In the Mouth of Madness (1994)

In the Mouth of Madness (1994)

In director John Carpenter's (and New Line Cinema's) fantasy horror-drama and thriller, the R-rated film gave convoluted, warped homage to Stephen King and famed sci-fi author H. P. Lovecraft in a script by Michael De Luca; it cleverly blurred the boundaries between fantasy and reality, fact and fiction, sanity and insanity, and reality and cine-reality. Its tagline provided a clue to the film's plot:

"LIVED ANY GOOD BOOKS LATELY?"

It was considered the third film in Carpenter's "Apocalypse Trilogy":

• The Thing (1982)
• Prince Of Darkness (1987)
• In The Mouth Of Madness (1994)

The supernatural film's plot, told in an extended flashback, was about an insurance fraud investigator who ventured into a small town in Eastern New England (Hobb's End) to look into the strange disappearance of a successful horror novelist named Sutter Cane, after his latest book's publication ("Hobb's End Horror"), and during anticipation for his next novel's manuscript for "In the Mouth of Madness." With a budget of 8ドル-14 million, the film turned away viewers with gross revenues of only 8ドル.9 million, but has since developed a cult following.

• in the film's opening, John Trent (Sam Neill) was delivered by ambulance to a mental hospital - he was a violent, strait-jacketed and delusional asylum inmate placed in a padded cell; he complained: "I am not insane," and became upset by the music system playing a song by The Carpenters; then, he spoke out and protested: "This is a rotten way to end it," when he was told: "This is not the ending. You haven't read it yet" - these were extraordinary clues to the film's frame of reference; after requesting a black crayon, Trent had drawn crosses on his face
• he was visited in his cell by Dr. Wrenn (David Warner); the main content of the entire film consisted of a flashback, detailing Trent's description to Dr. Wrenn about what had happened to him, and how he ended up incarcerated
• Trent began the flashback by describing how he was a very effective freelance insurance investigator looking into fraudulent scams and cons; at the same time in NYC, an upcoming book ("In the Mouth of Madness") written by best-selling author Sutter Cane was being hyped and advertised - with the subtitle: "YOU'LL GO MAD WITH FEAR" - it was about to be published by the New York-based Arcane Publishing Company

• while Trent was having lunch in a mid-town Manhattan cafe with one of his clients named Robinson (Bernie Casey), a crazed axe-wielding maniac (Conrad Bergschneider) approached the window and blasted it with one swing of his axe, and then with dilated eyes (in close-up), the lunatic asked Trent: "Do you read Sutter Cane?"; the maniac was shot and killed by police gunfire before he could murder Trent
• a TV news broadcaster hypothesized about Cane: "Horror writer Sutter Cane -- a harmless pop phenomenon or a deadly mad prophet of the printed page?"; riots had developed at several NYC bookstores because of the huge demand for advance orders of the new, hard-to-find Sutter Cane publication (that hadn't been published yet)
• because of the uproar and negative publicity, Trent was invited into the offices of Arcane where he was introduced to its director Jackson Harglow (Charlton Heston), and Cane's editor Linda Styles (Julie Carmen); she offhandedly mentioned: "You can forget about Stephen King. Cane outsells them all" [Note: The Sutter Cane author was based on John Carpenter's novelist friend Stephen King.]
• Trent was being considered to investigate the publishing company's claim that their popular, best-selling horror novelist Sutter Cane had mysteriously disappeared two months earlier; Trent was told that several chapters of Cane's new manuscript that he had written had been sent to his crazed agent (the axe-murderer) two weeks earlier: ("Plain brown wrapper. No return address"); it was a shock for Trent to learn that the lunatic axe-carrying maniac who had attacked him was Cane's deranged agent!!; the publisher was concerned with retrieving the remaining manuscript for Cane's new novel, since Arcane had already sold the film rights to Cane's new unpublished book as well as publication rights in eighteen languages; turning dubious, Trent suspected that Cane's disappearance was all a hoax and a publicity stunt designed to promote his book
• apparently, according to Linda, the readers who consumed Cane's horror novels (especially "less stable readers") were powerfully affected after reading the stories; many were afflicted with disorientation, memory loss, paranoia, lost time, hallucinations and more; Cane himself became a victim of his own writings - during the previous year, his work had become more erratic and bizarre: ("He became convinced his writing was real, not fiction. Then the work stopped coming. l need to know if he's alive or dead. And l need that book. We've delayed publication as long as we can. His fans are getting really restless")
• Trent remained skeptical about reports of mass hysteria, and believed it was a manufactured set-up: "It's a pop phenomenon. lt's a craze. lt'll pass. lt's this year's Hula-Hoop"; but then, as he prepared and researched the case by reading some of Cane's previous horror works, he began to have strange visions and weird hallucinatory dreams of his own, first of a grotesque-faced policeman, and then of the axe-murderer from the cafe (who ominously spoke: "He sees you!") and other blood-thirsty monstrous humans who axed him to death; his unusual nightmares were the frequent content of Cane's books
• now seemingly possessed by the books himself, Trent believed that Cane could be located in a real small town in northern New England, in Hobb's End, New Hampshire that resembled a fictional place in Cane's last novel; Trent proposed traveling there to locate and find Cane, although as Harglow noted: "It's not on the map"; Cane's editor Linda Styles was told to join Trent [Note: Hobb's End was fictional - it existed entirely as a product of the writer's mind.]
• during their car trip north from NYC, Linda remained skeptical: "There is no such place"; she shared her prophetic fears about Cane's non-fictional books that might become transformed into reality:
  • "What scares me about Cane's work is what might happen if reality shared his point of view...Sane and insane could easily switch places if the insane were to become the majority. You would find yourself locked in a padded cell wondering what happened to the world...if you realized everything you ever knew was gone, it'd be pretty lonely being the last one left"
• as the radio broadcast a report about fantasy becoming reality, their night-time journey became surrealistic - the double yellow lines on the road kept changing (and then disappeared), and a bicycle-riding boy (who changed into a ghoulish-looking elderly man) struck their vehicle head-on, but then rode off unharmed; as billowing storm clouds formed, the roadway seemed to be composed of wooden planks, and then suddenly after crossing an old-fashioned covered bridge, it was daylight and they were on the outskirts of Hobb's End identified by a sign
• the town's deserted center, although it appeared to be like a "picture perfect" Main St. USA, was also revealed to be a fanciful gateway into Cane's fictionalized world of evil and madness; its landmarks and people resembled the contents of Cane's novel "Hobb's End Horror," including innkeeper Mrs. Pickman (Frances Bay) at the Pickman Hotel where they checked in; Linda's fears were coming true about how Cane's writings were being reflected in reality, although Trent disagreed: ("We are not living inside a Sutter Cane story"); she was unnerved and upset after viewing a painting in the hotel lobby that seemed to be alive and kept changing; she asked Trent: "What if Cane's work isn't fiction?"

• at the local black ornate Byzantine church (an evil edifice that had swallowed up the previous old stone sanctuary built in 1788), an angry mob of townsfolk arrived carrying shotguns, led by Simon (Wilhelm von Homburg); they complained about the kidnapping of their children by the ominous Cane - he was inside the church's front doors where he commanded and dispatched a pack of snarling Doberman Pinschers to attack the men
• back at the hotel, Trent complained to Linda that everything was a hoax and had been "staged" - to report to the media about the "haunted" town in order to sell more of Cane's books; she disagreed: "We didn't stage any of this. lt's all happening for real, Trent. And it is all in that book, and that's how l know"; according to Linda, the events that they were witnessing were elements in Cane's latest manuscript - the contents which were only known to Linda and Cane's agent; as foretold by Cane, civilization in his imagined town had entirely broken down and the world was about to end
• Linda admitted that there was a slight con-job on the part of Arcane to create publicity, but she hadn't realized until now that Cane's books were causing real damage; Linda urged Trent to understand that they were beginning to witness what Cane had described - strange apparitions, townspeople mutated or turned into psychotic zombies, surreal and hallucinatory nightmare sequences, an ancient race of otherworldly creatures, and people with facial deformities; she suggested they could fight against these forces:
  • "We need to read the new book to find the way out...We could skip to the ending"
• she began kissing Trent to entice him to help her find a solution, but when Trent refused, she drove off without him to investigate the town on her own; later that evening, Linda returned to the church where the missing children reappeared outside and approached her; one of the facially-deformed children called Linda her Mommy: ("Today is Mommy's Day"); at the entrance to the church, Linda ignored a sign warning: "Any Who Dare Enter This Unholy Site Be Damned Forever," and entered; inside, she noticed an upside-down cross
• inside a dark room, she was greeted by Cane, who was seated at an old fashioned typewriter, clacking the keys as he typed more of his unfinished manuscript; as she walked forward to him, he told her that contrary to his previous belief that his stories were fiction, he now accepted the fact that he was being guided by evil forces: ("For years, I thought I was making all this up. But they were telling me what to write, giving me the power to make it all real. And now it is!"); he enticingly spoke about his new book, calling it "the new Bible" as he slowly fondled her hair, and made claims about his new novel: "It starts the change, helps you see"
• he pushed her head down to reveal the title page of his unfinished manuscript for "In the Mouth of Madness"; she instantly had an understanding of the entire book, including its ending that she had hoped to read; a flurry of disturbing images (past, present and future) broke forth onto the screen; he asked:
  • "Do you like my ending? Any suggestions?"
• with both of her eyes bleeding, Linda lovingly kissed Cane, and as she caressed the back of his head, it was revealed to be composed of slimy, creature-like sinew and bloody muscle tissue from a back view

• shortly later, Linda reappeared in the hotel, where she collapsed in Trent's arms and onto the bed, as she told him: "l'm losing me, John...l saw the book. Don't look at it. Don't read it, John"; she was beginning to go insane and become one of Cane's monstrous minions
• Trent raced to the basement, where he found Mrs. Pickman (who had earlier been seen keeping her husband captive), who was revealed to be an axe-murdering demonic creature with tendrils or tentacles whipping out of her body as she chopped her husband into pieces
• upstairs, Linda approached Trent with an intoxicated, hungry grin (after revealing the growth of additional appendages); Trent fled, but in town, he found himself surrounded by a mob of mutant-like creatures, torch-carrying bloody axe-murderers, and the deformed children with their "Mommy"; he spoke to the bloody, axe-wielding Simon and began to wonder if everything had been faked, although Simon declared that everything that was happening had been written by Cane for his book:
  • Trent: "Special effects, hidden speakers. You people are professionals, l'll give you that"
    Simon: "The thing l can't remember is what came first. Us or the book"
    Trent: "We are not living in a Sutter Cane story! This is not reality!"
    Simon: "Reality is not what it used to be"
• Trent watched as Simon aimed his shotgun under his neck and blew his brains out; as Trent attempted to leave town with the possessed Linda, she swallowed the car keys, forcing him to hot-wire their car; she demonstrated how she was able to twist and contort her limbs and neck around
• his attempted escapes to leave town were all thwarted, and he was teleported thrice back to the main street in the town where the mob was located; he attempted to ram the mob, but crashed his car; another teleport brought him to the Hobb's End church for a final showdown with both Linda and Cane; Cane spoke to Trent from outside a wooden box that he was trapped in
• Cane asserted how all of his books had sold over a billion copies, and more people believed in his work than in the Bible; he boasted about his new book: "This one will drive you absolutely mad" - literally; anyone who read his books would become new believers (paranoid, fearful and delusional minions), unable to distinguish between fantasy and reality
• the god-like Cane began to convince Trent that he was creating new realities, and that Trent was one of his invented characters: ("You are what I write. Like this town. lt wasn't here before l wrote it. And neither were you...I think, therefore you are!"); Cane also mentioned how Trent had helped to implement his take-over plan to change the world, and challenged Trent to read about what would next happen to him: ("Read it if you don't believe me. See what l have in store for you"); Trent tried to counteract Cane's assertions:
  • "l know what's real. l know what l am and nobody pulls my strings....I'm not a piece of fiction"
• Cane ordered Trent to deliver his finished manuscript back to Arcane through a passageway that he created - "Your world lies beyond that passage"; then Cane ripped at his face, to create a portal connecting himself to an evil dimension; it was as if Cane had disappeared through a ripped hole in a page - a fissure or gateway from the real world to the black abyss beyond; Cane was revealed to be the puppet (through the portal) for monstrous evil creatures from another dimension who wanted to take over Earth
• Linda began to read a passage from Cane's book, as Trent went over to the hole leading to a black universe:
  • "Trent stood at the edge of the rip, stared into the illimitable gulf of the unknown, the Stygian world yawning blackly beyond. Trent's eyes refused to close, he did not shriek, but the hideous unholy abominations shrieked for him, as in the same second he saw them spill and tumble upward out of an enormous carrion black pit, choked with the gleaming white bones of countless unhallowed centuries. He began to back away from the rip as the army of unspeakable figures, toiled by the glow from the bottomless pit, came pouring at him toward our world."
• Linda refused to join Trent, claiming she had already read the ending, as Trent was pursued down the immense corridor or passageway by an "army of unspeakable figures" brought to life out of the pit - all creatures from Cane's writings; Trent was chased by the evil, tentacled, growling, giant-toothed monster creatures (mutated humans) into the passageway as he raced away from them to return to reality
• Trent suddenly found himself on a country road, where a friendly paperboy (Hayden Christensen) answered that he had never heard of Hobb's End; he dropped the manuscript on the road, and then waited for a hitched ride on a tractor-trailer; in his Woodbine Motel room, he watched the classic alien movie Robot Monster (1953) on TV; the next morning at the front desk, he was shocked to see a package labeled for him containing the manuscript that had been anonymously delivered; Trent attempted to burn all of the pages in his bathroom sink; he then returned to NYC via a public bus; during the night, he dreamily hallucinated that the "hack horror writer" Cane was sitting next to him: "l'm not going anywhere. l'm God now. You understand?"
• Trent was finally able to return to the Arcane Publishing Company in New York with Cane's completed manuscript; after explaining what had happened to him, Trent was told by Harglow that he had taken the trip alone (apparently, Linda had been "written out" of the story); Harglow wondered if the book had somehow "infected" Trent, because Trent had already delivered the manuscript months earlier
• Trent was also told that the book had been published and on the market for seven weeks; Trent begged for the book to be pulled and not distributed ("l know this book will drive people crazy"); however, Harglow mentioned how he was eager for the film adaptation to be released in the next month; undoubtedly, Cane's story (and horror) were being spread with each new reader; those who didn't like to read (or didn't read the book) could be converted by watching the movie adaptation of the book
• Sutter Cane's newest, and presumably posthumous work became the number one best-seller (breaking previous records), concurrent with rising violent crime in the city that appeared to be an "apparent epidemic of paranoid schizophrenia...an epidemic of monumental proportions of senseless, seemingly unmotivated acts of violence"
• Trent was caught up in the violence - and became a psychopath; he had become an agent of the novel's author and was transformed into an axe-murderer himself; after asking a reader (with bloody eyes) about the newly-released popular horror novel: "Like the book?", Trent brutally axe-murdered the individual
• the flashback ended - Trent was still speaking to Dr. Wrenn in his locked cell in the insane asylum-hospital; Trent was worried that the spreading symptoms were being passed on by readers of Cane's books, and by those who watched the movie adaptation
• the film ended with a slaughter at the asylum by the ancient race of monstrous creatures prophesied by Cane, allowing Trent to be free and wander out into the world that was alarmingly empty
• the epidemic of random mass killings, bloody slaughters, multiple suicides, and devastating fires had spread to all countries throughout the civilized world; one of the last broadcasts described the horror of how civilization (and the entire human race) was being destroyed by Cane's mutant creatures:
  • "Every hour, more people are becoming infected, being driven to senseless acts of extreme violence. We have gotten reports, sketchy at best, of people mutating, their bodies swelling and distorting, changing somehow. Locally, the mass killings appear to have moved inland. All the major cities on the East Coast are silent. We lost contact with Los Angeles and the West Coast last night so it is impossible at this time to know how many unaffected people are left. lf for any reason you are one of us who hasn't become infected, take shelter immediately. Do not trust any friends or family members"
• the film concluded by being folded back upon itself - madman Trent entered an abandoned and almost empty movie theatre that was showing the movie adaptation of Sutter Cane's latest book: "In the Mouth of Madness"; he sat there with a giant tub of popcorn; as one of Cane's crazed, mutant creatures, he watched himself starring as John Trent in his own film
• in the film, he saw himself in the asylum's padded cell, heard himself cry out: "I am not insane!", and saw himself screaming on the bus; he was reminded by an off-screen asylum attendant that he was now awake, and then observed in the film as he shouted at himself:
  • "This is not a Sutter Cane story! This is not reality! Not reality! It's not reality!"
• the final line of the film was Trent trying to convince himself: "This is reality!"; in the audience, Trent laughed maniacally as he watched himself on the silver screen - a fictional creature in Cane's fabricated world of horror
• the film's open-ended conclusion let the viewer decide whether Trent was insane or whether what he had experienced (once again seen in brief glimpses) was actually reality