If you’ve been keeping up with The Test of Time, you have probably learned what the rules are in terms of what we tackle. Those rules, of course, are that there are no rules whatsoever and we cover whatever sounds good or we think would be an interesting topic. In the Mouth of Madness (watch it HERE) came out in Italy in late 1994 and that means, gulp, that movie is now 30 years old. It came during an interesting time in the master of horrors career when he was running flop after flop and being disappointed by studios interference and stars that weren’t willing to be true collaborators. It’s the ending of a loose trilogy and in some people’s estimation his last great film. Is In the Mouth of Madness a tale that stands the Test of Time, or should it be put in the bargain bin of the now defunct crown books? Lived any good books lately?

Plot

Carpenter had kind of a roller coaster of a run throughout his career. In 1988, They Live would come out during election week and be #1 at the box office with a professional wrestler in the lead and a plot where Carpenter could really express his views. A couple of years went by and he was stuck in a contract dispute with They Live production company Alive Films which led to several movies not happening. These included a Dracula movie, a Cher vehicle, and even The Exorcist III. It’s a fools errand to regret these not happening but it is fun to wonder what if, particularly on the Dracula flick or his version of Exorcist III. Chevy Chase had purchased the script to Memoirs of an Invisible Man and Carpenter was convinced to work on it. Long story short, it was a disaster of epic proportions. Chase was as hard to work with as we’ve heard he can be on various projects and the movie only made 14 million on a 30–40-million-dollar budget. Carpenter was burned by a big studio project again, this time at Warner. But why the heck are we talking about one of Carpenter’s worst and more forgettable movies? Well, something good came of the project and that was the casting of Sam Neill in Memoirs that would lead to the star and director working again on today’s movie. Neil even suggested a shot or two for Carpenter, specifically the aerial view shots later in the movie at the hotel.

In the Mouth of Madness was written in the late 80s by sometimes screenwriter but 3-time Oscar nominated mega producer Michael De Luca. While his first thought was to offer it to John Carpenter, he had to turn it down. Later he agreed to direct after he got past the debacle of Memoirs and his gig with Tobe Hooper in Body Bags. While De Luca is better known as a producer, particularly later in his career, he has some interesting writing credits. In addition to today, he also has 7 episodes of Freddy’s Nightmares, the screenplay for Freddy’s Dead The Final Nightmare, and a story credit on Judge Dredd. Carpenter would do the music with Jim Lang and the movie would be produced by Sandy King with the special effects being done by Howard Berger, Robert Kurtzman, and Greg Nicotero among others.

The cast is a fun mix with the main characters being played by Sam Neill, Julie Carmen, and Jurgen Prochnow with cool smaller turns from the likes of Bernie Casey, John Glover, David Warner, and Charlton Heston among other notables. I’ll save the comments section some time and mention that this was Anakin Skywalker himself Hayden Christensen’s first role. Sam Neill is no stranger to horror with The Omen 3, Possession, and Dead Calm but this is my favorite role in the genre for him. You may not recognize Julie Carmen at first, but she is Regine Dandridge from the criminally underrated Fright Night 2 and Prochnow has been around forever seemingly with his role in Das Boot being unmissable, well, certainly compared to House of the Dead.

The movie follows the disappearance of a Stephen King stand in named Sutter Cane and a fraud investigator named John Trent who is hired by the publisher to find him. Trent takes his role seriously and dives headfirst into the world of Cane in order to find his whereabouts. He is taken to the no longer existing town of Hobbs End which is the location for a ton of the author’s stories. Think Castle Rock for King or New England for the inspiration of the movie’s H.P. Lovecraft. The publisher sends one of their employees with John and he slowly loses his mind and eventually no longer believes the disappearance and events as a publicity stunt, but the world ending. This is lent credence as the framing of the story is a bookend with Trent being brought into an asylum to tell his story and when we catch up, we get to see the end of the world. It’s a movie full of practical effects, Lovecraft inspirations both direct and subtle, and some really good scares.

Signs of the Time

The easy one here is the inability to get ahold of the author in the middle of the mystery. While at the time of filming, there were things like fax machines, cell phones, and email, it wasn’t as prevalent as it is now and there weren’t any of the social media outlets or even immediate ways to get ahold of people. Add in the fact that the author was already kind of a recluse, and he would be hard to get a hold of and find anyway. It’s one of the nice ways that movies OF the time still make sense in that regard while screenwriters today have to figure out ways to make cell phones irrelevant. Often, it can come off as forced or nonsensical but here it makes sense organically in the story. Its kind of the reason that Sam Neill’s character is hired in the first place because he is good enough at his job and coming up with the truth that he would know how to find the dude and be patient.

Another factor and one that could easily go into the section of what holds up is the effects. Minus one or two things here, this was the tail end of the mostly practical effects era. While big budget movies like Jurassic Park could use CGI to go with their practical effects, to get the job done on a smaller scale, it was still mostly a rubber and corn syrup kind of era. The trick was getting the right people to do the right thing for you. In the Mouth of Madness does a wonderful job showing why practical was still the way to go and you can see shades of it in today’s movies. From Malignant using a trained stuntperson just like the character who crawls out of the car after Sam Neill’s Trent to the gore effects and miniatures that show up from time to time in both big and small budget alike.

What Holds Up

This movie is shockingly good 30 years on. From the acting to the story to the effects to the earned ending, everything still holds together wonderfully and doesn’t overstay it’s welcome. Starting with the acting, we get to see characters that are mostly one dimensional with Charlton Heston’s literary mogul to Jurgen Prochnow’s Sutter Cane and most in between. The standout here is Neill’s Trent who we see in both flashbacks and in the present. He has a full arch as every main character should and we get to see him go from hardened skeptic to frightened believer. While all the other performances add up to great set pieces and scenes, the movie would be made or broken from whoever played Trent and Neill brings everything we need to it and doesn’t even hide his New Zealand accent!

The effects here are great too. While they are also a sign of their times, that’s exactly what we look for. Horror fans harken back to the time of pre-CGI and a lot of fans during this era who went on to be directors or movie creators themselves tend to try and recreate that same look and feel. The creatures, both miniature form and large and in charge like the ending as well as the gore and make-up all stand out and still look good even on high-def formats. This includes the costuming and set design as well as little things like all the covers for the already published Sutter Cane books that harken back to the 80’s horror novel boom that operated much like the video era. The covers of these books and sometimes outlandish titles would get people to buy them regardless of the quality of the actual story.

Finally, speaking of story, apart from direct adaptations like Re-Animator or Castle Freak, this is as good as we will get to a Lovecraft type story. Many of the names of the characters or places are reminiscent of Lovecraft and his themes of the unknowable and other side. Even little set ups and payoffs like every character having blue eyes when you get a close up followed by Trent having a dream of Cane telling him blue was his favorite color. This scene works and is remembered by most people because the bus and everything on it has a blue tint, but the blue eye detail goes that much deeper.

What Doesn’t Hold Up

Is it a cheat to say nothing? Probably, so here we go. As much as I love the effects here, there are a couple that do NOT stand the test of time with the mask worn by the kid on the bike, some of the town kids make-up, and the part where Cane peels his face open to reveal the world outside the book and let the rest of the creatures in all kind of fall flat, especially compared to the rest of movies goods. The only other nitpick I can levy on this movie is that the music isn’t quite as good as the rest of the man’s movies but that’s like saying I didn’t have as good of food at this 3 star restaurant as I did the 4 star one. It’s still good and even superior to many of it’s contemporaries, just not as good as the auditory perfection we are used to.

Verdict

In the Mouth of Madness may have been a flop when it was released in theaters, but it was good then and it’s better now. While it’s not Carpenter’s last good movie with both Escape From L.A. and Vampires being fun, I have no problem calling it his last GREAT one. 30 years later and this movie needs to be in everyone’s regular rotation because it more than stands the Test of Time.

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