sometimes I wonder, if they hadn’t switched drivers or turned back….could life as they knew it in the movie returned to normal or at least stayed where it was? I often dig points in movies before the “bad thing” happens. Like for instance in Halloween Part One, when Laurie is still relatively safe, walking home with friends, or briefly chilling in her bedroom before Michael turns up. I fantasize about what life would be like for these individuals if they just kept their heads down a little longer and avoided the line crossing. What if Laurie went out of town unexpectedly during Halloween One. Michael Myers could never have known exactly where she was, and maybe nothing would have went down the same way it had.

Some people always manage to avoid the trouble even if they come awfully close to the flame. Why do they get to live their normal life, while others get sucked into the black hole of horror. That idea reminds me of the movie by Wes Craven called “They”. It is another brilliant horror movie, just like “In the Mouth of Madness” and I’m sure I will eventually get around to reviewing it as well. Anyway, during the 2002 release, Julia and her boyfriend Paul are getting along fine, until Julia gets sucked into “madness” that had infected her friends and eventually caused them to die in one form or another. Julia goes from being a decent college student working on her masters in psychology, to a panicked mess. All the while, her boyfriend Paul, seems to live a normal existence and maintains his life regardless of Julia’s complete collapse.

Like the waitress in the diner that Steve Christy stops in for a meal during a devilish rainstorm in “Friday the 13th: Part One”. Although Steve will be killed within the hour, along with almost everyone he had recently employed, the sweet old waitress gets to live her life without the dramatic intrusions by the deceased child’s mother, hell bent on revenge. I’m not sure why, but people who get spared and the slice of normalcy they get to hold onto is interesting to me. In the end I guess it doesn’t matter because Linda and John cross the line of no return, by accident mostly, and are delivered to “Hobbs End”.

Just like in other good scary stories, the town of Hobb’s End, is a strange place, with mystery, and lots of vague horror lurking about. When they arrive, John is excited that Linda was able to find the town, but Linda didn’t really find the town, it found them. Just like in Gatlin, where “Children of the Corn”(Stephen King’s 1984 book turned movie) goes down, Hobb’s End initially appears to be deserted, with freakish looking kids turning up from time to time, chasing an injured dogs, before vanishing. Linda sees the kids, but John misses them completely. In all likely hood, Linda is already starting to lose her mind, and so for her to see things that John couldn’t would make sense. John, the forever skeptic just isn’t ready to believe any of it.

They check into a bed and breakfast in town and speak with one of the only other visible people in the vicinity. A nice old grandmother type who totally disarms the bad feelings and for awhile, the bed and breakfast seems like a safe sanctuary. The audience can relax for a moment, this is a safe place……or is it? Linda explains that everything they are encountering is in Cane’s books. John doesn’t believe her, although Linda is right time and time again.

After some dialogue, the two make their way to the “Black Church” which is featured in one of Cane’s books and as they read from the pages, they walk up to the large building. There originally was a church built on the site, but it was reportedly swallowed up by the “Black Church” over time, so that all that remained were a few visual pieces of the once holy place. The Black Church houses an evil as old as time, and its where Sutter Cane is apparently holding up. When they arrive, a group of the town’s men show up with guns, threatening Cane over the theft of a child. Cane finally appears for the first time in the movie, and disperses the men with a pack of vicious dogs. For some reason the mob, which are all armed, forget that they are, and let the dogs win the the day.

Linda and John flee back to the bed and breakfast, and John has a small breakdown. Linda admits that the whole thing was initially a scam, but somehow they found Hobb’s End and story ended up being true, just like in Cane’s books. John doesn’t want to believe it, as Linda suggest they find the new book and read it to the ending, in order to have a conclusion. John doesn’t buy what Linda is selling, but it doesn’t matter, because Linda is officially drifting into the deep end (or at least being controlled by Sutter Cane’s writing in real time). Her behavior goes off the rails and we don’t see Linda sane again for the rest of the film.

John leaves the room and starts to happen upon all types of odd things and clues, even if he doesn’t fully understand the severity of his situation. Everyone John runs into seems to be fucked up, starting with the old lady who runs the bed and breakfast. “Been reading” a disheveled old lady says, all of her charm from earlier has been replaced by spacey and shady looking eyes. John somehow ends up in a bar, and is drinking a beer, when one of the men from the Black Church comes in, suffering from injuries. Trent still believes everything is a scam and ignores the injured man’s warnings. Linda in the meantime has seemed to gather her wits, and ends up back at the Black Church, where she runs into Sutter Cane, who has just finished typing another section of “reality”.

Cane forces her to read the rest of the new book, permanently fucking up Linda. “Its funny isn’t it, for years I thought I was making all this up, but they were telling me what to write” Cane says while peering off into the distance, referencing the old and unspeakable terror within the confines of the evil place. “Giving me the power to make it all real” he says before approaching Linda. “Come, see the instrument of the homecoming, what you’ve been looking for, the new bible, that starts the change, that helps you see” the writer tells her.

John is confronted with the new reality and can no longer just dismiss things he’s seeing. He attempts to flee the town, but fails continually, as if he were trapped and prevented from leaving Hobb’s End. “We are not in a Sutter Cane story, this is not reality” he shouts at the bar, where the injured father is still sitting, bleeding, with a shotgun in his lap. “Reality is not what it used to be” the man tells John. He then proceeds to shoot himself. “Your alone” he says before getting ready to shoot himself. “I have to, he wrote me this way” the man says and then shoots himself in the face.

Things are quickly falling apart for John, when he encounters a dazed Linda outside the bar near a group of axe wielding crazies. Shit just gets worse and worse, as the scales tip in favor of the madness that John was so dismissive of only hours earlier. As they flee Hobb’s End, John finds himself in a bit of a “crossroads” between the old world and the new horrors that await. Linda tells John that Cane has a job for him, he is to deliver the final book and cause the end of life as everyone knows it. At this point, John is thrust into a loop, written by Cain to make sure that he has John’s undivided attention. After crashing his car, John wakes up in the confessional booth of the Black Church. He lights up a smoke and it seems to be the one thing that John can still control.

Cane appears and John can’t help himself. “Your books aren’t real” he says bitterly as Cane looks on. “I’ve sold over a billion copies, been translated into 80 languages. More people believe in my book then believe in the bible”. Cane tells Trent to read his new book, “it will drive you absolutely mad”. “It gets its power from new readers…new believers….that’s the point”. Cane tells John that once people fail to recognize the difference between fantasy and reality, the old ones can come back….eluding to some unseen darkness, that up until this point in the movie have only been glimpses or insinuated.

Cane finishes the book “In the Mouth of Madness” and demands that John take the manuscript back to the world for him. “You are what I write….just like this town, it wasn’t here before I wrote it and neither were you….”. The sickness has spread to John and although he refuses to believe it, he’s the last one left. His sickness is that he’s still the same, unlike the world around him, which had changed somehow. Cane tears open reality with his hands, and reveals the pages of a book and a large hole. Linda reads from the manuscript as John peers into the darkness. In the distance, the old evil ones are slowly marching forward. John begins to flee.

In the coming scenes of the movie, John is confronted with the fact that nothing really makes sense anymore and no matter what, he needs to destroy the manuscript, but it really doesn’t matter. Somehow he had already delivered the script back months ago to the publishers, unbeknownst to John. John tells the publisher that he can’t publish the book because it will make people crazy and the publisher responds “lets hope so….the movie comes out next month”. The damage has been done, the world is descending into absolute insanity, and John is fully aware of what happened, even if no one believes him.

The book breaks all records, violent crime erupts all over the country, and an epidemic of paranoid schizophrenia and unmotivated violence takes over the country. John kills a guy with an axe, and lands in the nut house or so the movie goes. “What about the people that don’t read? Dr. Wrenn says….”There’s a movie” John Trent replies. “Every species can smell it’s own extinction. The last ones won’t have a pretty time with it. Within ten years, maybe less, humans will be something they tell their children about in bed times stories….a myth….nothing more”. I could tell you how the movie ends, but then you might not watch it.

Check this one out today…if you dare….

 

Mike Shepard

ROX-TV Head Writer

shepard2909@hotmail.com

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